Yesterday I told you about the Sunday morning fire at ALO. As promised, I’m back with more details:
Owner Duni Borga told me this morning that fire damages are estimated at about $400,000 and that the kitchen was completely destroyed.
Borga got the initial alert just before 6 on Sunday morning.
“The alarm company called to tell us they had detected movement in the back of the restaurant, so we assumed someone was breaking in.”
It wasn’t until Borga’s husband and ALO co-owner Taco arrived on the scene that she learned of the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but she suspects it was caused by an electrical malfunction because all of the breakers were flipped.
Borga said she expects ALO to be re-opened in about three months. The holdup, she says, is due to the extensive cleaning process that will soon begin.
“I took all the plants from ALO and I had to clean all the leaves because they were covered in thick black soot,” she told me. “Those plants weren’t even near the fire, but that’s how dirty they were. That just gives you an idea of what kind of shape the rest of the restaurant is in. It’s going to take us months of cleaning to restore it.”
In the meantime, ALO employees are being reassigned to La Duni locations, also owned by the Borgas. Ultimately, Borga says she’s just happy the fire happened when nobody was there.
“The main thing is that nobody got hurt. All the material things we can replace.”
The ALO website will be updated weekly with progress reports about how the restaurant’s repairs are coming along.
