VALLEY CENTER – Two years after losing her husband, and then her restaurant, Georgine Thomas is about to reopen the much-loved Fat Ivor’s Rib Rack.

It’s been a long and difficult road for Thomas since her husband, Ivor “Tommy” Thomas, died on Christmas Day, 2002. Two months later, a fire consumed Fat Ivor’s.

Now, Georgine Thomas is ready to start anew and return to the hum and warmth of the business, which over the 20 years she and Tommy ran it became like a second home to some customers.

Thomas is planning a private party Jan. 19, which would have been her husband’s 70th birthday, and she hopes to open the restaurant not long after that.

She’s not changing the menu or hiring a different staff. In fact, she kept her cooks and servers on the payroll while the restaurant was rebuilt.

Advertisement"Everything on that menu is somebody’s favorite. So everything is going back to the way it was," Thomas said.
The decor – homey Americana – will be restored. The old place was decorated with publicity photos of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, as well as the Blue Angels, beer signs and bald eagles. Ribs, all you can eat, were the specialty.

The only thing that survived the fire was a framed photo of the Thomases with country music singer George Strait.

It is strange that the photo survived, Thomas said. It hung on the wall inside of which the electrical fire started.

The blaze was the second to occur on Valley Center Road within three months. In early December 2002, a historic building housing the Corral Liquor Store was destroyed by fire.

Three weeks after that fire, Tommy Thomas, who was well known in the community not only for his restaurant but also for his philanthropy, died from complications from diabetes.

A heavy man with a sense of humor, he named the restaurant after himself.

“Ivor means John in Welsh,” Thomas said. After they opened, “you can’t imagine how many Ivors came out of the woodwork.”

Thomas smiled and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. The memories, and the reopening, are bittersweet.

She has been comforted and motivated by all the people who have reached out to her in the past two years, she said.

Shortly after the fire, someone posted a sign on the property that read: “If you rebuild, we will come back.”

The sign has been faded by the sun and rain, but Thomas said she will always keep it.

“Anytime I go into town, I talk to people who are interested in Fat Ivor’s reopening,” Thomas said. “We get calls every day and we return every one.”

There was even a call from a man in England, who was planning a trip and wanted to make sure the restaurant was open when he arrived.

“It gives you a sense of joy to bring it back,” she said. “That is what has energized me.”

My family and i have been eating at Fat Ivors for a LONG LONG time now.. It was my PaPas favorite restraunt we would go there every weekend and get the “all you can eat” ribs… and Ivor would come out and talk to my PaPa and make sure we had extra bones to take home to the dogs.. He was such a good guy and I swear the MRS follows in his footsteaps well.. you guys are like second family to us! and im soo terribly happy you opened back up.. we were devestated to kow the restaunt burned down… But soo happy to see it back up and running.. We have been there since you have reopened and i have to say it feels just aas “homey:” as it ever did.. Now i live further away than i used to but i still have planned to revisit SOON…