Med Deli will open again, Chapel Hill owner says. Fire investigation continues.
Mediterranean Deli will be back, owner Jamil Kadoura says, after a weekend fire that gutted the popular restaurant and market.
The acrid smell of smoke hung in the air outside the 30-year-old business Monday. The normally lively Franklin Street sidewalk remained roped off with yellow tape.
A contractor waited patiently to start evaluating the damage to the hair salon next door, Moshi Moshi. The salon posted on its Facebook page that customers with appointments at the Chapel Hill shop can go to the Golden Belt location in downtown Durham instead.
Three other adjacent businesses — Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Simply Audrey and D.B. Sutton & Co. — also were closed following Saturday’s fire, mostly due to smoke and water damage. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
“We just have to be a family and stay strong,” Kadoura said Monday before meeting with employees in the former Elaine’s restaurant building at 454 W. Franklin St. He plans to reopen Med Deli’s catering business in that building, which he also owns, he said, but the kitchen is too small to also serve dine-in customers.
Whether grabbing dinner, finding someone to cater a wedding or other event, or meeting with friends and family for fun, nearly everyone who has lived in Chapel Hill and Carrboro for any length of time has been to Med Deli.
Kadoura grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem after his family was displaced in the Six-Day War with Israel. In 1991, after emigrating to the United States for college, he opened the restaurant with his wife, Angela.
In recent years, they renovated and expanded, adding a certified gluten-free bakery in the basement and a market specializing in local produce and imported ingredients next door. The space reflected Kadoura’s spirit, warmed by colorful Middle Eastern tapestries hanging on the rough brick walls and the rich smells of cumin, garam masala and other exotic spices.
Mediterranean Deli is more than a business, providing immigrants, refugees and locals with a place to call home and find connections.
Kadoura, a consummate practitioner of the Middle Eastern art of hospitality, greets people as they walk in the door with a wide smile and a generous hug, sometimes gifting them with a free meal or slice of honey-dripped baklava.
The restaurant and the Kadouras have contributed thousands of dollars in food and money over the years, feeding hungry people and raising donations to help people afflicted by war and natural disasters in Turkey and Syria. During the pandemic, they worked hard to keep the business going and their employees paid, Kadoura said.
Cleaning up and starting over
Cleaning up the deli could start this week, but rebuilding could take a while, he said. They are talking with the insurance company now and investigating bigger restaurant spaces around downtown to see what is possible.
There might be news to share later this week, Kadoura said.
“Personally, I’m trying to be strong for my kids,” he said, closing his eyes and turning away from the crowd outside Elaine’s. “It is not a business to me. It’s my home. I grew it from roots and seeds.”
The goal right now is to get his several dozen employees back to work, he said, noting that his monthly payroll is about $100,000.
The generosity of people donating to the restaurant and his workers through the GoFundMe campaign has been overwhelming, he said. The campaign had raised nearly half its $250,000 goal by Monday morning, and Kadoura said there was talk of increasing the target.
The town has been good to him through the years, but this experience of relying on others “is new to me,” he said.
“I can’t describe this community. I gave up on describing this community,” Kadoura said.
Investigating damage, cause of fire
Several people out walking or on their way to work Monday morning stopped by to look in the windows of the closed businesses. Others slowed down in their cars on Franklin Street, as they passed the scene. One group of employees, from the Rivers Agency, a local marketing firm, stopped by the D.B. Sutton on their way to work to see if it was open yet.
D.B Sutton & Co. owner David Sutton said his focus is also on keeping roughly a dozen employees working. The wine store and salon had a line down the street Sunday afternoon while its owners attempted to sell cases of wine that otherwise might be lost to the heat.
The shop suffered smoke and water damage, Sutton said, ruining ceiling tiles and cutting power to the cooling system, which keeps the wines at the correct temperature. A restoration crew in the back busily took notes Monday afternoon.
The smoke resulted in a total loss for Simply Audrey, a designer clothing boutique that occupies a portion of the D.B Sutton space. Owner Karen Cunningham took photos Monday in order to claim the loss but was concerned that the clothes still looked to be in good condition.
The smoke clinging to the air told a different story. The store’s staff wore respirators as they worked.
“Bird is the word,” Sutton joked, his voice muffled by the respirator, when asked how they were doing. On a more serious note, he said the money they earned from Sunday’s wine sales and what they sell this week will bridge the gap until the insurance check arrives.
They will continue selling wine by appointment until the store can reopen, Sutton said. The town’s inspector said that can happen as soon as she gets a remediation report, he said.
“They are working with us wonderfully, and the town of Chapel Hill has been very diligent and expeditious in working with us,” Sutton said.
One woman, who declined to give her name, stopped early Monday while walking her dog past the store. She was in D.B. Sutton’s on Saturday for a wine tasting when the first fire trucks arrived from Carrboro around 2:30 p.m., she said. They were told to evacuate the building just a few minutes later and cross to the other side of Franklin Street, she said.
Only a few customers were inside Med Deli at the time, because the restaurant had just finished the lunch rush, an employee told The N&O Saturday. One Chapel Hill firefighter was treated for a cut, and two other firefighters were treated for potential heat exhaustion, the town said in a news release. No other injuries were reported.
Chapel Hill firefighters returned to Med Deli around 1:30 a.m. Monday to put out a spot that was still smoldering, town spokesman Alex Carrasquillo said. A fire crew took a quick tour of the restaurant Monday morning but declined to say anything to an N&O reporter about the restaurant’s condition.
Kadoura told The N&O on Saturday that a contractor working on the roof may have ignited the fire with a welding torch. Once the spark gained a foothold in the 81-year-old building, it spread. Kadoura said he first smelled the smoke and went to investigate.
“I went on the roof immediately and saw just this ball of fire just as big as my palm,” he said in an interview Saturday. “So I said, ‘I can put it out with my hand,’ and then my hand went inside the roof.”
“I was actually standing over the fire. And then I got really scared,” Kadoura said.
Firefighters cut holes in the roof of an adjacent business and the back of the building to create breaks and prevent further damage, storeowners and a restoration worker told The N&O.
Chapel Hill town officials, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro and other officials are working with the businesses to get them back on stable footing. On Sunday afternoon, they met to talk about the immediate needs.
Another meeting is set for Wednesday, Kadoura said.
Mayor Pam Hemminger “has been a champion,” reaching out and meeting with them to assess the needs of all the businesses., he said.
Carrasquillo said town staff is working this week to make the inspections process as smooth as possible. A note taped to the front door of the Tropical Smoothie Cafe said it would be back once the inspectors give them the all clear.
Josh Shaffer and Chantal Allam contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 25, 2023 at 8:31 AM.
