Despite a tragic fire having left Homer’s East Restaurant destroyed, the owners are making the best of the situation and are now looking to the future.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After a fire broke out on Thursday afternoon, there’s been a swell of support building for a longtime Little Rock restaurant.
Homer’s East on Roosevelt is now closed permanently after the tragic fire left the building destroyed.
“We were devastated,” described Katrina Eibes, the owner of Homer’s East.
She was left in shock and disbelief after she learned via social media that her restaurant was on fire.
“We just got in the car and came down here. The fire marshal said, did they talk to you? We go, No, we saw this on Facebook. We are the owners, and we saw it on Facebook. That’s why we’re here,” Eibes explained.
The restaurant closed at around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and caught fire not long after. However, the fire started up again early on Friday morning.
“[At] 2:00 a.m., I got another call from the fire department, and they said it sparked back up and the second fire is what took the ceiling out,” she said.
Although the damage looks bad, the memories created inside the restaurant are good.
“This has been here since 1986, my dad bought it. We got a lot of people from the Capitol to come here, a lot of politicians and a lot of lobbyists. It was rumored to say that more bills were passed on Homer’s floor than on the Senate floor. I mean, it’s just such a rich place with so much history,” she added.
That’s something she’s taking with her for Homer’s next chapter.
“I just think this is telling us we need to go ahead and move forward,” she said.
However, this time around it will be with a food trailer to meet customers where they’re at.
“The community is really going back and talking about how much they loved it and their memories here. And it’s made me feel like we did a good job here while we were here. And so now it’s time to move on and do something different,” she explained.
She will do that while still carrying on the family legacy.
“Homer’s, there’s still one out west. So you’re not done. We’re not done,” she said.
The Little Rock Fire Department is still investigating what may have caused both of the kitchen fires.
The owners also started up a GoFundMe to help raise money for their displaced employees.
If you would like to, you can make a donation by clicking here.
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