{"id":24174,"date":"2025-01-01T00:51:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T07:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ore-house-owners-hope-to-reopen-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:50:07","slug":"ore-house-owners-hope-to-reopen-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ore-house-owners-hope-to-reopen-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Ore House owners hope to reopen in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An early morning fire was contained to the kitchen area at Ore House restaurant in Durango on Tuesday. (Courtesy of Durango Fire Protection District)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Ore House restaurant is undergoing a lengthy restoration process, hoping to reopen in the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a long work in progress, it\u2019s going to take probably another six months or so,\u201d said William Abshagen, one of the building owners. \u201cI would say it\u2019s probably going to be the middle of the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the fire caused enough damage that it had to be taken down to the walls and all new plumbing had to be installed. City codes have added an additional layer of complexity in bringing the building back online, he said.<\/p>\n

The challenge of restoring a historic building in accordance with city codes has been exacerbated by the presence of asbestos in the building.<\/p>\n

\"Restoration
Restoration efforts are underway after a fire broke out Jan. 2, 2024, at Ore House, a restaurant in downtown Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOne of the biggest challenges was the asbestos mitigation that has to go through the state,\u201d Abshagen said. \u201cSo that was probably a three- to four-month process to have guys in their hazmat suits come down and take out the asbestos, one little piece at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A staple of the Durango restaurant scene since 1972, the Ore House temporarily shut down on Jan. 2, 2024, when rags with leftover oil residue caught fire, resulting in extensive damage to the kitchen. The restaurant housed a large collection of museum-quality art that sustained significant smoke damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our artwork is up at Colorado art restoration services in Denver,\u201d said Ryan Lowe, the restaurant\u2019s owner. \u201cThey\u2019re a nationwide specialist in art restoration, and all the artwork will be recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oily
Oily rags spontaneously combusted, causing a severe kitchen fire Jan. 2, 2024, at the Ore House restaurant in downtown Durango. (Courtesy of Durango Fire Protection District)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The staff, a team of restaurant professionals, has been paid for the entirety of the year, Lowe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had coverage for our entire staff,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took out a policy to make sure everyone was covered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abshagen was optimistic the restaurant will make a comeback this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to come back bigger, with all the latest and greatest ADA bathrooms and all new plumbing and heating and infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re excited to hopefully, you know, be open for another 52 years of successful operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asbestos and city code compliance makes setting official date difficult<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,350,28,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78430,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24174\/revisions\/78430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24174"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}