By Sara Strong
Magnolia Steak House co-owner Amy Dispanet-Ver Steeg said the business will probably reopen by this summer.
"It'll be a while before we serve onion rings again, but we will have them," she said of their famous appetizer.
Other co-owner Brad Ver Steeg said they will "repair, refurbish and reopen."
As one of Luverne's landmark businesses, it could have been lost Tuesday if not for the quick actions of an employee and effective reaction from area firefighters.
The fire was initially reported by Steak House employee Sue Erwin just after she punched out at 1:27 a.m. After smelling something suspicious, she looked around and saw smoke coming from the roof and dialed 911.
Assistant Fire Chief Don Deutsch said, "We'd have been looking at a pile-up if she hadnÕt called when she did."
Deutsch said that when Erwin smelled smoke, instead of dismissing it as coming from some other source, as many might have done, she further checked before leaving for home.
The fire's cause is officially listed as electrical but was specifically caused by a neon sign transformer that started a fire between the shingles and interior ceiling.
The exact reason - whether it was faulty wiring or weather-related - isn't yet known, but investigators have ruled out any foul play.
Besides structural damage, the fire also claimed storage items in a crawl space below the roof. Those included things such as decanters and beer steins that didn't fit in the dining display areas and some spare equipment like microwaves.
"As far as other equipment, the meat market or the kitchen, everything's fine," Dispanet-Ver Steeg said.
She credits the fire department with what she still has.
"Their minimal use of water kept the damage to a minimum," Ver Steeg said. "There's a mess, but a lot of it got away unscathed. In some places the only damage is some firemen's footprints."
Carpet, drywall, and parts of the ceiling beyond what was damaged in the fire have to be replaced as well.
But smoke damage, like the rest of this story, could have been worse, too. In fact, an insurance representative lit a pipe in the bar area during the assessments, and its odor was more prominent than the other smoke.
The Steak House is also connected to the Super 8 Motel. Before firefighters were even on the scene, those employees evacuated rooms and shifted occupants to the Comfort Inn. Some truckers chose to leave town or sleep in their own cabs.
No damage reached the motel, and by Tuesday night, the Super 8 was accepting guests.
Family ties
Although the business seems lucky to have escaped worse damage, the outside view of it early Tuesday morning didn't leave a lot of room for hope.
"At first, we just saw that the flames engulfed the building," Dispanet-Ver Steeg said.
Other area fire departments were dispatched for their back-up pumpers in case more water was needed. Dispanet-Ver Steeg first learned of the fire from her brother-in-law, Nathan Ver Steeg, who is a volunteer firefighter from Magnolia.
On his way to the fire, Nathan called his brother and sister-in-law at home and told them where he was going but said he didn't know anything about the condition.
Dispanet-Ver Steeg said she left for the steak house in a frantic state of mind. "I put my boots on the wrong feet."
She said her employees and community reaction helped her through the rough day Tuesday. "All the employees have either stopped by or called today."
As the third generation of the Dispanet family to own and operate the well-reviewed establishment, she feels ties beyond financial ones to her business.
As she said when she took over the business a year ago, "It's a tradition and a challenge. You could say it's in my blood."
Second fire for steakhouse
Ironically, the Magnolia Steak House came to its current location in Luverne because a fire in 1988 destroyed its former building in Magnolia.
"I don't know the chances of one family having a fire in their business twice," co-owner Amy Dispanet-Ver Steeg said.
Dan "Muggs" McGuire is one employee who is often reminded of that first fire. "Some of the old Scotch bottles, when you take them out of the box, still smell like smoke," he said.
The old steak house's bar survived that fire and is at home in the Luverne building. It was retrofitted for the new location but still shows signs of the fire, where a portion of the bar's wood is darker than the rest.
The Magnolia fire in 1988 was also started by an electrical short.