‘So grateful’
Restaurant owner filled with gratitude despite business going up in flames
Amber Jenkins is counting her blessings rather than lamenting her loss after fire destroyed her restaurant in Souris Wednesday night.
The Bluefin Restaurant owner is filled with gratitude.
She is grateful the blaze that consumed the building located on Federal Avenue, just off Main Street, did not result in any injury or death.
She is also deeply touched by the outpouring of support that has been quickly flowing her way.
“I can’t tell you the love that I feel,’’ she says.
People are thanking her for “being there always’’ and lauding her as a person of great resilience.
Jenkins says what hurt most as she stood outside her restaurant, watching it burn to the ground, was seeing the distraught faces of her regular customers as they stood with her.
“The Bluefin may have belonged to me on paper, but it belonged to the community of Souris,’’ she says.
Annie and Keith MacKenzie opened the Bluefin in the 1970s.
Jenkins earned her first ever pay cheque washing dishes at the restaurant in 2002 at the age of 15.
She would go on to purchase the restaurant in 2016 – after the wildfires in Fort McMurry saw her return to Prince Edward Island.
Jenkins heaps praise on both the people who worked for her in the restaurant, as well as those who came to enjoy the food.
“I cannot really put into words having a staff like I did,’’ she says.
“I’m so grateful. I come from a community that got behind me from the getgo.’’
Jenkins says the Bluefin did quite well in the past four years spent living out the dream of owning a business.
Lots of homestyle cooking seemed a recipe for success with the locals, and lobster, crab and haddock were popular with the tourism crowd.
She was even set for an expansion earlier this month
before the pandemic came to town.
The restaurant under her proprietorship had been open year-round, closing only on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
During the pandemic, the Bluefin had been operating under reduced hours. Her partner, Jordan Dennis, a trained chef who was working as a food service provider before the pandemic, had been cooking up meals at the restaurant of late.
Jenkins says the cause of the fire is not yet known. The business was insured. Still, the future is uncertain. “Realistically, I don’t know,’’ she says of plans going forward.
“I’m certainly not done with my dreams ... and I’m certainly not done with providing a service to the people of Souris.’’
As a final thought, Jenkins stressed the importance of conveying her gratitude to family.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without them,’’ she says.