‘Look at all that liquor’: Burned SLC bar has a surprise for its owner

Jason LeCates’ vast collection of whiskeys took 13 years to gather. The menu at his Whiskey Street bar ranged from High West Distillery spirits made in Park City to $1,300 pours of rare 1970s single malts from Scotland.

He knew it was all gone, “thousands and thousands” of bottles lost in a devastating Monday fire on Salt Lake City’s Main Street.

But in White Horse — the bar he also owns next door — he discovered an inspiring surprise.

White Horse had burned too, and sunlight was streaming through its ruined entrance when LeCates and his team went inside on Wednesday. But the wall it shared with Whiskey Street had stood strong, and the protected opposing wall — behind the White Horse bar — gave LeCates a shock.

Shelf after shelf of the bottles on display were safe. Below them, rows of glassware were unscathed.

“Back bar, Jason, look at all that liquor,” his wife Brandi LeCates urged him, before walking over and embracing him.

LeCates originally estimated that he and his partners at Bourbon Group lost $6 million to the flames, $3 million from each business. But after surveying the White Horse, he said it may be closer to $4 million — and White Horse may reopen within three months.

“This is pretty promising,” a relieved LeCates said, pointing to the standing wall shared with Whiskey Street, while noting there may be some heat-related damage to the brick and mortar’s integrity.

Above the shared wall, whiskey staves — repurposed from barrels and woven to form part of the ceiling — were unharmed, he noticed.

LeCates and his team laughed as they found that a tall, well-placed wine case near the front entrance seemed to have protected much of the interior, by supporting debris from the ceiling and the wall facing Main Street, which suffered most of the fire damage.

LeCates walked through White Horse alongside insurance inspectors, the property owner and construction crew members to assess the damage and identify what could be salvaged.

Entering through the back door, they carefully navigated around debris and muddy water, but inside, the restaurant appeared frozen in time.

Plates piled with food and glasses still filled with drinks sat on the tables, while flies buzzed around the remnants.

Aside from the gaping hole at the front, the rest of the restaurant was largely undisturbed. Historic bottles and artifacts the LeCates had preserved and displayed in cases near the restrooms survived intact.

Firefighters were on site extinguishing a hotspot that morning, with a fire truck stationed out back, LeCates said. “It looked like the fire was going to reignite,” he said.

Salt Lake City Fire Chief Karl Lieb said the fire started in the kitchen of the London Belle bar, with crews dispatched around 8:40 p.m. Monday. Whiskey Street shares a wall with that kitchen, which, LeCates said, is why the fire eventually spread toward the White Horse.

LeCates was getting the property secured. For now, he’s waiting on insurance approval to begin demolition.

“If we get permission from the insurance company to start moving stuff, we’ll start taking everything out today,” he said, noting they’re coordinating with multiple insurers, including their own and the property owner’s for the building itself.

“We don’t know if it’s going to cover it all completely,” he said. “We have thousands and thousands of bottles.”

LeCates opened Whiskey Street in 2013, and according to Salt Lake Tribune reporting, it started with over 130 whiskey selections on its menu. Its name is a nod to Main Street’s history; Brigham Young reportedly dubbed the stretch between what is now 200 South and 400 South “Whiskey Street” around 1857, prompted by the number of bars there.

The Whiskey Street bar will take longer to reopen, LeCates said, though he believes part of its structure may have survived.

And eventually, LeCates said, he plans to get to work on rebuilding his whiskey collection.