The corner of Bardstown Road and Lucia Avenue looks like a winter wonderland today. A blanket of crunchy snow covers the ground; icicles pendulously dangle from tree branches and power lines, and a sheet of slick ice covers the street. Although it looks like a January storm hit the 1200 block of Bardstown Road overnight, the inky smell of smoke in the crisp breeze explains it all: an early morning fire broke out and destroyed Cafe Mimosa and the Egg Roll Machine.

A TARC bus has parked across the street so firefighters can pop inside and warm up, and power is out in the area of the restaurants. Squad cars are blocking off the street and Bardstown Road is closed. Although the fire has been extinguished, random wisps of smoke could still be seen drifting up into the chill air when I visited the site about Noon.

According to one of the firefighters, the blaze was called in at 4:12 this morning. Originally, a company was sent to investigate a trash fire behind the building, but when it arrived, the entire structure had caught fire and additional companies and equipment were called in. In all, eight fire trucks were sent to the Egg Roll Machine and Cafe Mimosa restaurants. According to the Courier-Journal, the firefighters tried to battle the flames from inside but couldn’t make any headway, so they left the building and tried to keep the fire from spreading to the two adjacent structures. The entire building is a loss, and the roof has caved in. No one has heard if the owners have plans to rebuild one of Louisville’s most popular Asian restaurants.

All in all, it was an extremely busy night for the Louisville Fire Department. At 3:00 a.m. a fire was reported at the Portland Presbyterian Church at 32nd Street and Portland Avenue. Fifteen trucks were sent to battle that blaze, and there were about 75 firefighters at the scene. Every on-duty firefighter was at the scene of one of the early-morning blazes, and off-duty units were called in to man the stations.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant