Still empty: Decades old meat market recovers after fire

Feb. 12--JANESVILLE -- Wiste's Meat Market has been closed since late December after a fire burned down the Dog House Bar and Grill next door but the staff is still working to serve their customers.

Owner Tammy Foels said that the water and smoke damage from putting out the blaze in the bar next door damaged the integrity of the building, so they are having structural engineers check it out.

"We had a lot of water standing in the store and on our cases," Foels said. "And the soot from all the smoke got into all of our equipment, inside the fans and inside the coolers. It ruined all of our stainless steel cases, it pretty much ruined all of our equipment."

Foels said that more than 500,000 gallons of water was used to put out the fire, and it got onto theirs and other surrounding buildings. She said they are not quite sure when the business will reopen but they have been working with their insurance company to find out and the damage was worse than they thought at first.

Wiste's Meat Market was founded in 1922 and has been offering meats and other goods in Janesville since then, and they have even served customers while recovering from the fire damage.

Wiste's had about 400 deer for customers that the company was processing, she said. Luckily, the venison was housed in a separate freezer away from the building.

For the last six weeks, Wiste's staff has been using space at another facility near the twin cities to process their customers' venison and get it out to them.

"Can't wait for them to reopen," said Becky Anderson. "We would stop, usually weekly, to purchase from their meat department. We just picked up our deer meat from them this past week."

Foels said they are thankful for their customer's patience while they work to recover from the fire.

Firefighters from five departments battled the blaze at the Dog House in frigid temperatures the Wednesday after Christmas. Officers arrived at about 3:30 a.m. to find the building on fire after receiving the call.

Janesville Police Chief Dave Ulmen said one of his officers received a motion alarm call for the bar, located at 210 N. Main St., at about 3:30 a.m. and when the officer arrived, he found the building was on fire.

No one was hurt in the fire or while working to put it out, said Janesville Assistant Fire Chief Chad Schroeder. But it had a serious effect on local businesses, Foels said. The water used to put out the fire leaked into some nearby basements.

Wiste's loyal customers have been following along on the business' Facebook page as they update customers on the recovery.

Kim Sands said she's been going to Wiste's about once a month since she moved to the area.

"I miss their blueberry rice summer sausage the most," she said. "They have the best brats around."

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