The Deep Cove Chalet has been scorched by a weekend fire that started late Saturday night.
"We are very sad," says owner Pierre Koffel.
The North Saanich restaurant with a long history in the community will be closed for the foreseeable future but owner Pierre Koffel says they will be able to reopen, perhaps in a few months.
"All the customers had gone and the staff had gone except one [staff member] who saw the fire. It was just me and him," Koffel tells CFAX.
"There was a fire in one of the ovens that went through the little chimney and put the shingles on the roof on fire," Koffel said the morning after. "All of the sudden it grew and caught in the attic and started burning like a mad. But the fire people were great and they came very fast and were very efficient and put the fire out about 3 o'clock in the morning."
The fire was mostly contained to the attic and roof. No one was hurt.
Koffel apologizes to his customers who have up-coming reservations, "there is a lot of water damage and electrical and all that stuff. But it's not a write-off and we will be rebuilding the way it was before if possible."
Koffel has been there since the 1972 and says the restaurant has a deep history. The site started as a tea-house built in 1913 by the B.C. Electric Railway, which used to run a passenger service between Victoria and Deep Cove. The building later served as a pub. A major renovation saw most of the building rebuilt in 1986.