Fire Heavily Damages Downtown Restaurant
Earlier today an act of arson (per the Post-Dispatch) heavily damaged a downtown restaurant as well as adjacent living spaces. Thankfully, everyone was evacuated safely.
Just past 7:30am this morning a few fire trucks were still on the scene that started after 3am, according to news reports. Police had Washington Ave blocked in both directions. Copia was in the main floor of the lovely two story building in the center, above. The Vangard Lofts are to the left, a narrow building is to the right and finally The Meridian to the far right. Residents of all these buildings were evacuated. Unfortunately, The Vangard suffered some smoke & water damage.
From the back, above, we see the rear patio area. The front dining room seemed to have suffered mostly smoke & water damage, as the tables appear ready for dinner. However, the rear of the building was severely damaged.
The back of these buildings front onto St. Charles St., a narrow alley-like street. I’m not sure if parking is allowed on this section of the street. Still, a silver Mustang was parked at the end of Copia’s ramp at the back. The Fire Dept looks to have cut the railing apart to get access to the back entrance. Good thing they had that practice on Lou Hamilton’s diving board!
Above, St. Louis’ new fire chief Dennis Jenkerson changes shoes at the back of his car before leaving the site.
From the front, with the exception of the broken glass and debris, it doesn’t appear a 4-alarm fire just did the damage that it did. Again, the dining room was damaged by smoke and water, not fire.
Later crews were on the scene to board up the building and deal with damage at the Vangard Lofts as well.
Regular readers will note this is the same restaurant where I had my video-tapped confrontation with owner Eyad “ET” Tammas, over valets consuming too much public parking. Despite that, and the on-going valet problems, I would never wish arson upon anyone. Copia, like many other places, was an important part of the downtown scene. I wish them well in their rebuilding. The valet guys, and their tactics to take up more spaces than is fair, can stay gone as far as I am concerned unless they learn to play well with others.
Hopefully they’ll reopen after their fire a lot faster than Cicero’s did.
Nice new trendy restaurant falls victim to arson. Hmmmm. In the inescaple urges to hypothesize the who dun it I can’t help but to think about the construction site in the CWE of which included an Arby’s and then the development closer to Lafeyette Park that was destroyed. Just another act of anarchy and sensless crime? A disgruntled ex-employee or lover? Owner filing for bankruptcy? Neighboring restaurant trying to attack the competition? Aggresive Starbucks tactics? Resentful homeless? Al Qeada in St. Louis? Some one not happy with their meal? Or as Steve leaves open, resentful motorist who got denied a primo parking spot. What was their unjustifiable motivation? On a blog where would you find a group of self-declared experts to do such psychological analysis? Will this crime get solved without the help of veteran Sherman George? Of course talking about “who dun it” isn’t going to get the place rebuilt any faster. I’ve got no resume to do that kind of work any way.
I was working at Flamingo Bowl that night. it started at 3ish, they think it was a pissed off worker. They claim to be back in 3ish months.
Insurance Fraud…..doubt they will reopen. Sales were bad.
Just a theory.
I am a family member of the Tammas family; and you are DEAD WRONG; sales were good, it was the Top 3 restaurants in St. Louis you big dumbass. If the sales were “so bad”, they wouldn’t be taking up too much valet as the columnist has suggested.
And they ARE reopening, read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and go to their website: http://www.copiawine.com
And who cares if they were taking up too much valet? It is perfectly legal and they have every right to. If you don’t like that,
there are MANY other choices and giant garges you can park in downtown, and you have to pick on Copia? You might
want to re-think your opinion.
~shuttup, quit complaining, and go eat some krispy kreams u fat fuck~All u can do is complain about valet parking and not getting ur donuts, lose some weight FatASS
Wow, this thread took a turn for the worse. I think Hornystar was just mad cuz s/he was sitting at home alone on the computer New Years Eve.
“And who cares if they were taking up too much valet?”
.
i do.
.
“It is perfectly legal and they have every right to.”
.
nope. this is false statement. not sure why you bothered to say it.
.
“~shuttup, quit complaining …”
.
everybody hates you.
Whatever the reason, using fire as a “tool” could’ve led to much worse consequences if it had extended into one or both adajacent loft buildings. Congratulations to the Fire Department for keeping it contained to the one structure.
Kudos, and great job to the firefighters who took care of this!!!!
you evacuate buildings, not people.
We bought a Copia gift certificate for a Christmas present ($170)… Would anyone know if any other places would honor it? My assumption is no, but… Perhaps the owners have another establishment? If not, I guess he will have to hang tight until the reopening.
Does anyone know if/when Copia is reopening? Their site has nothing on it, but was looking forward to seeing it open back up.
This is cool! And so interested! Are u have more posts like this? Plese tell me, thanks
hi guide i read this site and i think there are more powerful idea which is help people!
We'r ed hardy outlet one of the most profession
of the coolest and latest ed hardy apparel, such as
ed hardy tee ,ed hardy bags,
ed hardy bathing suits, ed hardy shoes,
ed hardy board shorts ， don ed hardyt,ed hardy tank tops, ed hardy for women,
ed hardy swimwearand more,
ed hardy clothing. We offers a wide selection of fashion
cheap ed hardyproducts. Welcome to our shop or just enjoy browsing through our stunning collection available wholesale ed hardy in our shop.
our goal is to delight you with our distinctive collection of mindful ed hardy products while providing value and excellent service. Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction and we offer only 100% satisfacted service and ed hardy products. Please feel free to contact us at any time; we are committed to your 100% customer satisfaction. If you're looking for the best service and best selection, stay right where you are and continue shopping at here is your best online choice for the reasonable prices. So why not buy your ed hardy now, I am sure they we won’t let you down.
Uæ ‡ï¼›Uæ ‡ï¼›Uæ ‡ï¼›Uæ ‡ï¼›Uæ ‡ï¼›Uæ ‡ï¼›
We'r [url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy outlet[/url] one of the most profession
of the coolest and latest [url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy[/url] apparel, such as
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy tee[/url] ,[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy bags[/url],
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy bathing suits[/url], [url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy shoes[/url],
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy board shorts [/url]， [url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com]don ed hardyt[/url],[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com]ed hardy tank top[/url],[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com]ed hardy for women[/url],
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy swimwear[/url]and more,
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]ed hardy clothing[/url]. We offers a wide selection of fashion
[url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]cheap ed hardy[/url]products. Welcome to our shop or just enjoy browsing through our stunning collection available [url=http://www.mycheapedhardy.com/]wholesale ed hardy[/url] in our shop.
Hmmmm. In the inescaple urges to hypothesize the who dun it I can’t help but to think about the construction site in the CWE of which included an Arby’s and then the development closer to Lafeyette Park that was destroyed. Just another act of anarchy and sensless crime? A disgruntled ex-employee or lover? Owner filing for bankruptcy? Neighboring restaurant trying to attack the competition? Aggresive Starbucks tactics? Resentful homeless? Al Qeada in St. Louis? Some one not happy with their meal?
Hmmmm. In the inescaple urges to hypothesize the who dun it I can’t help but to think about the construction site in the CWE of which included an Arby’s and then the development closer to Lafeyette Park that was destroyed. Just another act of anarchy and sensless crime? A disgruntled ex-employee or lover? Owner filing for bankruptcy? Neighboring restaurant trying to attack the competition? Aggresive Starbucks tactics? Resentful homeless? Al Qeada in St. Louis? Some one not happy with their meal?