Sam's Hof Brau in Sacramento catches fire
SACRAMENTO - A fire broke out at a well-known Sacramento restaurant overnight.
According to the Sacramento Fire Department, at around 3:30 a.m., an employee of Sam's Hof Brau, which is near the corner of Watt and El Camino avenues, was painting inside the restaurant when the flames.
"There was somebody who was inside at the time painting," said Parker Wilbourn with Sacramento Metro Fire. "He noticed heavy billowing black smoke and exited safely and called 911."
Firefighters say that when they arrived, the fire was spreading quickly through the building which connected to a Goodwill thrift store. The worst of the smoke damage is inside the Goodwill donation area, firefighters say. Fortunately, crews were able to access the roof of the restaurant and stop the fire from spreading, but the popular eatery that opened in 1959 sustained significant damage.
"This is where everybody remembers coming out for dinner to the Tower as a kid to listen to records in record listening rooms," said Kathleen Stricklin, with the group Vintage Arden-Arcade.
That Goodwill store next door, which was temporarily closed due to smoke damage, was once a Tower Records location. Many remember concerts in the parking lot and family dinners. As staff cleaned up and assessed the damage, former Sam's Hof Brau employees stopped by to reminisce.
One former employee, named Terry, washed dishes there years ago.
"It's pretty well melted, at least in the kitchen part where I used to work," he said. "Gives you a queasy feeling, grabs you in the stomach that something like that could happen."
The family worked hard to keep the restaurant like it was — a slice of Sacramento in the sixties — harkening back to a time when Arden-Arcade and the surrounding subdivision were born.
"This is downtown Arden-Arcade. This is where everything that came to become Arden-Arcade is, right here," Stricklin said.
She stopped to take pictures of the building just hours after a two-alarm blaze ripped through the back of the structure.
"When they redid it a couple years ago, if they had torn everything out, people would not have come back," Stricklin said. "This is a very dedicated community to its mid-century soul."
The fire rose to two alarms, allowing more firefighting resources to get to the scene. Flames have been put out, but there remains a strong smell of burning plastic.
A fire department spokesperson says the fire appears to have started on the exterior of the building near the Goodwill drop-off location.
No injuries were reported.
