Eighteen months after an upstairs pipe burst in the bitter cold on Valentine's Day 2016, an Arlington Center restaurant institution will reopen.

Soft openings at Punjab for family and friends is set for Friday, Aug. 18, and for professional guests the following evening. The grand reopening to the public is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 21.

The wait has been so long that some customers "gave up hope," co-owner Gurinder Pabla told YourArlington in an interview.

Ye who enter there can abandon that lack of hope and return to enjoy North Indian cuisine long served at the Mass. Ave. restaurant.

The protracted delay to reopen had two causes, Pabla said. An insurance company settlement took longer than expected, because water damaged custom-made interior. An earlier opening, expected last November, was put off after a contractor damaged the kitchen that was under repair.

Supporting the long delay in reopening is the fact that the co-owners have a second restaurant, on Newbury Street.

Now the owners expect the 150 tables to fill up again and restart an Arlington tradition that began where Acitron is now on Aug. 1, 1999, and has continued where Buck-a-Book once was on Dec. 6, 2006.

Gurinder owns the restaurant with her husband, Jaspal.

See Punjab photos >>

This news announcement was published Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017.