El Erradero opens again seven weeks after fire

Oct. 14--Alfredo Arceo will never forget the phone call he received just after

7 a.m. on Aug. 23.

The call was from his father, Roberto, who told him his family's La Grande restaurant, El Erradero was on fire. Roberto Arceo was just arriving at the restaurant at Bearco Loop when he called his son.

"He said he could see flames (that appeared to be rising from the restaurant building)," Alfredo Arceo said.

The son, who was in Ontario, feared the worst.

"I thought it would be a total loss," he said.

About three hours later he arrived in La Grande and was relieved to find the restaurant's building intact.

"I was surprised," Arceo said. "It wasn't as bad as I thought."

Still, closer inspection revealed it was far from unscathed.

"We lost the kitchen and bathrooms," Arceo said.

The damage did not deter the Arceo family, who worked feverishly to arrange necessary repairs and restoration work, which were covered by insurance.

The work paid dividends, as El Erradero reopened at 11 a.m. Friday looking as sharp as ever with its festive decor and an almost all new assortment of kitchen equipment.

Business was brisk at the restaurant over the weekend.

"It was surprising how busy we were considering we had not done any advertising," Arceo said.

He said his family was delighted that so many people helped make the restaurant's reopening weekend a success.

"We want to thank our loyal customers," he said

The restaurant reopened almost exactly nine years after it opened in La Grande on Oct. 10, 2010. The restaurant moved to La Grande from Island City where it had been since 2001, because Bearco Loop offered greater visibility.

The restaurant is part of a chain of El Erradero restaurants the Arceo family founded. The others are in Ontario, Baker City and Stanfield. El Erradero in Baker City opened in 1993, followed by the one in Ontario in 1998 and the restaurant in Stanfield in 2003.

"They have been successful throughout. Eastern Oregon has been very good to us," said Arceo, who is a co-owner of the four restaurants along with his father and mother, Elvira.

The fire that struck the Arceos' La Grande El Erradero on Aug. 23 began outside the restaurant in a travel trailer parked in an adjacent storage facility.

Alfredo Arceo said if not for the quick action of firefighters from the La Grande and La Grande Rural fire departments, El Erradero would have suffered far more extensive damage. He said a portion of its roof had started to burn when firefighters arrived but was then immediately extinguished. He shuddered to think what would have happened if the roof had been engulfed in flames.

"You are done if the roof starts burning (extensively)," Arceo said.

The water used to extinguish the blaze caused much of the damage to the kitchen and its equipment and the bathrooms. The impact would have been worse if not for a drain system in the kitchen that much of the water flowed into.

"Otherwise the water would have moved in a different direction," Arceo said.

The smoke damage in the dining area was successfully addressed by cleaning its walls and carpet.

Arceo said there was never any doubt in his mind that El Erradero, which means the cattle brander in Spanish, would reopen.

The co-owner said that even if the fire had destroyed the building, the restaurant would have eventually reemerged.

"We are so committed to the community," Arceo said. "We would have found some way to rebuild it."

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