BROOK PARK, Ohio — CleaveLand Grocers & Grill in Brook Park has a long road of repairs ahead after a fire tore through the restaurant Thursday night, destroying nearly everything inside.
Brook Park fire chief Mark Higgins tells 3News that they received a call for the fire just before 10 p.m. Thursday night, and responded with mutual aid from Parma, Parma Heights, and Middleburg Heights. The chief said the fire was under control in about 30 minutes, and is now under investigation.
Luckily, no one was inside at the time, as the fire occurred after business hours.
Owner Fasih Syed said a friend was driving by his business on Snow Road when they saw smoke, and called to alert him of the fire.
“I just saw a whole bunch of firetrucks, it was a sad moment,” he said. “This business means everything to me and my family, we started it from scratch with only one thing in mind – to serve the community of Cleveland.”
Syed opened the business with family in 2021, selling international food items, like products from his home country of Pakistan, in addition to selling Halal food and meats, which have to meet certain requirements to be permissible for consumption under Islamic law, and can be hard to find. According to Syed, the business is certified with the Halal Food Standards Alliance of America.
“Where would they go and how can I serve them?” Syed asked of the community. “It’s going to be difficult for them to go to different places to get the quality and then the Zabiha meat that we offer here.”
Syed said with the exception of a few items in storage in the back, nothing in the building is salvageable. He said he’s been told it could take anywhere from six to nine months to restore the inside.
“Half the store is completely burned,” he said. “The whole duct work, HVAC, everything has been affected because the intensity of the smoke and the heat was so great.”
Inside, shelves are melted and wires dangle from the ceiling. Shattered glass litters the floor, and everything is covered in a layer of soot.
While the Brook Park fire chief said the fire is under investigation, Syed believes the fire sparked in a cooler, due to how burned it was compared to the rest of his equipment inside.
Instead of giving up, Syed is vowing to rebuild and come back to serve his community, though he knows it may take some time. Right now he is asking for prayers and support, and said there may be some sort of fundraiser in the future.
“I want the community to know – just believe in us, that we’ll be back. There's nothing more I want to do than be up and running again so I can serve my community again,” he said. “Just look out for us, however long it takes, just don’t forget about us. We may be gone for a while, but we’ll be back.”
Editor's Note: Check out our look at CleaveLand Grocers & Grill from 2022 below:
