Soon-to-be new Old City restaurant targeted by vandals

OLD CITY -  A local woman is just trying to live her dream and open a new restaurant when vandals strike with bricks, upsetting her plans.

"I am very upset and it’s just disheartening," Felicia Wilson stated.

Pictures of the soon-to-be restaurant and lounge on Chestnut Street in Old City show both front windows shattered.

"When you invest so much and you want something to be a good thing, which you would consider to be a good thing for a neighborhood," Wilson went on.

Inside, owner Wilson shows FOX 29’s Shawnette Wilson more of the mess she says vandals left behind. She says the owner of the building called her Tuesday morning after finding the smashed windows and cinder blocks inside. They had them boarded soon after. Dreams of the business she named Amina Restaurant and Lounge, literally shattered.

"It’s going to be a place of southern cuisine with a touch of African spices," Wilson remarked. "I picked this spot because it’s small, it’s quaint. I love the area, of course, being Old City, historic. We have the brick walls, exposed brick, that we can use."

The bricks someone threw inside are the latest in a string of setbacks for her restaurant she’d hope to open later in June.

"We needed a building permit with plans and things that we’re not aware of," Wilson commented on the process. "We’ve also had many petitions and protests against our liquor license. I think the end goal is for us to just go elsewhere. Honestly, that’s the feeling we get. We don’t feel welcomed at all."

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