Uncertain Future of Altadena restaurants that survived fire

Three days after the Eaton fire devoured his home in Altadena, Leo Bulgarini traveled through his smooth neighborhood, past burnt houses and wiped out companies to check his restaurant.

As he approached the corner of the Altadena Drive and Lake Avenue, about half a mile from his burned house, he immediately noticed charming rubble, where the quirky Bunny Museum and Open road bike store once stood. It was less than a football field away from his restaurant and gelateria, Bulgarini Vino Cucina.

He expected his business to meet the same fate.

Not so.

Tucked away in a shopping mall’s patio, his restaurant was still standing.

“Why is my business one of the only ones that didn’t burn?” he thought by himself. “Why is everything else burnt down?”

He felt a mixture of relief but helplessness.

Inside, Gelateria and Restaurant appeared intact.

Then Bulgarini smelled the smoke. He saw the ashes on the ground. He noticed that water from the roof – probably from firefighters trying to preserve the shopping center – was gathered on the kitchen floor and something wasted on his gelato machines, which probably destroyed them.

There was no power. No running water.

That’s when it clicked.

His restaurant had survived the flames from the Eaton fire, but may not survive the aftermath.

Bulgarini is not alone. Several restaurants in Altadena survived the fire, but with so many of their customers staggered, they now have to fight with the next – an uncertain future paired with the rising costs of cleaning up, rent and other operating expenses for companies that can’t work.

“It’s a wound that is open,” Bulgarini said of his neighborhood. “Most of the population here is gone. They don’t think about getting a gelato with their family. They are no longer here. Their home is gone. ”

Bulgarini knows that at least 12 of his restaurant guests lost their homes because of the fire. In Altadena alone, the fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures and damaged more than 1,000.

“I don’t predict anyone to come here and spend two hours for dinner,” he says. “This business is largely dead for at least a year.”

Bugarini said he will probably temporarily move his restaurant somewhere else, possibly Eagle Rock or Montrose. He would keep the Altadena location, but he can’t imagine reopening it soon. His restaurant, he said, is useless as a safe place to serve or eat food.

On the other side of the farm from Bulgarini, Nancy’s Greek cafe And adjacent bakery also resisted the fire.

Owner Shawn Shakhmalian had unsuccessfully tried to enter his restaurant for several days.

On Monday, he entered his cafe for the first time.

Inside, the restaurant remained unscathed.

Shakhmalian wore a N95 mask as he navigated in the kitchen and dining room, some of it covered with dust and ash. The smell of smoke penetrated through the air.

He did not dare to open the fridge and freezer. The business had lost power for several days and he did not want to release the stench of spoiled food.

Shakhmalian said he had lost at least $ 5,000 alone in food. He had no opportunity to get that loss back, he said. Last year he dropped his business insurance because the premium had doubled. He said he couldn’t afford.

From Monday, his cafe still had no running water and no electricity. He said he had to wait for the officials to turn on both first before he could bring a special crew to clean up what he said can be “toxic” ash and dirt.

Before the fire, the business was already slow at Nancy’s, Shakhmalian said. The location of the restaurant, which is far from the street in an obscure shopping mall, is difficult to spot.

“Now, when everyone is gone,” he said, “it will be even harder.”

But he doesn’t want to lose his employees, who are already looking for other jobs, he said. At least two of them – including his chef – lost their home to the fire.

Shakhmalian said he was planning to open up in two to four months after recovering electricity and water, but said it could just lead to “another stage of loss.”

“There is a lot of responsibility to open up again, to wages and rent,” he said, “but there are no customers.”

For now, Shakhmalian started one Gofundme to help rebuilding his business.

Bulgarini spent three days cleaning his restaurant and throwing spoiled meat, fish, pasta and 2,300 pounds of handmade gelato out. He calculates that he has lost food worth $ 100,000 due to the specialty ingredients he spends and all the hours of work it takes to make his gelato and pasta from scratch.

Just his lobster sauce takes three days to reduce before it’s ready.

Among the few foods that survived were his handmade nut butter he uses for his craftsmanship frozen dessert and a $ 1,200 LUNS PARMESAN.

Bulgarini, born and raised in Rome, first learned to make gelato in Sicily. He opened his Altadena Gelateria in 2006 and won praise from former Times restaurant critics Jonathan Gold and Patricia Escárcega and former Times Food section editor Amy Scattergood. He built a follower because of his reputation for making the Italian dessert of some of the best ingredients. The nuts he uses come from Italy, such as appreciated Bronte pistachios from Sicily. He buys them directly from emergency breeders, roasts them and extracts the oils to make his gelato.

The 55-year-old said he had insurance at his restaurant, which can cover some of his losses, but probably not everyone.

He started one Gofundme to raise money to start again at a new place and support its employees until the Altadena restaurant can reopen safely.

Bulgarini is taking a problem with outsiders who think he must be okay because his restaurant is still standing while so many burned down.

“Bulgarini is not ok,” he said of his restaurant. “We’re not a winner at all in any of this. You’ve lost your home so you’ve lost your sanctuary and you’ve really lost your business right now because it’s not going to exist for a while. There’s no one wins here. ”

Bulgarini and Shakhmalian have spent most of their days trying to secure help and housing for themselves or their employees. They navigate the maze of paperwork required by Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance companies.

Bulgarini said he really hasn’t had much time to mourn the loss of his home, a Spanish bungalow of 1923.

Leo Bulgarini at the site of his broken Altadena home after the Eaton fire.

(Albert Lee / Los Angeles Times)

He and his wife, Elizabeth, are too busy between finding a new place to open the restaurant and making sure their 17-year-old son, Lorenzo, maintains some form of normality.

Bulgarini pushes himself to continue. He has to work so he can pay his bills and also to maintain his reason, he said.

But there are moments – usually at night – where Bulgarini can’t help but feel down. The helplessness sinks in and the questions take over.

“Why couldn’t you do more?” he thinks for himself. “Why couldn’t you save your friend’s house?”

Over the years, he has realized that it helps to replace this kind of funki if he writes down what he thinks.

Tuesday night he put pencil on paper and wrote, “I’m still alive.”