2018 was a year that Bob Rotanz, co-owner of Mac & Bob’s Restaurant, will never forget.

When faced with a class-action suit in September, Rotanz and co-owner Jim Dishaw were forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Donations from the community not only allowed Mac & Bob’s to remain open, but it also allowed overall business sales to increase by roughly ten percent.

Longtime friend Frank Cotter created a GoFundMe page in September to assist Mac & Bob’s with the legal costs.

“When Frank created the page, we had just figured out what all of the legal fees would be, which was about $100,000. He said that he can help take care of that, and my initial response was ‘you’re pretty confident Frank,’” Rotanz said. “I thought it would take weeks to raise the money that we needed. It ended up only taking two days. In addition to the money outside of the GoFundMe page, we are going to use leftover funds to help students with their college tuition.”

Located at 316 E Main Street, Mac & Bob’s has proven to be much more than just a community restaurant since opening in 1981. As a freshman at Roanoke College in 1974, Bob and his wife rented a place on Broad Street. A few years later, they purchased their first home. For the last 44 years, the two have lived within three blocks of the restaurant.

Bob says that all of the success he has enjoyed over the years can be summed up with two words: personal relationships.

“On average, I literally see hundreds of people every single week,” Rotanz said. “Since day one, in our industry, about five percent of sales should go to marketing. We took that number and instead of purchasing ads early on, we put that money into things like the Glenvar Band Boosters Club and the Salem Presbyterian Church. Over the years, we’ve fed the Salem High Football Team and the school’s band. We don’t try to forget anybody.”

A window display, set up last month by an employee’s mother, resonated on a personal level with Bob and his employees. “There are so many amazing people that I never would have met had I worked at a different job. I value the relationships I’ve built over the four decades that I’ve lived in Salem,” said Bob who added, “Hopefully, we can be done with everything related to the bankruptcy by the first quarter of the year. I think that is certainly possible.”