For Bruce Buschel, signs of a perfect opening weekend were too good to be true.
The prominent restauranteur and contributor to several well-known publications, blogged on the New York Times website this morning about the fire that destroyed his newly opened Southfork Kitchen in Bridgehampton. His early success, he says, should have acted as a premonition of something unusual.
“Friday night went suspiciously smoothly,” wrote Buschel on the Times’ “You’re the Boss” blog. “The first night of the summer season flowed without incident, without anyone waiting, without a single disgruntled guest, staffer or friend…I was waiting for the first shoe to drop.”
Well, it turns out the first shoe did drop. Upon his arrival to work on Saturday, Buschel found his new kitchen up in smoke in what would have been only its second night of the summer season.
Buschel also posted ten things that he remains grateful for, and was generally laudatory of the fire department’s quick reaction and helpful attitude.
He didn’t say, exactly, when the restaurant would be re-opened, but one thing was for sure in Buschel’s mind — he could not escape his fate. “Tonight, there was a fire,” Buschel writes. “Tonight, there had to be a reason.”
