Owners of LA Roadhouse raising money for owners of The Bothwell Diner which was destroyed by fire Friday

Heather Wright/The Independent

Shaun McGill and his wife, Deborah Allison, wanted the owners of The Bothwell Diner to know what they mean to the community.

The owners of the LA Roadhouse opened for breakfast Sunday morning – not something they usually do – and offered a breakfast buffet. McGill asked people for a $20 donation which would go to the Nguyen family who ran the town’s usual breakfast spot. Their building was one of three destroyed by fire on Bothwell’s main street early Friday morning.

Bothwell firefighters arrived on the scene around 3 am to find what fire officials said was a well-developed fire in a building spreading to adjoining buildings. Fire officials say a passerby called in the fire saying The Bothwell Diner – the town’s only coffee shop – was in flames. The Canada Post outlet also caught fire as did the building which was the Mrs. A’s General Store for two decades.

Bothwell firefighters, joined by those from Thamesville, Ridgetown and Highgate, fought the stubborn blaze in the cold. They were hampered by a gas line fuelling the fire. It took until 8:27 for Enbridge Gas to finally shut down the gas.

Crowds gathered watching the fire. Many voiced concern about the Canada Post outlet. The crown corporation said it is working on finding a temporary Bothwell location which is likely to be announced Monday.

The former general store wasn’t being used as commercial outlet, but The Bothwell Diner was a going concern; a place where local farmers could go to have breakfast or a coffee and talk about the events of the day.

And there is absolutely nothing left of the building.

McGill was moved to help. He says while he doesn’t know the Nguyen family well, they helped each other out occasionally.

“If we ran out of pizza box or things like that, we were always able to go over and they would lend us some things. It’s a tight community here. We both own restaurants, The Roadhouse is mainly the lunch, dinner and alcohol place, where they were open for breakfast…and did lunch and small supper service. So, we were on two sort of ends of the spectrum of what we did.”

After the fire, McGill and Allison stepped up to help. They decided to offer breakfast service for a week, starting Sunday. “Everyone’s kind of chipping in to help here,” McGill said. His employees offered to work the breakfasts for free, the local Foodland provided some of the food and The Roadhouse’s suppliers also pitched in. The buffet would be served for a $20 donation.

And the Nguyen’s neighbours and friends poured in Sunday morning.

“We served 144 eggs, 110 sausages, 160 pieces of peameal bacon, but 10 kilograms of home fries three boxes of just sliced bacon, all today,” said McGill Sunday. “We’ve raised over $1,400 today alone.

“We don’t do breakfast, and trust me, we just finished the first one and it’s a lot of work. So, it was just more in honour of them, to do a breakfast where a lot of their customers who weren’t necessarily our customers…we just thought it was a good idea to bring them here and to show their support for the family,” he added.

“It was actually my way of just saying something about what they meant to the community.”

And McGill says the donations will serve a practical purpose as well. It’s not clear whether the family will reopen at some point, but McGill expects the next little while will be difficult for people behind The Bothwell Diner.

“It was burned to the ground. There’s nothing left. There’s no structure to start, so they’d have to start all over again…

“Owning a restaurant nowadays very difficult. It’s a lot of work – a lot of really hard work. And you know, if we lost our restaurant, we still have bills to pay, right? And the insurance is not going to kick in the next day. So, this is just my way of giving them a little buffer zone for a couple weeks.”