Before they opened up the Long Way Home Famliy Restaurant, the Long family knew they wanted to give back to the community. To that end, they recently teamed up with the Bellevue Historical Society to do a fundraiser for the Tremont House restoration project.

Long Way Home pledged to donate all of the money they made on Sunday, Dec. 6, to the Historical Society. For the Longs, it was just a good way to help out the community.  “There’s so many good things going on in this town, and they're getting better and better all the time” said owner Tom Long.

According to him, the fundraiser was a complete hit. “It was really great. I mean, that was a good day because everybody was very positive about what we were doing.”

Between the Long family, their staff, and hungry locals, the restaurant was able to raise $2,500 for the restoration efforts of Tremont House. The success of the event really reflected the positive response that the Longs have received since they took over the restaurant. 

“Comments were very, very good,” said Tom. “Most everybody who talked to me was very thankful, appreciative, that we’re involved in the community and that we intend to stay involved in the community.”

The family has other plans to get their restaurant involved with the community in the future, but they aren’t revealing them just yet.

“We have some new things that we probably won’t be discussing at this moment that we want to do,” confirmed Tom. To get further involved in the community, the restaurant is also volunteering as a drop-off point for any Toys for Tots donations.

The rest of the family was also very excited about the success of the fundraiser. Missie Long, Tom and Debra’s daughter-in-law, had a great time with the event.

“It was an awesome day. That’s all you can say, is that it was awesome – the guests that came in, the staff that worked,” she recalled with a huge grin.

It was clear that the family and staff genuinely enjoyed being able to give a little back to the community that had welcomed them and their business so warmly.

Long Way Home is located at 250 Castalia Street in Bellevue. They are open Monday through Saturday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.