by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

The owners of Walter’s Restaurant are hoping for the best following an early morning fire August 22 that damaged the iconic 50-year-old eatery at 310 N. Yale Ave. and five adjacent businesses.

Dawoud Ghafarshad, Walter’s director of events and operations and general manager, said the family business is shooting for a swift reopening, but an exact time has yet to be determined.

“We started to file the claims and things like that so that, you know, we can hopefully get back on track soon,” he said, adding he should have an answer on how soon things can get rolling in roughly four weeks. “It seems hopeful, but there’s a lot of work to be done to get the ball rolling quickly. Everything’s kind of up in the air.”

Ghafarshad said the restaurant’s electrical system, prep kitchen and dishwashing areas were heavily damaged, but the north side of the restaurant, with patio seating, cottages, the sliding door entrance, and its front of house area were mostly unscathed.

The yellow tag notice left by fire personnel reads, “Fire damage from above, extensive roof and water damage.”

A notice on the restaurant’s front door reads in part, “While we are grateful that most of the restaurant remains intact, we must address the damage before we can safely reopen.”

A woman peers in the taped off front door at Walter’s Restaurant on Wednesday. The 50-year-old Claremont eatery is closed until repairs can be made following an August 22 fire. Courier photo/Peter Weinberger.

Ghafarshad said health and building inspectors he’s spoken to have indicated, “we seem okay to be functional on at least a whole half of the restaurant.

I’m pretty sure that they’re going to have to put new roofing,” on top of “remodeling stuff. Who knows how long that kind of stuff will take. And then there’s obviously, you know, some electrical issues we’re dealing with because the building is so old.

“We still have to figure out things with kitchen equipment, some lighting here and there and make sure that we are in fact ready to go,” he said, adding a damaged restroom will need to be restored, which will be a factor in fire officials determining how many customers a partially open Walter’s would be allowed to serve.

With Claremont Colleges students returning to classes this week and event season beginning, the fire could not have come at a worse time. Ghafarshad has been contacting parties with upcoming reservations ever since to deliver the bad news.

“We were going in such a positive, new direction and so many new things were coming into play,” he said, noting many new hires. “The face of Walter’s was really starting a big, big change.”

Repair costs will likely exceed $500,000, according to an estimate from Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Daniel Trevizo. Greg Hafif, the owner of the Claremont Professional Building and a trial lawyer with the Law Offices of Herbert Hafif, which is adjacent to Walter’s, said he expects the final figure to be much higher.

Ghafarshad said he thinks the restaurant’s insurers will cover the cost to repair the fire damage, lost machinery, food spoilage, and lost income.

The blaze rekindled memories for Ghafarshad, who was 13 when another fire engulfed Walter’s Coffee Shop in 1987. “It was just pretty emotional, but I didn’t really understand it as much as I do now,” he said. “I mean, I don’t really understand it too much as of now.”

When the cleanup and rebuilding was complete back in 1987, Walter’s Coffee Shop was expanded and had become Walter’s Restaurant.

Ghafarshad said his parents — Walter’s owners Nangy and Fahima Ghafarshad — remain calm despite the chaos wrought by the latest fire at their business, letting their son deal with insurance adjustors, health and building inspectors, Claremont officials, fire investigators, and police.

On Tuesday Hafif said the road to reopening for businesses adjacent to Walter’s, including Balboa Thrift and Loan, Lumen Spa, and a vacant storefront next to Lumen Spa at 265 W. Bonita Ave., is not yet clear.

“Right now they’re undetermined because we don’t know the extent of the structural damage underneath the roof,” Hafif said. “Until we get the first layer torn off and take a look at the structural beams, we don’t really know what we’re facing. Hopefully the structural beams underneath, at least the majority of them, are structurally sound so we’re just reroofing. But if we have to get into the actual joists and beams and replacing those, we’re looking at expensive repairs that could take up to a year.”

Lumen Spa at 267 W. Bonita Ave. sustained roof and water damage. Owner Rachel Cassie wrote in an email Wednesday the business was still working with inspectors and engineers to hammer out a repair timeline.

“Since it’s 4 businesses connected, it’s taking much longer than usual to get all the details,” Cassie wrote. “We are working on a temporary location within the same lot, in a different office, to work out of temporarily and we hope to begin working within the next 2 weeks. We just don’t have any definitive answers on when the construction will be completed so we can begin working on our location again. It’s possible that we will work out of the offices within the same building, in the unaffected areas. We are still talking with the owners so we haven’t nailed down exactly which space yet.”

Balboa Thrift and Loan’s damages include “extensive water damage and roof damage,” according to the yellow tag on the front door. Hafif said as the business works through repairs to its space, it will relocate from 306 Yale Ave. to 269 W. Bonita Ave., on the east side of the Claremont Professional Building plaza, with a projected reopening date of September 9.

Hafif said all the tenants at 269 W. Bonita Ave. — the Hafif Family Foundation, Hafif’s law office, the Law Office of Peter Nasmyth, Napolin Accident Injury Lawyer, and now Balboa Thrift and Loan — are looking to return to reopen very soon.

“We just had extensive smoke and soot, and we should be up and running in a week,” Hafif said.