Fire ruined the first floor of a Shadyside bar and restaurant early Wednesday morning, cracking glassware and scorching woodwork.
But the long-popular Harris Grill, a neighborhood watering hole since the early 1960s, will return to business, co-owner Rodney Swartz said. He just wasn't sure when.
"There's nothing here structural" in the damage, Mr. Swartz said several hours after Pittsburgh firefighters rushed to the establishment at 5747 Ellsworth Ave. No injuries were reported.
Flames on the first floor erupted before 7 a.m., apparently sparked by an old electrical outlet at the bottom of a staircase, Mr. Swartz said. He attributed the information to a Pittsburgh fire inspector; the city Department of Public Safety did not provide details about its investigation.
The outlet "seemed to be properly installed, but something went awry in there," Mr. Swartz said. Oak stairs, an oak whiskey barrel and a banister soon caught fire, he said.
"The first floor is burned out," said Alex Fruzynski, a co-owner, who bolted to the scene after a friend saw the fire on television and called to alert him.
While the flames were "fairly contained," Mr. Swartz said, intense heat spread throughout that first level. Every bottle on the bar exploded from the temperatures, a jukebox and fireplace were destroyed, and "the stuff that's melted here is incredible," he said.
Still, fallout on the second and third floors was limited largely to smoke and water damage, Mr. Swartz said. He's a partner in Barrel of Monkeys LLC, the corporate entity that includes the Shadyside restaurant, a Harris Grill location Downtown and Harris' Shiloh Grill in Mount Washington.
The company was working Wednesday to relocate the 38 workers at the Ellsworth Avenue property to the other two restaurants "so we don't have them out on the bread line — hopefully," Mr. Swartz said. The establishments are known for their "Bacon Night" on Tuesdays.
Insurance is likely to cover repairs in Shadyside, although it wasn't clear Wednesday how long those might take, Mr. Swartz said. Restoration at the building took about nine months after a fire in summer 2007, but he's hopeful the process will be smoother this time, he said.
The structure is estimated to be around a century old. No one was there when the fire began, Mr. Swartz said.
"We're very, very thankful that nobody was hurt. We're very happy with the quick response from the fire department, and we look forward to rebuilding," he said. "In the meantime, we're still alive and well in Mount Washington and Downtown."
Adam Smeltz: 412-263-2625, asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz.
First Published: February 6, 2019, 1:02 p.m.
Updated: February 6, 2019, 9:36 p.m.
