The popular downtown eatery TRIO Restaurant is recovering from a fire. The restaurant says they are now hoping to reopen by Labor Day.
It all started early Wednesday morning. Firefighters responded to a car on fire in the back parking lot, and the fire quickly spread to TRIO and nearby businesses.
Daniel Moore, the general manager of TRIO Restaurant, said the smoke damage is extensive and they need time to recover.
"You dig deeper and deeper, and you find more and more things that need to be cleaned, washed, repaired or replaced," Moore said.
Moore said closing for a month is bad for business.
"The month of August is really good for us here. We have such a great local following and many of the restaurants around us do close," he explained.
But the sales hit isn’t the worst of it.
"We’ve got about 60 to 65 staff members who counted on that time period to make money for themselves," he said.
TRIO Restaurant also has to throw out everything that is perishable.
"A lot of our food that was in the process of getting ready to be served is now going to have to be wasted," Moore said.
Moore said he is thankful for the outpouring support from the community and other restaurants.
"We’re all in competition, but at the same time we’re one big family, so it’s been really great to see those phone calls coming in," he said.
Firefighters are still investigating the fire, but they say the cause of it is suspicious.
