The melted brie cheese drips onto the plate from Andy Bickar’s hand-formed cheeseburger — a delicious, carnivorous dream stacked full of well-portioned Wagyu beef patty, carmelized onions and baby lettuce.

This is the way a burger should be made. And at $18, with a side salad, the 7 oz., 100% American Wagyu burger that is juicy, tender and never frozen, is priced competitively to the other restaurants in town. Soon, that price will become more consumer friendly with a special weekly night.

Why the detailed description of what a lot of people might see as a simple menu item, especially when it comes from a renowned chef? It’s this expertise at Bickar’s restaurant, Rediviva, which left his hungry customers wondering this spring when he’d reopen his fine-dining establishment in downtown Aberdeen.

Bickar, owner and executive chef at Rediviva, closed the restaurant for renovations in mid-March for a “major, major overhaul.” For the approximate three months-long closure, people posted questions about the renovation and when the place would reopen. They couldn’t wait to come back.

“People were physically upset and I’ve never had that before,” Bickar said. “But that’s a good thing.”

Bickar explained what led to the closure.

“A lot of these buildings in downtown Aberdeen are kind of built over a tide flat with upwards of 100-year-old timber,” Bickar said. “A lot of them have degrading foundations and floors and supports and all that stuff, so we had to replace them. We were due and we kind of knew that when we bought the building that there was some older infrastructure that needed to be replaced. So that was it.”

The building in which the restaurant is located — 118 E. Wishkah St., in Aberdeen — is 82 years old. It was built in 1941, according to the Grays Harbor County Assessor’s Office.

According to OM Rodriguez Construction LLC., the Grays Harbor County-based company that did the commercial kitchen remodel — including removal of existing flooring, installation of new joists, insulation, waterproof membrane, and 24-inch by 24-inch tile, 4-inch trim and commercial drains — it was “a very extensive and time-consuming project.”

Bickar had nothing but compliments for OM Rodriguez.

“Super nice, great crew and they just tackled it a step at a time as all the changes came,” Bickar said. “We had to go through all the permitting processes with the city and the county and all the upgrades we could do.”

Bickar, who reopened Rediviva June 16, said the process took longer than he thought.

“And there was more — not more damage — there just were more upgrades that needed to happen and we took the opportunity to make those now so we don’t have to make them in the future,” Bickar said.

In addition to the physical work to the kitchen, Bickar added new pasta machines from Italy, new ovens and stoves for Rediviva, which has now been there for 10 years.

“It’s what we probably wanted to build 10 years ago,” Bickar said. “But we didn’t necessarily have the money or the time to think through how we wanted it because we were just excited to get it open back then.”

Quiet reopening

As of Saturday, Bickar said he still hadn’t “officially” opened. Yet, the compliments kept landing throughout the week.

On Wednesday, one customer saw Bickar was momentarily outside of the kitchen. Before his party left, he got Bickar’s attention just so he could compliment Bickar on the meal he just had.

“The steak was excellent, Andy,” the customer said about the prime-grade New York Strip Loin. “Thanks.”

It’s that type of enjoyed experience Bickar, who was born on the Harbor, said he wanted to bring with Rediviva when he first opened in 2013.

“We just wanted to build a place where we wanted to go and hang out,” Bickar said. “And where my family could go and hang out. That didn’t exist here really. There were the kind of staple restaurants around but there wasn’t the, like, really good showpiece where you could bring somebody and show off.”

James Shawyer, a bartender who crafts his cocktails with impeccable detail and entertains guests with encyclopedic knowledge of facts and figures, waited for drink orders to come in. Most people on Wednesday night were dining at the tables sitting opposite the bar. Shawyer also impressed that night as a few customers requested “another one.” Shawyer has said the greatest compliment for him is when someone orders the same drink twice.

All of this — the way the food is crafted, the drinks are handled, and the cheery disposition and quick service the staff provides — is why people were clamoring on social media for the restaurant’s reopening. They wanted their place to open. It was as if Rediviva were the only source of sustenance in town.

