For Business Owners, It's Like a Death in the Family

Most of the 14 shops that operated inside Eastern Market's South Hall have been owned by the same families for generations. The owners are well known to residents who walk to the market for coffee, fresh meat, seafood, baked goods, fresh-cut flowers or artwork -- or simply to people watch.

Yesterday, after an early morning fire raced through the South Hall, shop owners and many of more than 60 vendors who operate outside the red-brick building gathered to contemplate the future. The outside vendors are anxiously waiting to resume operations this weekend, while businesses inside the market wonder when -- or whether -- they will be able to reopen.

Most consider themselves part of an extended Capitol Hill family and had trouble accepting the fire's devastation. Some tried to console crying customers. Others worried about their workers. By 11 a.m., a few had gathered in Tunnicliff's restaurant, across the street, for glasses of beer or wine to help numb the pain.

Neighborhood Butcher

Many Capitol Hill residents think of Melvin Inman Sr., 55, owner of Market Poultry, as the neighborhood butcher. For 32 years, he has sold them fresh chicken, turkey, quail, duck and eggs. When the fire began, his freezer was stocked with $4,000 worth of poultry.

As Inman talked about his life at the market, he was interrupted by a steady stream of customers. There were kind words and hugs.

"We're not going to worry about this. We're going to pray and keep moving," Inman said. "It stymies your growth a little, but we're a neighborhood. The response from this community has brought me to tears. It's been overwhelming."

Inman's business has been a family affair. His son, Melvin Jr., 34, grew up behind the counter weighing chicken parts and waiting on customers. Inman's brother-in-law Edward Minor and a nephew, J.R. Roberson, also worked in the shop. All of them put in nearly 70 hours a week, even more before Thanksgiving.

Inman, often wearing a Washington Redskins jersey, could be seen wielding a cleaver, gutting and cutting up poultry and chucking unused parts in the nearest waste bucket behind the counter.

Inman was grateful that when the fire began yesterday, the business was not stocked for a holiday. "Thank God it wasn't Thanksgiving," he said.

Yesterday, Lois Porter, 87, of Capitol Hill hugged Inman and kissed him on the cheek.

"These guys down here are like family," Porter said. "When I went through my chemotherapy, he was there for me. He's more than a butcher."

The Market Lunch

"This has been [like] a death in my family," said Tom Glasgow, owner of the Market Lunch. "I'm still in a state of disbelief."