Nirvana to reopen — eventually
Enterprise file photo — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Watching: Employees of Nirvana Indian Restaurant, in the foreground, watch as firefighters work to contain a fire on Sept. 9, 2016 that caused extensive damage to the establishment’s kitchen.
GUILDERLAND — Construction started last week on an all-new electrical system at Nirvana Indian Restaurant at 5180 Western Turnpike, said co-owner Ann Thomas.
“It’s an old building,” Thomas said. “We have to start the electrical stuff like brand-new, from scratch.”
The building has been closed since a fire on Sept. 9 caused extensive damage to the kitchen but left other areas, including the dining room, the bar area, and the banquet room, intact, said Thomas. No one was hurt in the fire, which happened at about 4:30 p.m., after lunch ended and before dinner started. An employee who had just come back inside from a break discovered the fire and called 9-1-1.
Captain Daniel McNally, fire investigator for the police, told The Enterprise at the time that the fire seemed to be related to an air conditioner.
The building — located almost directly across from Guilderland’s town hall — formerly housed the Inn Town Restaurant; Evans Public House; and, before that, for decades, the Chariot, a Greek restaurant. Nirvana opened in March 2015.
“The building is not up to current code,” said the town’s acting chief building and zoning inspector, Jacqueline Coons. “It’s legal, because it’s grandfathered in, but it wouldn’t be up to current code.”
The fire department told Nirvana’s owners, Thomas said, that the wiring needed to be made “like brand-new.”
The insurance claim is taking much longer than she expected, Thomas said.
“We also have holes in our roof that we need to fix,” she said, referring to places cut by firefighters in their effort to combat the fire.
Thomas said she hopes by April to have a better idea of an opening date by about April.
While some employees have left the country, Thomas said, many have found other work in the Capital District in the interim, on the understanding that they will return when Nirvana is up and running again. “Whoever hired them locally, they are aware of that too,” she said.
“We didn’t want to keep them on unemployment for such a long time,” Thomas said. “They have families.”
Nirvana is the owners’ only restaurant, Thomas said.
Many people have asked her, said Coons, when Nirvana is going to reopen.
Coons estimated that a year — including settling the insurance claim and completing construction — is about the average length of time that fire restoration projects take.
