 everybody. Welcome again today as we have another grand opening for a new business here in the city of Columbia. Thank you all for coming out to join us today. My name is Ryan Coleman. I'm director of economic development for the city of Columbia and it's my pleasure to welcome you all here today and introduce our speaker line up. Opening we'll have welcoming remarks from Mayor Daniel Rickerman. He'll be followed by councilman Will Brennan, representative for district three. After that we'll have Ayesha Driggers, director for the city's office of business opportunities. She'll be followed by David Erbacher, the president for the Congaree Vista Guild and then finally the man of the hour Mr. Chris Fitz owner for the Hollow. With that Mayor Rickerman. Good afternoon everyone. If you notice we got the rain out of here so we could have a grand opening in style in Columbia but what an exciting time. Another investment in downtown and you know restaurant business has always been in my heart for the 20 years I've spent in it and I know how much hard work goes in it but this is the best time is opening and seeing your dream what you put on a napkin together and watching it come come to full fruition and it's so exciting to be part of this and seeing this in the Vista. I know the Vista community is excited to have have them here today and in the future and I know people are excited everybody's been talking about it trying to figure it out. It was funny somebody called me and I said I heard you're part of that you know how come you didn't invest with me I'm like it's not me I wish I could take credit for it but it absolutely is exciting to see this space renovated into this new venture and we're so excited as I said you know the city of Columbia to continue to have growth especially in our artistic Vista and watching it continue to transform and continuing to to grow new businesses incubate and we see a lot of businesses come and go people tire but it's very exciting to see these new restaurants come and really fill in the gap with new new ideas new adventures so with that I'm gonna hand it to Will in his district our mayor pro tem and representative from district three. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Another fantastic turnout when I was picking out my tie today I decided to go with the earthy color I just felt like that was right I checked out the menu what a menu what a what a amazing unique menu somebody get a hold of Winnie the Pooh and tell him his friends in the hundred acre forest to watch out you know about two years ago our wonderful city manager Teresa Wilson hosted a strategic planning retreat with all the council members and we talked about the vision of where we want to go with all the great energy that's behind the city right now and how we want to keep that going and big big topics came up you know customer service continuing to invest in our infrastructure but I remember our friend and our former colleague Joe Taylor piping up and said we need more restaurants we need to make it easier for people to start small businesses and expand restaurants in our city and in our hospitality districts and you know honestly I think Joe Taylor would be proud of all the wonderful restaurant offerings that have come online in the last two years since we had that conversation so a lot of work has gone into that being more business friendly being more open and welcoming Chris and his team we don't get to say this often came back to the right side of the river they went west and they came back east so we are so glad that they came back to reinvest in the city of Columbia and in the Vista so thank you for your investment in your belief in the city of Columbia so thanks so much welcome everybody I'm in our office of business opportunities and we are all about small business so we are beyond thrilled to be in this beautiful space I got to meet Chris last summer just to talk about this very unique concept and just the excitement that he has is contagious so I'm excited what that means for the Vista area congratulations to Chris and his team for this beautiful space I'm so excited about what it means for our community and as a small business we will continue to be there for Chris and his team with whatever resources he may need it's great that we were able to be a part of this project to help with some of the costs associated with upfitting it and that's why we're there the city of Columbia is there to help provide resources and guidance as our entrepreneurs navigate the process so congratulations Chris and your entire team on behalf of the Vista Guild and working next door and in the Vista for the last ten years this concept when it was introduced we were nothing but thrilled and walking in here all you say is wow this is something special to the Vista Chris and his team have been nothing but great to work with Abby and just decided to have you in our district this is exciting opportunity for the Congre Vista Guild thank you how do I follow up those kind words from everybody there I just have to say you know the support that we see here we are so grateful and humble and how this whole city has supported us throughout this process as any small business owner knows it has been a very long road and it has been very bumpy the whole way and it's taking some really special people to help us get to where we are now and a lot of those people are represented in this room that have continued to support us and I feel like the city as a whole will continue to support us as we go forward I came down here 17 years ago to join the hospitality program at the University of South Carolina and from there I did my internship on King Street in Charleston and I got to work for a couple major restaurants down there with some of the best owners I've ever worked with and they taught me a lot of things that I thought Columbia could really bring to the table I think our city is growing tremendously we have a wonderful group of people not only working for the city our mayor but the restaurant industry itself here is incredible and it's really a sleeping giant and I'm really really happy that we have such an amazing crew here that can bring that to the forefront for the city so thank you again for all your support I'm really excited to see all of you down at the hollow and I appreciate you thank you so much