Popular Thiensville restaurant the cheel is damaged by fire
The cheel, a popular Thiensville restaurant, was heavily damaged in a Sunday afternoon fire.
Firefighters from multiple departments poured water on the second and third floors of the 1890s Victorian-style building at 105 S. Main St. shortly after 4:30 p.m. The restaurant, which serves Nepali-American food, is on the first floor of the building, but the entire building looked to be heavily damaged.
The fire call came in around 3 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. Several departments from surrounding communities were on the scene. The cause of the blaze is unknown. “Now I know how it feels to literally have your dreams blow up in flames,” owner Barkha Daily said as she surveyed the wreckage of the restaurant while hugging her husband, Jesse.
Jesse and Barkha Daily both grew up in the mountains, he in the Rockies, she in the Himalayas. Last year the cheel made Milwaukee Journal Sentinel dining critic Carol Deptolla’s top 50 Milwaukee area restaurants.
Barkha Daily left her home in Nepal to come to Wisconsin in 2003. While attending Lakeland College, she started making meals for student fundraising events and cooking for professors and friends. Sharing the flavors of Nepal, Burma and Tibet, the couple opened the cheel in July 2014.
Cheel means “eagle” in Nepalese. She and her husband spent nine months renovating the building, which she said was about to be razed. “I had customers say, are you sure Thiensville is ready for this? I don’t know, but here I am. Take it or leave it,” Barkha Daily told the Journal Sentinel.
Last month the owners announced they would serve Mexican fare at a new restaurant called Daily Taco, less than a half mile away in Thiensville.
Also last month the Dailys said they planned a $250,000 addition of a permanent pavilion that honors both Nepalese culture and Thiensville’s past at the cheel.
Construction for the double-decker pavilion was scheduled to start this fall and include indoor and outdoor seating for up to 50 customers. The project received approval from the plan commission and historic preservation commission Sept. 22.
“It’s sad,” Jesse Daily said by phone at 5:30 p.m. “It’s an old building. It’s been here since (1890) and it’s a piece of Thiensville’s history.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photographer Mike De Sisti contributed to this report.