Standing near the charred Main Street remains of his popular downtown bars, Whiskey Street and White Horse, Jason LeCates looked over the damage while his wife held a rescued stack of menus and an American flag.
The menus were saved from the patio at White Horse. Firefighters had retrieved the flag from the back wall of Whiskey Street. Now, LeCates said Tuesday, they will serve as “inspiration to rebuild.”
He estimated that he and his partners at Bourbon Group lost $6 million to the flames, $3 million from each business. For now, they are assessing whether the buildings are salvageable, he said.
[Update: ‘Look at all that liquor’: Burned SLC bar has a surprise for its owner]
The two bars, Mexican restaurant Los Tapatios and London Belle were destroyed by a Monday night fire that began in London Belle’s kitchen and tore through a historic stretch of downtown Salt Lake City’s nightlife district.
Salt Lake City Fire Chief Karl Lieb said three firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the fire. One broke an ankle, another suffered dehydration and smoke inhalation, and the third was pinned briefly by debris.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bottles are seen at Whiskey Street following a fast moving fire on Monday night along Main Street in Salt Lake City that caused catastrophic damage several businesses, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
At City Council work session later Tuesday, the fire chief said a fifth business was damaged in the fire. He did not identify the business or describe the extent of the damage.
The Facebook page for London Belle, opened in 2018 by owner Frank Paulraj, said: “Our hearts go out to all of our incredible neighbors that were impacted, and all of the families, owners, and staff.”
[Read more: Before it burned, Salt Lake City’s London Belle bar celebrated ‘shady’ history, hosted packed Latin nights]
City officials are promising to help affected business owners bring back the lively vibe they built on the 300 South block of Main Street. And in the meantime, Mayor Erin Mendenhall noted at a news conference Tuesday, “there are dozens and dozens of employees who are not going to be able to go to work tonight.”
The city would look into ways to help those service workers, she said, similar to the “Tip Your Servers” program it helped organize during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re going to be working as a city to support this community,” Mendenhall said.
Later on Tuesday, the city and the Downtown Alliance launched a website seeking donations for a “Main Street Fire Employee Assistance Fund.” The Downtown Alliance estimated that the 200 employees have lost their jobs.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A fast moving fire on Monday on Main Street in Salt Lake City causes catastrophic damage to the businesses of London Belle, Whiskey Street, White Horse and Los Tapatios, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
LeCates also said he hopes to help their employees however they can, whether with potential insurance payouts or making sure they can get back on their feet after losing their jobs so suddenly.
“Trust us that we intend to rebuild,” he said. “We’re not going to let this go away over a fire.”
The owners of Los Tapatios, the Mexican restaurant next door to Whiskey Street, are Alejandro Maya and his wife, Kaori Chiney. An Instagram story posted by the restaurant said the team is “incredibly grateful that everyone is safe.”
It added that “we come together as a community to rebuild and support each other. … This block is strong!"
The post for the London Belle, opened in 2018 by owner Frank Paulraj, said it hopes to see Salt Lake City “for another round in the future” and ended with “Guess we really did have the hottest vibes in SLC.”
It began on a more serious note: “Last night we watched as our beautiful London Belle was destroyed. We want to thank everyone for showing us so much love and support ... Your kindness has meant the world to us since the day we opened and especially now!”
The Downtown Alliance, in a statement, said the property owners “have shared with us their intent to rebuild.” The buildings date back to the 1920s, the statement said, “and have long been part of the fabric of Main Street.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Fire Chief Kari Lieb gives a fire update alongside Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall, following a fire Monday night that destroyed several businesses along Main Street, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
The spirit of the 300 South block is “fabulous drinks and food, laughter and memories,” said Stuart Melling founder and chief writer of Gastronomic SLC. The people who work there, he said, make that happen.
“I’m certain there are thousands, like me, that have been brought endless joy by this small strip of the city; not least the cast of wonderful servers, bartenders, and chefs – who made this central area – the city’s number one destination," Melling wrote on the Gastronomic site.
‘Our hearts are with our neighbors’
The fire that destroyed the four businesses stopped before reaching Eva, the tapas place one door north of Los Tapatios, according to the restaurant’s Instagram account.
“We have some smoke and water damage, but nothing major and we’re feeling optimistic,” Eva’s owners wrote. They also thanked the Salt Lake City Fire Department for their “incredible work,” and said “our hearts are with our neighbors who were more impacted.”
Just north of Eva, the long-standing bar Cheers 2 You was “blessed not to sustain much damage other than smoke damage,” the owner posted on Reddit.
The bar will reopen as soon as power comes back on and the city gives the OK, the owner said, adding that the owners of the neighboring bars “are personal friends and I can only imagine how devastating this is to them, their families and their staff.”
