The kitchen of the Smoke Shack Southern Barbecue in Boscawen was stripped down to its structure, everything charred to black. A red Coca-Cola clock clung to the burnt wall, deformed from the heat of the fire.
Owner Josh Davis moved around slowly, but with purpose, careful not to trip on any of the debris, while he and his employees worked to clean the damage and welcome back customers as soon as possible.
While Friday night’s kitchen fire temporarily closed the business, Davis plans to be serving barbecue meals again by the end of the week with the help of food truck in the parking lot.
By early next week, Davis expects to bring over an ice cream trailer, while customers can utilize the restaurant’s outdoor seating.
Officials don’t know for sure what caused the fire, but Davis believes the culprit was likely the smoker in the kitchen.
The emergency call came in at 11:11 p.m., reporting a fire inside the building at 146 King Street in Boscawen.
The first firefighters were on the scene at 11:15 p.m., followed by crews from Concord, Franklin, Webster, Salisbury and Penacook, Boscawen Fire Chief Timothy Kenney said.
Davis said the fire must have occurred minutes after the last employee left for the night.
While the fire was quickly put out, it damaged the kitchen and the attic space above. Those areas will need to be rebuilt, which could take around 8 to 10 weeks, Davis estimated.
The heat damaged the power circuit inside the building, which caused the business to lose ice cream and food being stored in freezers.
“Besides the fire damage, there was other damage caused by the power having to be turned off,” Kenney said.
Davis started his barbecue empire 25 years ago out of a food truck, he has no doubt he can keep his customers fed, especially with his loyal following. If demand gets heavy, he said he’ll add more trucks throughout the summer to keep up.
The Smoke Shack has other satellite locations, but the Boscawen restaurant was the flagship.
“We’re just going back to our roots for a little while until we get the restaurant back up and running,” Davis said.
