Fire destroyed this SLO County culinary store. Will it reopen?

Tribune (San Luis Obispo, CA)

Sep. 2--Gayle Jenkins and Mark Morris are in limbo as they deal with the aftermath of a recent fire that destroyed A Matter of Taste, their popular Cambria culinary shop.

"Limbo is terrible," Jenkins said via phone.

"I want to be in the know about how things are proceeding," she added, and that's not happening while "the insurance companies try to figure it out."

Morris, her partner, "has been combing through the contract with a fine-tooth comb," Jenkins said.

"Our insurance agent said to expect it to take two years" for all the demolition, design, permitting, construction and restocking before the shop at 4120 Burton Drive could reopen, Jenkins said. "That's a long time. We have to be very cautious and open minded with our decision-making. In all ways, 2020 has been a whole new challenge."

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Jenkins and Morris are currently not allowed back into what little is left of the building, which was constructed in the 1940s or '50s, she said.

With insurance complications, "It's probably not worth it for us to try to salvage anything," she said, adding, "How much do you really want to pull and clean?"

Jenkins' heart hurts for the pain that California wildfire victims are enduring, and she knows that losing a home is far worse emotionally than losing a business. But recovering from both kinds of losses can take years.

Jenkins vowed that the shop she bought from Mike and Sally Thompson in 2013 will return and be better than ever. Somehow.

Even so, she said, "I'm frustrated. It will never again be like it was."

Fire that destroyed shop sparked by car crash

The fire that destroyed A Matter of Taste was sparked Aug. 1 when a vehicle hit the building that housed the store, breaking a gas line.

The blaze broke out near the intersection of the two main drags in the East Village business district -- Burton Drive and Main Street -- packed with tourists on a summer Saturday.

Those busy byways were shut down for a time, and gas service was cut off to various neighboring and nearby businesses.

The aftermath was more troublesome for a few enterprises, such as the nearby French Corner Bakery, which was without natural gas service for days.

According to French Corner Bakery co-owner Miguel Viveros, the friendship of his former employers at Linn's restaurant, which also sells baked goods, kept his bakery going during the utility shut-down.

Once the Linn's staff had finished for the day in the Tin Village kitchens, Viveros said, French Corner employees went to the Linn's kitchen overnight to bake their specialties for the day before taking them back to the bakery.

It made for a longer-than-usual workday in an industry noted for its painfully long hours.

"Back and forth, back and forth," Viveros said. "It was very, very hard, a very hard week. But it was very nice for the Linns to let me use the kitchen."

He said support has flowed in from the community. "People support us all the time," Viveros said. "Our community is really good, really nice."

That support has been there for Jenkins and Morris, too, she said. But Jenkins added, "I do not like limbo ... I hate limbo. I want to DO something."

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