The state agency that issues liquor licenses gives bar owners some leeway when their business must close in an emergency, such as a fire.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A fast moving fire on Monday night along Main Street in Salt Lake City causes catastrophic damage to the businesses of London Belle, Whiskey Street, White Horse and Los Tapatios, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services may approve a business’ 60-day closure, and extend the closure another 30 days if the licensee makes a written request, DABS spokesperson Michelle Schmitt said Tuesday.
After those 90 days are up, a license holder must go to the DABS commission during the board’s monthly meeting to get permission for a longer extension.
Melling, in his GastronomicSLC post, suggested ways people can support the destroyed businesses. Bourbon Group also operates Franklin Ave., at 231 S. Edison St. And Los Tapatios has locations in Fairpark and Taylorsville.
Peter Marshall — owner of Utah Book and Magazine, a used-book store that shares a wall with White Horse — said he only saw a small amount of water that affected his own business.
Marshall said he got to the scene around 10 p.m. Monday, and officials told him to stay away. He wasn’t able to get a good look until around 3 a.m., he said, adding that by then, his store’s doors were wide open.
The bookstore will reopen, Marshall said, as soon as he gets power back.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) One of the co-owners of Whiskey Street holds a flag that survived the fire and menu’s retrieved by the book store owner next door, as she looks at the aftermath of a fire that destroyed four businesses on Monday night along Main Street, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. The American flag survived the fire that destroyed Whiskey Street, White Horse, London Belle and Los Tapatios. The flag had been hanging on a wall of Whiskey Street since it opened in 2013.
The bar to the south of the bookstore, Bodega & The Rest, reported in an Instagram story that it suffered some “smoke-related impacts from a nearby incident,” and would be closed Tuesday.
Mother Café & Bar, a coffee shop set to open this month in the old Alibi space at 369 S. Main, wrote on Instagram that it “was spared, but others were not. We are beyond heartbroken for thse small business owners and their employees.” Mother’s owners said that “our priority is to help our neighbors rebuild this culture-heavy block.”
People at Takashi, a sushi restaurant on Market Street around the corner from the fire area, wrote on the restaurant’s Instagram that they also were “heartbroken” over the fire. “Sending love during this incredibly difficult time,” Takashi’s note added.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jason LeCates, one of the managing partners of Whiskey Street and the White Horse on Main Street in Salt Lake City, reacts to the damage from a fire the night before on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
Reactions to the damage
Kathy and Don Berry, from Salt Lake City, came to Main Street to see the aftermath of the fire — after they made sure their granddaughter, who lives in the area, was OK.
The Berrys said they were not regulars at any of the bars, but had visited before. They looked at the blackened debris in what once were the bars’ outdoor seating areas, and wondered what the fire meant for the block and the city’s history.
“It’s so sad, because it’s a lot of nostalgia,” Kathy Berry said. “There didn’t used to be all the malls around, and so we shopped down here. … It can never be the same."
Lindsey Welker, from West Jordan, said she has been going to Whiskey Street and White Horse since they opened — and her favorite meal is the short rib dinner with an old-fashioned. She said she knows some of the Bourbon Group owners, who have supported fundraisers she has done for multiple sclerosis.
“We know how much blood, sweat, and tears went into building these beautiful bars, and they were truly the heart and soul of Main Street,” Welker said in an email.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Charley Perry, owner of Eva which sits next door to businesses that burned along Main Street in Salt Lake City, says “I think we’re ok,” despite the catastrophic damage to the businesses of London Belle, Whiskey Street, White Horse and Los Tapatios, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
How the fire was fought
Lieb said Tuesday that firefighters were dispatched to respond to a fire in London Belle’s kitchen at about 8:40 p.m. Monday.
Firefighters who first arrived at the scene, Lieb said, made sure everyone was evacuated. They also found smoke between the building’s ceiling and roof.
By 9:42 p.m., a third alarm was called for the fire. Ultimately, he said, about 78 firefighters responded.
A normal attack, from the inside and on top of the building, wasn’t safe, Lieb said. Firefighters faced poor visibility, high heat, intense smoke and limited space, he said.
“We were quite fortunate that we were able to stop the fire where we did,” he said. Given the fire’s speed, available fuel and intensity, he said he believes firefighters did a “tremendous job.”
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The fire “took out a half-block of the most vibrant part of downtown,” an area with a storied history, said Tom Love, president of Love Communications, an amateur Salt Lake City historian, and chairman of The Salt Lake Tribune’s board of directors.
Brigham Young named the area “Whiskey Street,” Love said, because of its reputation for alcohol and other vices.
“It has long housed bars, pool halls, gambling dens, prostitution and everything the mining industry brought to Utah, including enormous wealth,” he said. It’s no coincidence, he said, the bars are surrounded by such iconic buildings as Exchange Place and the Judge Building.
Tribune reporting intern Samantha Moilanen contributed to this report.
Correction • 10:30 p.m., Aug. 12, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect the correct owners of Los Tapatios.