FAYETTEVILLE — An early morning fire Tuesday badly damaged a landmark Fayetteville restaurant.
An automatic alarm summoned firefighters to Restaurant On the Corner on Arkansas 112 at Van Asche Drive just before 7 a.m. Tuesday. They found the bar area of the building on fire, said Battalion Chief Terry Lawson.
The bar area suffered extensive fire damage, while the restaurant and gift shops were badly damaged by smoke, Lawson said.
He could not provide a damage estimate.
The cause is still under investigation, he said.
The owners plan to clean up and reopen the iconic restaurant, although a timeline hadn’t been determined as of Tuesday afternoon.
The restaurant has been in business more than 30 years. It moved to the current location more than a decade ago from its longtime Dickson Street location.
“Those were some of the fondest memories of my life,” said John Logan Burrow, a local attorney who worked 11 years at the eatery and still eats there every weekend. “It’s a place were people spent some important years of their lives learning the recipe for success, and I hope it comes back soon.”