Teele Sq: building with fire to be torn down

[cos]

That Teele Square fire this weekend will result in demolition of the building:

It soon spread to three other businesses: Nail Image salon, Kee Kar Lau Chinese restaurant, and Maria's Italian Cold Cuts. No one was hurt in the fire, but the single-story strip mall will have to be torn down, city spokeswoman Jacqueline Rossetti said.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Very sorry to hear that. I took some photos of the aftermath yesterday around 4:30 pm, which you can see here.

[misterthorn.livejournal.com]

thanks for the pix, much appreciated. i recently moved from that neighborhood and wondered how bad it was and what it looked like, but i haven't been able to get over there myself to see.

[ron_newman]

This also means we lose the West Somerville police substation, unless they can find a place to relocate it.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

On a positive note, Rudy's Cafe posted on their Facebook page that they are open!

[ron_newman]

Where? I don't see any post after October 26 on their page. ETA: Oops, never mind. I had to switch the page from "Rudy's Cafe" to "Everyone (Most Recent)" to see the posts from David Ross, who I guess is the owner.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. Hopefully something similar will get built in the space (eg small commercial space).

[ron_newman]

I wouldn't mind seeing an urban 3-4 story building here, with residences and/or offices on upper floors, as long as it has small commercial storefronts at street level.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

That's my thought as well--could actually turn out to be a boost for the community in the long term. I hope the businesses are able to pull through.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

As long as it isn't built by the people who built the (supposedly) mixed use place at 1100 Broadway, where the residents are trying to sue.

[brewso.livejournal.com]

We considered a condo there - why are the residents trying to sue?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

There was a DSLJ post about it, but I'm too tired to try to find it. Basically, the roof doesn't shed water right, and so it gets massive ice dams and the ceilings leak and damage things, and also some of the gas piping wasn't right. And since we looked at a condo there too and I remember the elevator trying to eat me, I also remember something from the article about how the elevator was wrong too, but don't remember the deets. Sorry I'm so tired. :/

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

And maybe a coffee shop! I love taking my car to Arco, but I hate that there is nowhere good in the area to sit and wait, now that Teele Square Cafe is gone.

(Although Renee's is super delicious.)

[ron_newman]

Magnificent Muffin?

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

Closes at noon, and is not exactly a sit-down experience.

[ron_newman]

Didn't realize they closed so early!

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

That's very sad for the businesses there; I hope they are all able to survive the hiatus between now and the rebuilding. Hawk Cleaners had been there for 60 years.

That block was built by the Viano family in 1922 as part of the Teele Square Theatre; some old photos of it can be seen at the Lost Theatres of Somerville website: http://www.losttheatres.org/album.php?album=teele

[lfitzb.livejournal.com]

How cool! Bring back the theater and the Luncheonette next to it!

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

When 42itous and I stopped by there yesterday and looked at it, I was pretty convinced that that was what was going to happen.

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

Wait, so Kee Kar Lau is gone?

Nooooooooo!

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Kee Kar Lau is closed and boarded up now, and the building will be torn down. Looked odd that they were mostly still standing while Hawk Cleaners was a burned out hull, actually.

(wait, you've tried their food? And it was good?? It always looked so sketchy to me.)

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

It perhaps looked sketchy, but the menu had some good offerings on it, after some trial and error. But most importantly, it was open until 2AM.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Other people on this board liked it; after many tries, I could never bring myself to enjoy it. But maybe I was trying the wrong thing?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I imagine the cleaners contained much more dramatically flammable stuff than Kee Kar Lau. :/

[cnoocy]

It had just changed management.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Crazy, I assumed that was sarcasm. Their food was barely edible.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I have always used the dry cleaners across the street, but it occurs to me that one dumb way this affects people in the DSLJ community is probably that some random subset of their customers' clothes that happened to be being cleaned this week are now burned to a crisp.

[ron_newman]

Indeed. While I was taking the photos yesterday afternoon, at least one passerby remarked that he had lost clothes in there.

[justme3170.livejournal.com]

Yes, both my husband and I lost clothes:( They were ready on Friday and forgot to pick them up on Saturday. I really liked them...can someone suggest another dry cleaners close by?

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Chris Fine, who's across the street on Broadway and maybe a half a block down, is great for dry cleaning and basic tailoring.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I've been using Chris fine for dry cleaning for a few years now and they've never burned any of my clothes in a fire.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Chris Fine Tailoring - right across the street -- are awesome. Really older couple from Southeast Asia, always recognize us when we come in - just a few times a year, we are not regular dry-clean-only clothing people.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

er, Really sweet older couple rather. They're not *that* old. :)

[pukwudgie.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's so sad. I had just been to Maria's Cold Cuts for the first time on Friday and had a really great sandwich.