(Updated
9:30 a.m., June 25)
Little Turkish Village set to reopen three months after strip mall fire
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
Fans
of the Little Turkish Village Restaurant on St. Joseph
Blvd. will be happy to here that the establishment will
reopen on June 26, nearly three months after a fire in
the strip mall forced it to close its doors on March 31.
Owner
Sunil Kurichh says the last three months have been an
extremely trying time for himself and his family who depend
on the restaurant for their livelihoods, not to mention
the staff.
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Little
Turkish Village owner Sunil Kurichh can hardly
wait to welcome customers back to his St.
Joseph Blvd. restaurant on June 6. The eatery
has undergone extensive renovations since
a fire forced all the businesses in the strip
mall to close on March 31. Fred Sherwin/Photo
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But
out of tragedy often comes renewal and that couldn't be
more true than for the Little Turkish Village Restaurant
which has undergone a complete makeover since the fire.
The decor has been completely redone, save for the large
mural of Istanbul and the bridge over the Bosphorus Straits
which joins the two halves of the city together.
"I
think our customers are going to be very pleased,� says
Kurichh. "Everything has been redone except for the menu.
The menu is still the same as it was before the fire.
The only difference is that the food will be cooked with
new equipment.�
The
restaurant was forced to close on March 31, along with
the rest of the businesses in the strip mall, when a chemical
fire in George & Sons Upholstery caused extensive smoke
damage.
In
the days and weeks that immediately followed the fire,
Kurichh spent hours on the phone with his insurance company.
"It's
been hell. A lot of headaches,� says Kurichh. "We have
our insurance company and the mall owner has his own insurance
company. It took awhile but we've started to receive some
compensation."
Kurichh
has been especially touched by the support of his customers
during the ordeal of the past three months. They have
called, e-mailed and even dropped by to see how things
are going. Many of them have already made reservations
for the reopening.
"They
are anxious to see the new place and support us,� says
Kuricch. "They're anxious to eat and we're anxious to
serve them.�
(This story
was made possible thanks to the generous support of our
local business partners.)
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