Battalion 4 reports: The Buttery Restaurant; searches negative. Fire extinguished. Companies are completing hydraulic overhauling. Fire investigators are on scene. No injuries immediately reported. #STLCity pic.twitter.com/ZSb3q5RJ8Y
— St. Louis Fire Dept (@STLFireDept) December 26, 2020
It has been a terrible month for classic St. Louis restaurants and now it seems we must add the Buttery (3659 South Grand Boulevard, 314-771-4443) to the injured list.
The St. Louis Fire Department responded to a call at about 6 p.m. Christmas night reporting that fire was showing on the roof of the Buttery.
The restaurant was closed at the time of the incident and the fire department reports that the searches were negative, no injuries have been immediately reported, fire investigators are on the scene and the fire has been extinguished.
There is no word yet on the extent or cause of the fire, but a photograph posted to Twitter by the St. Louis Fire Department shows that the majority of the street-facing side of building appears to remain intact, at least.
St. Louis Fire Department Captain Garon Mosby told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the fire investigators were going to “dig through the rubble and figure out exactly how this started and why.”
Captain Mosby said that the owner of the Buttery says the restaurant closed at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, that nobody has been in or out since then and that there is video surveillance to prove it.
Captain Mosby also reports that the fire appears to have started in the open space between the roof of the restaurant and the drop ceiling and that the fire caused “moderate to extensive damage” to the property.
The fire at the Buttery is the latest in a series of blows to some of the oldest restaurants in the St. Louis scene. The historic Eat-Rite diner closed on December 12 and the legendary Mangia Italiano, located just down the street from the Buttery on South Grand, closed earlier this week.
There is no word yet on when (or if) the Buttery plans to reopen, but we will update you with that information as we have it.
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