DREAM GOES UP IN SMOKE
Sel Gras,
a Mediterranean restaurant that opened just one week ago in Mile End, was the culmination of a dream for four young restaurateurs. Then, early Tuesday, the eatery’s owners, including Matthieu Arteau, right, received a phone call about a fire. Police are investigating the incident after black gloves were found at the scene. Lynn Moore has the story.
Restaurant Sel Gras seemed to enjoy almost immediate success, a factor that might have contributed to its swift and fiery demise Tuesday.
The new Mile End restaurant had about 1,000 Facebook fans, got some attention from Montreal media and, best of all, was increasingly busy every one of the six days it was open for business.
Early Tuesday morning, a suspicious fire gutted the St-Laurent Blvd. business along with the dreams of the four Montrealers who had pooled their savings and their strengths to open the Mediterranean restaurant.
“It was like our love child was lost. It really feels that way,” Matthieu Arteau said Tuesday evening.
Arteau and his three partners had, collectively, about 70 years of restaurant experience. They had participated in the excitement of restaurant openings for others, but Sel Gras was, for each of them, their first restaurant.
“It’s now a total loss,” Arteau said, adding that he is trying to make sense of something senseless while in “a total state of shock.”
A spokeswoman for the Montreal Fire Department said the cause of the blaze was unknown. She said there was about $50,000 in damage.
Investigators found black gloves at the scene.
The fire investigation is now in the hands of Montreal police arson squad, which will determine whether the fire was criminal in nature.
Investigators don’t want certain details of their inquiry made public, Arteau noted. But the insurance company holding the policy on the restaurant has already said it will offer a $10,000 reward for information that will help close the case, he said.
There is “a lot of speculation” about the cause of the fire, arson being a leading contender, he said.
Why Sel Gras would be a target also is a matter of intense speculation.
The partners were very careful in setting up their restaurant to apply “due diligence” at each step, and “everything was very transparent and done by the book,” Arteau said.
There were no demands for protection money or anything of that ilk, he added.
But Sel Gras had generated considerable buzz in a remarkably short time. On Sunday, the restaurant’s sixth day of operation — and its last — business was booming, he said.
“There are people out there who can be jealous of that ... (and as
“It was like our love child was lost. It really feels that way.”
MATTHIEU ARTEAU
investigators pointed out to him) there are bad people out there that do bad things,” Arteau said.
That is a scary scenario, he said. Scarier still is the fact people could have been hurt or have lost their homes if the fire had got out of control, he said.
The fire started at about 3:45 a.m. Tuesday in the front of the restau- rant, Arteau said. Firefighters were quick to respond.
He received a telephone call from one of his friends in the neighbourhood shortly after that.
The four partners are still trying to deal with the heartbreaking loss of their first restaurant but are not likely to let the fire defeat them, he said.
“Our concept (which includes becoming part of neighbourhood life) was more than being in a certain space,” Arteau said.
“It was a philosophy and we don’t want to give that up,” he said.
Arteau said that restaurant fans should consult the Restaurant Sel Gras Facebook page for new developments or information about the reward offered by the insurance company.