EMERGING BRANDS
HOW FAT SAL'S WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE, THEN REOPENED WITHIN 48 HOURS
WITH A BIT OF LUCK AND EXTRAORDINARY EFFORT, THE FAST-CASUAL DELI WAS ABLE TO MOVE TO A NEW LOCATION AND SAVE JOBS.
BY LISA JENNINGS
O n a Saturday afternoon in mid-November, something exploded inside an Autozone store in a Los Angeles shop- ping center. Within minutes, the store and two adjacent restaurants had burst into flames. One of those restaurants was Fat Sal’s, a popular local chain known for its massive, indulgent sandwiches and New York-style brassiness. “We’re making sandwiches over here,” is the motto—an homage to Ratso Rizzo’s “I’m walkin’ here” line in “Midnight Cowboy.” At the time, guests were sitting on the Hollywood restaurant’s patio, perhaps dining on a Fat Texas, for example, with barbecued pastrami brisket topped with chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, bacon, grilled onions, melted cheddar and mozzarella and fries, all on a garlic hero; or maybe a Fat Hot Chick, which involves Nashville hot chicken topped “It was an epic fire,” said co-owner Josh Stone, CEO of Fat Sal’s parent New York Restaurant Concepts Inc. “The fire department quickly went from offense to defense because of all the combustibles and flammables. You could see it from the whole LA basin.” The restaurant’s guests and staff were quickly evacuated and hundreds of firefighters worked to contain the flames as combustibles within the auto parts store exploded like minibombs inside. with mac-and-cheese bites and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Very quickly, however, Fat Sal’s became like a war zone. Somewhat miraculously, there were no injuries. But Fat Sal’s Hollywood was completely destroyed. That night, Stone and co-owner Sal Capek were talking to the shopping center landlord outside the charred re- mains of the building. “We knew we were insured. The landlord was going to try to rebuild. But we all know that would take time. It could take years,” which would leave staffers scrambling to find work, right before the holidays, said Capek. In addition, this location in the heart of Hollywood was one of the chain’s top performers among the nine units
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS JANUARY 2025
PHOTOS COURTESY: FAT SAL'S
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