Monk's is back in business
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Monk's is back in business
Monk's Caf� (264 S. 16th St.) owner Tom Peters just shot out an email announcing that the Belgian bar is again open for business.� The back bar room will open in a week or so, when construction on the building's fire tower is complete.� After the jump, Peters' email and a synopsis of the tragic event that required the evacuation of the building's 13 tenants and the closure of the restaurant.
We are OPEN! � The City of Philadelphia told us that we could open our doors at 11:30 AM today.� All the City officials that we dealt with were amazingly helpful.� So we want to give a big thanks to Bart, Scott, Mrs. Ward and everyone else for their extraordinary efforts.� Philadelphia Rocks!
The workmen our landlord hired worked long hours to get us reopened.� Our landlord has been on-site for 20 hours each day...seriously.� He has spared no expense getting the apartments back up to code in as expeditious a manner as possible.
For those few that are not aware of what occurred, I�ll give the Cliff Notes version of the events.� But first I�d like to make it totally clear that we do NOT own the building.� We are tenants in the building, just as are the apartment dwellers upstairs.
1. Near the end of our Saturday evening�s business (just before our 2AM closing time), one of the upstairs tenants fell from the fire escape tower.� He had a third floor apartment and he and a friend apparently were leaning on a metal railing when it gave way.� They both fell several stories.� He died and she miraculously is already out of the hospital.� We are devastated about what happened. � Our landlord knew the gentleman that fell.� He is also heart broken.
2. Philadelphia Department of License & Inspection decided to close the building until a structual engineer could do an inspection and certify that the building was safe.� They also required our landlord to update the safety systems in the entire building.
3. The landlord has already received the engineer�s certification, but updating the apartment section of the safety systems will take several more days.� The restaurant portion of the building is already approved.
Since our back bar area�s emergency exit is under the apartment�s fire escape tower, we cannot open the back bar today.� We expect the landlord to have everything finished by next Friday.� When his work is done, we will be able to open the back bar to the public.
The Front Bar and the Front Two Dining Rooms are Open!� The Ktichen is Open!
Hopefully that information answers most of your questions.� Thank you all for your support during this very difficult time.� We hope to see you soon.
Tom Peters
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