Yon Hun Lee and his wife Sue Lee spent early Tuesday afternoon in the back kitchen at Himitsu Teriyaki, preparing teriyaki chicken for a takeout order that had been placed earlier in the day.

For about nine years, this had been a common scene for the couple at their Redmond Ridge restaurant. But on Jan. 22, a 70-year-old woman coming out of a nearby Chevron gas station/car wash lost control of her vehicle, struck a post indicator valve in the parking lot and drove straight into the restaurant, which was empty that morning before the business opened. The driver wasn’t injured in the accident. Since then, Himitsu has been closed as the Lees have been working to repair and rebuild their business.

Now, six months later, the Lees have reopened Himitsu, which is located at 22350 N.E. Marketplace Dr. The restaurant reopened last Monday and Sue said they are planning an official grand-opening event for this upcoming Monday.

Sue said the car drove all the way through the front of the restaurant and about halfway through their kitchen. The cost to rebuild has been about $50,000. In addition to rebuilding, Sue said they have added a short wall in the middle of the restaurant to provide customers on either side some privacy.

Rebuilding isn’t the only thing the Lees have had to do before reopening. Sue said they have had to replace equipment such as tables and chairs for the dining area, a refrigerator for soft drinks, the front counter, industrial-sized rice cookers and plates — all of which were destroyed by the vehicle. And with the plates, Sue said the car drove into the wall that separated the front dining area with the back kitchen. Mounted onto that wall were the shelves that housed all of Himitsu’s plates. The cost to replace the plates along with everything else, Sue said, was about $20,000.

In the wake of the accident, members of the Redmond Ridge community started an online fundraiser to help the Lees with the reconstruction costs. They received $7,640, but Sue said they have not used the money yet because they don’t feel they deserve it.

“I couldn’t use it!” she said, adding that she is thinking about using the money to put together gift baskets to give away at the grand-opening event.

With six months off, Sue said she and her husband weren’t sure what to do with themselves at first because as the owners of Himitsu, most of their time was occupied with the restaurant.

“It took a while to get used to,” she said about their newly found free time.

She said prior to the accident, they hadn’t really taken any vacations or even had time to attend their kids’ school events other than maybe snap a photo or two and then return to the restaurant.

So with this long break from work, Sue said she and Yon Hun focused on their daughter and son, who are 16 and 13, respectively. They even went on a family road trip during spring break.

“It was really nice,” Sue said.

And while the time off was nice, Sue admitted that she was worried about coming back to run Himitsu after being gone for so long. She and Yon Hun even considered taking the accident as a sign that they should do something else. However, their kids wanted them to keep the restaurant.

They weren’t the only ones.

Sue said the community has been very supportive of Himitsu reopening.

Lisa Clark, who works at a dog grooming business in the same business plaza as Himitsu, is very excited that the Lees are back in business. The Woodinville resident was there on the Himitsu’s first day back open. Clark had ordered food to go to take home for dinner, with plans of having leftovers for the next day, but admitted she ended up eating it all that evening — which is why she returned on Tuesday for another to-go order for lunch.

When asked what her favorite menu item was, she replied without any hesitation.

“Just teriyaki chicken,” Clark said as she picked up her order. “They do it better than anyone else.”

Himitsu is open 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday.