After being reduced to rubble in November’s Haste Street fire, Raleigh’s Bar & Grill and Cafe Intermezzo are projected to reopen by May.
A building application submitted to the city of Berkeley in late January by architect Kirk Peterson calls for the construction of “temporary tent and shipping container structures” to run the eateries out of “while arrangements and preparations are made for a new permanent replacement building.”
According to Peterson, three tents will go up in the space where the restaurants stood before the fire, serving as temporary structures for Raleigh’s and Intermezzo as well as a restaurant called Gabriella’s, which had not yet opened for business when the structure was destroyed by the fire.
“For the whole street it should be great, with three new businesses and an exotic tent-like atmosphere,” said Al Geyer, chair of the Telegraph Merchants’ Association and owner of Annapurna, a store located two doors from the debris site. “We all wanted to see something there immediately, and it was just a matter of whatever the city could do.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQREiSaEDSg]
The city is still reviewing the permit application, according to city spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross.
If the application is approved, each restaurant will have a self-contained kitchen in a storage structure resembling a trailer and will have at least one bathroom on the premise. While the details of the tents have not yet been fleshed out, Peterson said they would look like the large, white tents used for weddings and outdoor events and that all the structures will meet applicable health and safety codes.
The plans to reopen come as welcoming news for business owners operating in the fire-struck neighborhood who have said the blaze resulted in December revenue losses as high as 50 percent.
Geyer suggested the business owners reopen under the temporary structures while the construction of the permanent building is underway. According to Peterson, it can take two years from the time a building permit is obtained to the start of the construction process whereas the temporary structures are projected to be finished before the end of the spring 2012 semester.
The project has also been met with enthusiasm from students who frequented Intermezzo and Raleigh’s before they burned down.
“At first blush I am extremely happy because I love Cafe Intermezzo,” said UC Berkeley sophomore Andrew Steinsapir, who said he went to the cafe at least once a week before the fire had occurred. “I’m a little worried about how they’re going to handle sanitation, but I guess that’s something the food and safety people will deal with.”
Steinsapir said he plans to frequent the restaurants when they reopen under the temporary tents.
“When I pass by, I get a little sad — and hungry,” he said.
Annie Sciacca covers city government.
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Flushed out is the correct term because portapotties will line the sidewalk.
Good
news for Raleigh’s & Intermezzo employees & patrons…if the
city government focuses on doing it’s job for once instead of issuing
proclamations about international issues; or imposing requirements that
half the jobs be filled by elves, use locally made hemp fiber uniforms
or (enter a typically ridiculous Berkeley City Council style requirement
here). Let your city council member know how you
feel. And if you visit from out of town, please email them and tell
them that you’d love to come back and spend money here if they deign to
allow these businesses to re-open, employ people, and pay the tens of
thousands of dollars in taxes and fees our town so badly needs. Contact
info for elected officials: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=9242
If you want to see the results of Berkeley’s anti-business/pro-homeless policies — there’s no better place to go than the corner of Telegrahp and Haste — it’s an absolute wasteland.
That’s got more to do with the property owner who owns two of those corner properties (the old Berkeley Inn lot and Cody’s) refusing to do anything productive with them. Cody’s didn’t go out of business because of the homeless or because of any supposed “anti-business” policies; it went out of business because Andy Ross was incapable of adapting to a changing marketplace.
I eagerly await your demonstration of how the Raleigh’s/Intermezzo building fire was due to the city council’s Librul Machinations as opposed to the Ents’ negligence.
Is “Telegrapher” Ave. anywhere near TELEGRAPH
Anna Vignet/Senior Staff?
“Fleshed out,” not “flushed out.”
“While the details of the tents have not yet been flushed out” Not to be pedantic, but it’s fleshed out, not flushed out. See http://theoatmeal.com/comics/flesh_vs_flush for an amusing explanation.
Those comics are fricken’ awesome!
If the location of the tent is the former Raleigh’s/Intermezzo location, both are obviously going to have to shut down again when the new building is constructed. Or is the location of the tent going to be the former Berkley Inn site? It is kind of amazing that there is a need to build a tent at either location to house these businesses temporarily when Cody’s and Cody’s Addition have been sitting across the street vacant for most of the last five and a half years. The Cody’s Addition was built as Cody’s Cafe so it probably would not be difficult to reconfigure to meet the needs of Raleigh’s or Intermezzo which shared a common kitchen.
Cody’s Cafe……
http://www.dbarchitect.com/projects/slideshow/104.html#127
Raleigh’s and Intermezzo were owned by the Sequoia Building owners, so I’m sure they’d rather use their own property w/ a tent above than rent from some other landowner.
And in a separate matter, the old Berkeley Inn site needs to be utilized and soon. It’s pathetic, but that’s the way Berkeley works, I guess.
Especially when that other landowner is Krazy Ken Sarachan.
What’s happening with the Thai Noodle building?