Local Restaurateur Grateful Fire Wasn’t Worse

Just hours after a kitchen fire broke out at Union Cattle Company on Saturday, owner Jed Sanford received numerous phone calls and e-mails of concern and sympathy. He has since labeled the fire a "mini-scare," and Monday the popular restaurant reopened.

Fire crews from Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach were deployed to extinguish the grease fire that started in a kitchen vent. No one was injured, and there was no significant damage because the fire was contained to the vent, Sanford said.

He explained in an exclusive interview how, after renovating the restaurant just a month ago, the fire was a small bump in the road.

Hermosa Beach Patch: How did you hear that there was a fire at your restaurant?

Jed Sanford: I got a phone call from my manager, and that was the one day that I wasn't planning on coming down this weekend. So I knew, if he calls me three times in one night like that, there was a problem.

Patch: Firefighters from all three beach cities were there. What was it like when you arrived at the scene?

Sanford: People outside called police when they saw the smoke coming up through the vent, which made it look like the whole place was on fire. One thing that actually I didn't think about as much until it happened, was how good of a job the [firefighters] did. Being in a local community, you get to know the fire department and personnel, and having them down here helping us, and making sure we're safe, that was nice. It's something you don't miss until you need it. And we never really needed it before. So, I want to thank those guys. They were quick to get down here on a busy weekend, so that was cool.

Patch: The restaurant was renovated during the end of May and early June. So the weekend fire must really have been quite the scare?

Sanford: (chuckles) We definitely would've been concerned if we finished renovations and the place burned down. The fire was a mini-scare. We put a lot of energy into remaking the restaurant … We learned a lot of lessons from it, in building a restaurant.

Patch: What lessons were learned?

Sanford: A lot of things like, spatially, and keeping up-to-date with what's going on in our market. So we've always tried to be kind of aware directionally, to stay up-to-date with where we think Hermosa Beach is going, and make sure we adjust the product to match that, and to be slightly ahead of the curve... Conceptually, we always live in the same space, you know, we're Americana. 

Patch: What changes were recently made to the restaurant to add to that concept?

Sanford: We made changes upstairs and downstairs. We noticed that we would get a different type of customer, who would want to sit and eat downstairs, compared with someone who wanted a lounge atmosphere upstairs. So we made upstairs distinctly different, and even gave it a different name… Ocean Bar.

Patch: What is the difference between Ocean Bar and the Union Cattle Company?

Sanford: Well, Ocean Bar is kind of like "Ocean Bar at Union Cattle Company." We'll have acoustic music up there. We're making it more of a lounge and more adult-based. Union Cattle has always been everybody-based. So it's just creating different environments for people to allow us to deliver to them what they want.

Patch: Is there anything else you want to add?

Sanford: Just that if you haven't been here for a while come check out the changes.