A North Beach staple is reopening after a St. Patrick’s Day fire forced it to shut down.

On Friday, KRON4 spoke to the owner about the frustrating process of reopening.

Michelangelo’s was actually one of the least affected by the fire.

Most of the damage it sustained was fire-related. But the owner tells KRON4 Getting the restaurant running again has been a lot harder than he expected.

Michelangelo’s is back in business, serving its first customers since a Mar. 18 fire forced its doors to close.

“It’s been very very tough,” owner Salvatore Cortara said. “We had a cleaning company come to clean it up and dry up all the sheetrock that was damaged by the water from the fire department.”

The 18-year-old North Beach staple was one of nearly a dozen businesses affected by the St. Patrick’s night blaze. 

The four-alarm fire started around 7:30 p.m. in a vacant apartment building nearby and quickly spread.

Customers at Michelangelo’s were forced to leave their half-eaten dinners and run to safety.

Since then, Cortara says he’s been working around the clock.

“I couldn’t go away,” Cortara said. “I had to here because I gotta be here because had electrical people coming over, building inspector, health department inspector, so I couldn’t go anywhere. It was not what I was expecting.”

Cortara says he estimates the restaurant lost about $60,000-to-$70,000 while it was closed.

“Unfortunately, we lost all of spring break,” Cortara said. “Then, all the restaurants, they were busy around here.”

But Cortara is looking forward to the grand reopening on Wednesday and is expecting all of his regulars to return for that.

“it’s like a big family, we know everybody in the neighborhood,” Cortara said. “I’m going to get ready the day before to prepare some pizza, arancini, meatball, lasagna, eggplant parmigiana.”

Cortara tells KRON4 it’s been a rough six months or so.

He said this past November was the worst November in the restaurant’s history. 

He says it is because of ongoing construction that was happening along Columbus Avenue.

So, he’s really hoping this new chapter will make up for tough times.

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