After fire, Sunnyside Deli owner faces rebuilding. ‘There goes my life, up in flames’

It was an alarm call that first alerted Megan Husak that something might be wrong at Sunnyside Deli.

This was before 5 a.m. and she drove to the restaurant Jan. 6 fully expecting to see broken glass and some damage inside the shop, maybe the police there to take a report.

Instead, she was greeted by billowing smoke and fire crews.

“There goes my life, up in flames,” says Husak, whose family took over the landmark neighborhood sandwich shop in 2021.

“It was, and still is, devastating.”

The fire — which investigators are investigating as arson — burned hot and fast as it moved west through five businesses in the strip mall just off Clovis Avenue at Kings Canyon Boulevard.

There were moments during the morning when it appeared the fire might be out, Husak says. Then it would flare up again.

In the end, Sunnyside Deli was the only part of the property left standing, thanks to a concrete wall that separated it from Blendz Barber Lounge, where the fire is believed to have originated.

But there was significant damage, Husak says. From the smoke, certainly, but also from water left as fire crews battled the blaze from outside the restaurant. A part of the ceiling dropped in and there is structural damage to the wall that butted up to the barber shop, Husak says.

Sunnyside Deli is boarded up and the owners are “under piles of insurance paperwork,” waiting to see what happens next, Husak says.

The plan is to keep the business open, but what that might look like, or even where, remains uncertain (fans can keep up to date via the shop’s social media).

There is a meeting with the building’s landlord this week, Husak says.

“Our hope would be that they would fix our portion and let us get back to business.

“We’re kind of in a holding pattern.”

The landlord has vowed to rebuild, at least according to Kelly Allred, whose restaurant, Irish O’Sullivan’s Sunnyside Lounge, was on the west side of the building and totally engulfed by the fire.

She’s excited about the prospect of seeing a new building on the property — something similar to what was done with the Sunnyside Lanes bowling alley perhaps — but she still can’t help but feel a sense of loss for the neighborhood.

“It’s just a shame. That building has been there for 50 years,” she says.

“It’s that feeling. It’s that legacy. How do you rebuild that?”

This story was originally published January 12, 2023 at 5:30 AM.