Bickar said he went as fast as he could to try to get the place reopened. He thanked his sous chef, Cedar Martin, who served as executive chef at Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips. Bickar followed Martin at Ocean Crest Resort, and they recently teamed up at Rediviva.

“There was a lot to do and Cedar, thankfully he was around, because he helped out a lot,” Bickar said. “We probably should have taken another couple months, or would have, but we got it done.”

While Martin hadn’t worked with Bickar until now at Rediviva, he came to Aberdeen to work with Bickar.

While the restaurant has been open for a total of six days so far this month, Bickar said he’s not ready to announce his reopening.

“I’ve been kind of waiting and training the new staff,” Bickar said on Saturday. “We only have, I think one server tonight and one bartender, so it’s gonna be a little tight again.”

But, so far, it seems the new staff has done a stellar job.

“We were completely sold out last night and it kept going until late,” Bickar said of Friday. “Those are good days to have. But that’s typically our Friday. Our Friday is a lot of people driving out to the beach and they stop on their way. The traffic coming out of Seattle, it takes about three to four hours to get here, so these people are hungry.”

Another person who dined Friday night said it was the best meal he had in a long time. And then on Saturday, the sourdough focaccia — one of the several menu items people were champing at the bit to get this spring during Rediviva’s closure — was on the menu. And, formed from a 1951 starter dough, the sourdough loaf was better than advertised.

One customer said of the sourdough, “so … good. All of it.”

To provide a teaser for his customers, Bickar’s got fresh ideas for Rediviva. One of those ideas is brunch, but it sounds as though this will take time to add to the restaurant’s repertoire. For one, to do that, the chef, who’s gotten off work at midnight, would have to be in at 4:30 a.m. to start making biscuits, so this will take some planning.

“The desire to do fun things is here,” Bickar said. “And we hope to add a lot of stuff this year. A lot of one-offs, a lot of pop-up things. We’ll do some guest chef things where we bring in different chefs to do different concepts and meals here for the weekend.”

Bickar wants to add wine classes for this fall and winter, plus wine education and wine tastings.

“It’s to kind of fill out more days so the staff can make more money and we can get more people in the door,” Bickar said. “That’s the main thing. That’s the idea behind burger night. It’s not to do a cheap burger. It’s to get people in here at a low-entry cost. And then they want to come back.”

While Wednesday night’s burger was $18, burger night will include a burger and a beer for $15. Bickar said Monday this Wednesday is the start. And the beer included will probably be Rainier — a Pacific Northwest favorite.

“We’ll offer other items too, like a snack list,” Bickar said Monday. “Salads, small plates. Burger is the only entree though. $15 with a beer.”

Bickar said there will be a “few” different burger options every week. And in time, Bickar wants to focus on “cool, regional” beers. But the burger will stay Wagyu.

“It’s about as good of ground beef as you can buy,” Bickar said.

And the come as you are attitude still reigns at Rediviva. You can come dressed in what makes you feel comfortable, from a suit and a little black dress, to a T-shirt and shorts. It doesn’t matter to Bickar, who’s from Aberdeen. The important element to him is what he and his staff bring to his guests because at Rediviva, just like any other small business, the small details make a big difference.

The restaurant, to Bickar, is his life’s work. It means everything to him.

In addition to what the locals love about the place named after the historical Columbia Rediviva ship, Bickar and his staff have flipped the script on where you have to go for fine dining. Forget needing a trip to the big city. It’s here on Grays Harbor.

“Everybody went to Olympia for a nice meal,” Bickar said. “We always did that growing up. And it’s opposite now. People from Olympia drive down here and tell us we’re the best restaurant.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Creme Brulee, the dessert that’s hard to make with ease at Rediviva, cracked as it should with a knock from the bottom of the dessert spoon. What lay beneath the cracked top was a sweet, creamy abyss.