And counting.
When she arrived at Obelisk on Saturday morning, July 29, Lee noticed that Pepco had sealed off a section of P Street NW and that crews were working to restore electricity after a storm the previous night knocked down power lines. The news would get worse for Lee when she walked into her restaurant: It was filled with smoke.
“I was like, 'Did I leave something on?' " Lee said.
She had not. Instead, an electrical room under the stairs that lead to Obelisk had caught fire. Smoke had poured into the small, 11-table dining room and kitchen, causing untold damage. Lee had scheduled a cleaning company to assess the damage on Tuesday, but the crew backed out at the last minute. The company is apparently backlogged with flood-related cleaning requests after recent storms, Lee said.
Another company is scheduled to assess Obelisk on Wednesday and determine how fast the restaurant can reopen. Lee said she hopes it will be Friday or Saturday.
In the meantime, Lee has lost countless dollars in revenue, though she said insurance will eventually cover some of that. With her electricity out for more than a week, Lee also lost thousands of dollars in fresh produce, meats, eggs and dairy.
“I had to throw everything out,” Lee said. “I took the starter home with me.”
The starter, she added, has been at Obelisk since the day it opened in August 1987.
Last year, Lee purchased the 30-year-old Obelisk from Peter Pastan, the restaurant's founder and original guiding light. After working for Obelisk for the past 17 years, Lee had to make her first big decision as owner: to open the restaurant like some neighbors on the block? Or wait for cleaning crews to scrub away any trace of smoke?
“I can’t have customers spending the kind of money that dinner is here, and it smells worse than an ashtray,” Lee said.
Obelisk, 2029 P St. NW. 202-872-1180. obeliskdc.com.
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