South Baltimore’s Barracudas survived the pandemic but got taken out by an electrical fire on the 4th of July
“Our immediate future is today,” he said. “We’ll talk about tomorrow’s immediate future tomorrow.”
On Sunday, things had been looking up for Hughes and the employees at his
By the time they began walking back up the alley, guests and staff were running out of the two-story brick building on the 1200 block of
His girlfriend, the restaurant’s general manager
“They handled it unbelievably. They hit this place like ants,” Hughes said of their work. “I gave them all watermelons.”
“This sucks,” Hughes said, cracking open a beer outside while Stinchcomb and colleague
Hughes perked up when two middle-aged men stopped by, hoping they were appraisers from the insurance company he’d been trying to reach for the past 48 hours. They weren’t. Soon will come the full accounting of everything that’s been lost, from decor to the piles of plastic to-go containers purchased during the pandemic. Hughes said he renovated the restaurant during the past year, replacing floors and pipes. “I kept making the place better and better and better,” he said. “It kept our spirits going to stay working.” They kept their eyes on the prize: the day when the pandemic would be over.
Hughes opened Barracudas 12 years ago, a love letter to
“Normally if someone comes once, they continue to come,” said Stinchcomb.
The restaurant turned strangers into friends, said
Already, customers have rallied to show their support. One regular set up a GoFundMe page that raised nearly
“You want to see businesses succeed, and that is definitely one that we don’t want to go away,” she said.
They’d been walking there on Sunday to celebrate the
On Tuesday afternoon, a white convertible slowed as it passed by the restaurant. “You look like you’re in good spirits,” the driver called out to Hughes.
“What are we going to do, cry?” Hughes shouted out from across the street.
Staff have done plenty of crying in the past year and a half, said Stinchcomb. They often wondered how the business — and they — would survive. Like so many
“We had fun with it,” Hughes said of the videos. “As much fun as you could possibly have when you think you’re going to lose your restaurant every single morning.”
The past year was “crushing,” said Hughes, but Stinchcomb added that there was a sense of solidarity in knowing that everyone was dealing with the same thing. With the fire, “It’s a whole new beast to conquer. It’s every business’ worst nightmare I feel like.”
Hughes said he’s committed to paying his staff while the restaurant remains shut, and he’s determined to find new ways to bring in business in the meantime. If he gets the OK from the health department, he could set up a grill outside and sell pit beef, the
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Barracudas survived the pandemic but got taken out by an electrical fire on the 4th of July
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