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Melrose Diner owner says he hopes to reopen next week after fire

Owner Michael Petrogiannis says he will relocate employees to his other diners during the shutdown.

The Melrose Diner on Snyder Avenue is boarded up as officials investigate the cause of a fire that began at the diner shortly before 6 p.m. July 24, 2019.
The Melrose Diner on Snyder Avenue is boarded up as officials investigate the cause of a fire that began at the diner shortly before 6 p.m. July 24, 2019.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

Melrose Diner in South Philadelphia, damaged by fire Wednesday during the dinner rush, could reopen as soon as next weekend, owner Michael Petrogiannis said.

Firefighters quickly contained the one-alarm fire. Employees and customers noticed smoke coming from a vent in an exterior-facing wall at the 24-hour diner, which opened in 1954 on the site of a former police and fire station at 15th Street and Snyder Avenue.

No injuries were reported.

Petrogiannis said he believed that the fire’s cause was electrical.

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“When I walked in, I thought it was bad,” Petrogiannis said, noting that upon further review, he believed that water and smoke damage would take several days to repair.

Petrogiannis said he would relocate more than a dozen employees to his other restaurants, including the nearby Broad Street Diner, during repairs. Petrogiannis owns 10 diners as well as the swankier La Veranda near Penn’s Landing.

The Melrose dates to 1935, when German immigrant Richard W. Kubach Sr. rented a building at 1610 W. Passyunk Ave., outfitted it with furnishings bought from the Salvation Army, and opened a 19-seat diner. Kubach got the name from a brand of canned tomatoes that featured a rose on its label.

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Kubach moved and expanded several times before 1954, when he settled at the current location, across Passyunk Avenue from the original spot. He died in 1998 at age 90. His son, Richard Jr., sold the diner to Petrogiannis in 2007.