By Claire Corrigan
After a disastrous three months’ closure for eateries all over the country due to the Covid-19 lockdown, two Mullingar restauranteurs were dealt a second severe blow on Saturday morning last just weeks after reopening, when their kitchen caught fire and forced them to close again.
However, the plucky young local couple, who have been running a very successful business in Dominick Street for the past decade, and were very happy to be back in business, haven’t allowed Saturday’s fire to dishearten them, and are determined to open their doors again as rapidly as possible.
They were upbeat and positive when they spoke to Topic this week at their Dominik’s Restaurant premises about the effects of the fire on their business.
“Our restaurant will be open next week”, explained Miriama Gablechova who owns the restaurant with her husband, Jan. “We needed to clean the kitchen and do other repair work first. We were encouraged by the neighbours and local people who’ve shown support, and offered help.”
The couple were joined by their two young children, Sarah and Dominik when we spoke to them and were busy cleaning and preparing for their reopening date next week.
The couple, who hail from Slovakia and have lived in Mullingar for 16 years, opened Dominick’s nearly ten years ago and since then, it has been a huge hit with diners throughout the town and beyond, thanks largely to its delicious cuisine and also the tasteful decor. It is the first restaurant venture by Jan who is a head chef and who opened the premises nearly seven years after coming to Ireland.
Miriama explained that the fire originated in their freezer early on Saturday morning but luckily a neighbour spotted the blaze almost right away.
“There was a significant amount of damage in the kitchen and the dessert room, which is a small room where we had the freezer so that is all gone and anything that was in the freezer and fridges. Our neighbour called the fire service. Thank God the fire wasn’t burning for too long, maybe half an hour. If it had been burning all night, it could be have been much worse but thank God it wasn’t. We are hoping to be open by next week because we had been closed for three months due to the pandemic. We are trying to get sorted as quickly as possible to get open again, because bills have to be paid and we have nine staff.”
The family said they were very grateful for the support of their neighbours during and after the fire. “They did help us a lot and we appreciate it. This is our first day really that we’ve begun cleaning as we are still waiting to get the insurance sorted and everything like this. It’s all positive,”Miriama assured us.
Topic wish the family all the best with their reopening next week. And all their neighbours, who appreciate how hard they’ve worked to build up their business in difficult times, do likewise.
David O’Malley, who rang the fire services the moment he first saw the smoke coming out on Saturday morning and smelled burning plastic, told Topic, ”When I rang the brigade, they said they’d just got another call about it, and I was happy to tell them I was just making sure, and it was good to see the Fire Brigade arrive so soon after the calls, and get the fire under control and put it out. We all know how a fire can spread so fast in a shop premises in a town, so everyone close to Dominik’s was happy that the fire was dealt with efficiently.”
He remarked that everyone on the street felt for the couple hit by the fire, and wished them a fast reopening.
