MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — Omar Zaragoza planned to open his Menchalville restaurant on Feb. 1. Two weeks after the building burned down, he returned for the first time.
"We just waxed the floor. We put everything back on the floor, the tables, the chairs, the decorating," said Omar Zaragoza.
Zaragoza recalled the day before his new restaurant burned down in a fire less than two weeks ago.
"So much time and love to a building like this, and seeing it's gone overnight, just like that," he added.
Zaragoza said he had been fixing up the former supper club, a once well-known spot in the area at Menchalville Road and County Road K. He and his partner, Jason Demerath, were a week from opening when they got a call on Jan. 24.
Watch: Menchalville man returns to burned restaurant, faces years of rebuilding
The fire leveled the building, and Zaragoza said investigators told them a heating appliance was to blame.
"I thought he was joking," Demerath recalled. "I thought he was kidding when he told me there was a fire. I started laughing at him."
"To this day, I still think it's a nightmare," Zaragoza said. "To this day, I still think I'm going to wake up and think, 'Oh, that was a really bad nightmare.'"
I met Zaragoza and Demerath at the location—their first time back nearly two weeks after the fire. Zaragoza said it's hard to know how to move forward, but they still believe in the location and its potential.
"With the help of the community, friends, family, little by little," he said. "I'm a dreamer. I think we can make it happen."
Zaragoza told me it may take a year or even 10, but he plans to rebuild. That starts with cleanup every weekend from now on to achieve his dream.
Omar has created a GoFundMe which you can access here.
If you would like to help Omar with the cleanup, his phone number is (920) 384-8699.
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