The doors are still boarded up and a date to reopen is unknown.
The Cheesecake Café suffered significant damage to the interior of the building back in November.
Now the smoke and fire damage has been cleaned up- but it’s nowhere near ready for business.
“There was smoke damage through the whole building in every nook and cranny. We have it gutted, stripped to the studs now,” says general manager Jessie Dixon.
Regulars to the restaurant will be disappointed to hear management has decided, when the building is ready to reopen, it will no longer be the Cheesecake.
“No Cheesecake for sure. Something different. The management company has decided to go with a different franchise. They still aren’t sure yet what it will be and it will be a few more months till anything is decided,” says Dixon.
With the cheesecake changing its brand some patrons were worried they would be out the money spent on gift cards- but management says people will have a change to be reimbursed.
“Anything over 5 dollars, we will send a check to those people. We have only sold online gift cards for the last few years so those will be the ones we refund.”
Even though the cheesecake won’t be reopening- staff has been kept on to help with the launch of a new business.
“Managers and senior staff have been kept on, and will help us when we are ready to go,” says Dixon.
An exact cost of the fire is still not known, the company is sorting through paperwork and dealing with insurance claims and expects the repairs will be well over a million dollars.
If you would like a refund for your Cheesecake gift card you can mail it to the Cheesecake Café, with your name, number and return address.
You can also get a gift card for Firestone Restaurant And Bar, It’s owned by the same company.
The refund or exchange is only for electronic gift cards.
The Cheesecake Café
c/o Allison Gliege
904 2nd Ave. S.
Lethbridge AB, T1J 4V9
Gliege Management corp.
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