Fire temporarily closes 2 Memphis restaurants

An electrical fire caused the temporary closure of two Downtown restaurants Saturday.

Just before noon Sept. 29, the valet attendants at Residence Inn on Monroe Avenue noticed smoke coming from the building that is home to McEwen’s, 120 Monroe Ave.

The electrical fire started next door at Curry n Jerk Authentic Caribbean Cuisine, 126 Monroe Ave., and then spread to the McEwen’s space.

“The fire began on the exterior electrical panel at Curry n Jerk and then moved to our panel,” said Bert Smythe, co-owner of McEwen’s.

Neither restaurant was open at the time of the fire.

Over the past weekend, owners of both restaurants hoped that their restaurants would be back up and running this week, but neither will reopen before next week; at the earliest.

“There are multiple insurance companies involved here — the ones for the restaurants, the building owners, MLGW and even Comcast,” Smythe said. “No repairs to the electrical panels can take place until all of the insurance companies’ adjusters and fire inspectors have inspected the fire scene.”

Smythe had hoped those inspections would happen Friday, but it now looks like it may be pushed back to Monday or Tuesday.

To make matters more complicated, Smythe was set to purchase the building later this month. The fire damage will fall on the current building owner’s policy.

McEwen’s did not seem to receive any damage except for the exterior electrical panel.

“We won’t know for sure until we have electricity again, but we are hopeful that was the only damage,” Smythe said.

Curry n Jerk, which opened in June, was not as lucky.

“We have damage that we know of to the electrical panel, the air-conditioning system and our walk-in freezers and coolers,” Curry n Jerk owner Arturo Azcarate said. “We also had smoke damage to the dining room.”

Both restaurant owners expressed concerns about their employees.

“All of our employees are being paid during this time,” Smythe said.

Neither restaurant has electricity or working phone systems. Updates on when they will reopen will be posted on their websites and social media pages.

“Please tell our customers we are looking forward to getting back open,” Azcarate said.

Smythe is working with OpenTable to get information on existing reservations and will follow up with those customers.