ORANGE TOWNSHIP -- Some regular customers of a well-known restaurant returned Monday, one day after the place was destroyed.
On Sunday, we told you about an early morning fire in Columbia County that destroyed The Creekside Family Restaurant.
The people we found at the restaurant near Bloomsburg Monday not only had memories of the food, but also of the people who worked there and of the treasured memoribilia inside.
A charred shell is all that's left of the Creekside Family Restaurant just off Route 487 near Bloomsburg. Fire tore through the building early Sunday morning, burning the walls and destroying everything inside. It's a sight that's tough for owner Rod Kile to see.
"It's really going to be sad and missed. Devastated," said owner Rod Kile.
It was a restaurant the owner says attracted people from all over the East Coast, including Sandra and Richard Elderkin from Massachusetts. They were visiting relatives in the area and stopped by to lend support.
"The ribs were unbelieveable. I never eat ribs any other place, massachusetts or here because they were so good," said Sandra Elderkin, of Attleboro, Massachusetts.
The owner says what he's going to miss most about this restaurant is all of the memorabilia he had inside, things he'd been collecting for decades that are now gone forever.
"It would be very, very hard, if not impossible, to gather the stuff that I lost in here because I had stuff like you wouldn't believe," said Kile.
Stuff such as the entire collection of Hess trucks, Yankees memorbilia, and old toy train set.
Because of the loss, Kile still doesn't know if he'll rebuild. But some regulars, including Richard Elderkin, say even if he does, it will never be the same.
"Dream went up. He lost everything he had. I feel sorry for him you know? Can't rebuild it. Anything you lose like that, you can't rebuild it," said Richard Elderkin, of Attleboro, MA.
Officials ruled the fire an accident, but still don't know exactly how it started. Again, the owner has not yet decided if he will reopen or rebuild the restaurant.