Three days after the Eaton fire destroyed his Altadena home, Leo Bulgarini walked his reservation, passing boarded-up houses and gutted businesses, to check on his restaurant.
As he approached the corner of Altadena Drive and Lake Avenue, about halfway through his innocent home, he quickly noticed a quirky bunny litter and an open bike shop. It was less than a football field away from his restaurant and gelateria, Bulgarini vino Cucina.
He expected his business to meet the same fate.
That’s not the case.
He was arrested in the courtyard of the shopping center, where his restaurant was located.
“Why is my only business not burning?” He thought to himself. “Why is everything else burned to the ground?”
He felt a mixture of relief and helplessness.
Inside, a gelateria and restaurant appeared.
After that Bulgarini improved the smoke. He saw ashes on the ground. He saw water from the roof – possibly from firefighters trying to save the strip mall – entered the kitchen floor and some spilled from his gelato machine, possibly discriminating.
There was no power. There is no running water.
That’s when it clicked.
His restaurant survived the Eaton fire but may not survive the aftermath.
Leo Bulgini inside his Altadena restaurant and gelateria after the Eaton’s fire left his business standing but his neighbor’s nearly destroyed.
(Laurie Ochoa/Los Angeles Times)
Bulgarini is not alone. Several restaurants in Altadena survived the fire but, with so many of their customers dispersed, now they have to fight the next – the next next – which is related to the combination of cleaning costs, rent and other costs of operating businesses that are able to operate.
“It’s an open wound,” said Bulgarini of his neighborhood. “Most of the people here are gone. They’re not thinking about getting gelato with their family. They’re not here anymore. Their homes are gone.”
Bulgarini knows of at least 12 patrons of the restaurant lost in the fire. In Altadena alone, the blaze destroyed more than 9,400 buildings and injured more than a thousand.
He says: “I haven’t seen anyone come here and spend two hours at dinner. “This business has been pretty much dead for at least a year.”
Bugarini said that it is possible that he will temporarily move his restaurant to another place, maybe eagle rock or monrose. He’s kept the Altadena property but can’t imagine giving it up anytime soon. His restaurant, he said, can be used as a safe place to work or eat.
Across the yard from Bulgari’s, Nancy’s Greek Crequek and a nearby protest erupted again.
Owner Shawn ShakhMalian once successfully tried to break into his restaurant for days.
On Monday, he entered his cafe for the first time.
Inside, the restaurant remained dirty.
Shanhlalian donned an N95 mask as he walked through the kitchen and dining room, some of which were covered in dust and ash. The smell of smoke filled the air.
He didn’t ask me to open the fridge with ice. The business had lost power for several days and he didn’t want to let out the smell of processed food.
Shawn ShakhMalian, owner of Nancy’s Greek Cafe, says he doesn’t know when he will be able to reopen his Altadena restaurant and bakery.
(Cindy Carcamo/Los Angeles Times)
ShakhMalian said he lost at least $5,000 in food alone. He had no way to recover that loss, he said. Last year, he dropped his business insurance because the premium had doubled. He said he couldn’t afford it.
As of Monday, his cafe still had no running water and no electricity. He said he should wait for the officials to change their mind before bringing in a special team to clean up what he said would be ash and hazardous waste.
Before the fire, business had been slow at Nancy’s, Shanhlalian said. The restaurant, which is far from the road in the visible shopping section, is difficult to see.
“Now, everyone left,” he said, “it will be more difficult.”
But he doesn’t want to lose his employees, who are already looking for other jobs, he said. At least two of them – including his cook – lost their homes in the fire.
Shanhlalian said he planned to open two to four months after receiving power and water but said it could lead to “a period of loss.”
“There’s a lot of debt to reopen, to deal with payroll and rent,” he said, “but no customers.”
Meanwhile, ShaphMalia started a gofundme to help rebuild her business.
Bulgarni spent three days cleaning its restaurant, throwing away spoiled meat, fish, pasta and 2,300 pounds of handmade gelato. He calculates that he has lost $100,000 worth of food because of the special ingredients he uses and all the hours of work it takes to make his gelato and pasta from scratch.
His lobster sauce takes three days to reduce before it’s ready.
Among the few food items that survived were his nut intentions that he used with his frozen artisanal dessert with $1,200 worth of Parmesan.
Bulgarini, born and raised in Rome, first learned how to make Gelato in Sicily. He opened Altadena Gelateria in 2006 and won praise from former food time critics Jonathan Gold and Patricia Eskárcega and food time category food category Amy Akesfood. He has built a following thanks to his reputation for creating Italian desserts from some of the finest ingredients. The nuts he uses come from Italy, such as Pristaching Pistachios from Sicily. He buys them directly from the nut growers, boils them and extracts the oil to make his gelato.
Leo Bulgarini holds his sampler outside Altadena Gelateria in 2007.
(Stefano Paltera / The Times)
The 55-year-old said he had insurance on his restaurant, which may cover his losses, but not all.
He started a gofundme to raise money to start over in a new location and support his staff until the Altadena restaurant can safely reopen.
Bulgalini takes issue with outsiders who believe he must be right because his restaurant is still standing when so many others have been put down.
“The Bulgarini is not good,” he said of his meal. “We’re not the victors at all in any of this. You’ve lost your home so you’ve lost your sanctuary and you’ve lost your business now because it won’t be there for a while. There’s no winner here.”
Bulgarini and ShakhMalia spent most of their days trying to secure aid and housing for themselves or their employees. They navigate through the paperwork required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance companies.
Bulgarini said he doesn’t really have time to mourn the loss of his home, a Spanish bungalow.
Leo Bulgarini in his area destroyed his home after the Eaton fire.
(Albert Lee/Los Angeles Times)
He and his wife, Elizabeth, are very busy, between finding a new place to open a restaurant and making arrangements to maintain some kind of normalcy for their 17-year-old son, Lorenzo.
Bulgarini completes my progress. He needs to work to pay his bills and keep his peace, he said.
But there are times – usually at night – when Bulgarini can’t help but feel down. Helplessness takes over and questions take over.
“Why don’t you do more?” He thinks to himself. “Why can’t you save your friend’s house?”
Over the years, he found it helpful to break out of this funk if he wrote down what he was thinking.
On Tuesday night, he put pencil to paper and wrote: “I’m still alive.”
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