David Kinch’s Manresa goes up in flames
Manresa, a restaurant in the Los Gatos neighborhood of the Bay Area, took an unexpected and sizeable hit early Monday morning when a fire destroyed a considerable part of its roof and rafters. The restaurant, particularly known for its famed head chef David Kinch, was recently named by Wine Enthusiast magazine as one of the top 100 wine restaurants in the country, and had earned a two-star Michelin rating for eight years running. The restaurant featured over 500 different kinds of wine as well as a well-reviewed chef’s course tasting menu, garnering attention from amateur chefs to online cooking school students to seasoned cooks.
The fire was first reported at around 4:00 a.m. and was responded to by a group of nearly 35 firefighters. The blaze allegedly began outside of the restaurant and then caught the building, causing severe damage to both the kitchen and service areas. The roof and the kitchen are said to have taken the majority of the destruction from the fire, with the entirety of the restaurant being affected by smoke damage.
The staff of Manresa takes an annual vacation over the Independence Day weekend, which was still going on when the fire was reported Monday morning. Local authorities have begun an investigation into what caused the two-alarm blaze, and have not yet ruled out arson as a potential cause, though no evidence yet indicates it to be the case.
Firefighters had to punch two holes in the roof of the building to gain access to the interior flames. After this process was completed, the fire was put out in about an hour. Kinch, who returned to the West Coast from New York to assess the impact of the fire, indicated his disappointment at the misfortune but also praised the Santa Clara Fire Department.
“We’re devastated, the restaurant burned down,” said Kinch to ABC News. “I’m really thankful to the Santa Clara County Fire Department. They’re about 200 feet away from us. They responded and they did a magnificent job. It could have been a lot worse.”
