Suspected arson forces Main Street eatery to close

Winnipeg police are investigating a suspected arson that forced the closure of a restaurant in the Exchange District.

The fire at Commonwealth Kitchen & Bar at 456 Main St. started around 5 a.m. Thursday.

The blaze was quickly contained but the building’s sprinkler system caused extensive flooding.

“The damage is quite horrific,” said owner Nikola Maharajh.

He said it appears a man used a brick or cinder block to smash three windows, before throwing something inside that lit a booth on fire. Part of the incident was captured on interior surveillance cameras.

The man left a shopping cart, which had a gasoline canister in it, outside the restaurant, said Maharajh.

The fire spread to a wall, but was quickly put out by the sprinkler system.

Firefighters arrived quickly and turned off the sprinklers, said Maharajh, but water flooded the main floor and basement.

“It flooded our basement in three, four inches of water — it was dripping through the ceiling, down the walls, all over electronics and everything in the basement,” said Maharajh.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service spokeswoman Erin Madden said crews were called to the restaurant by its monitored fire alarm at 4:56 a.m.

Maharajh has sent information to police, he said. No arrests have been announced, but investigators are probing the incident.

He said the restaurant will be ready to fully reopen in six to eight weeks, and may be able to partially reopen sooner.

“It looks like we have to replace the ceiling, the walls and the floors in the basement, and then some of the floors probably on the main floor, as well as a few other things,” said Maharajh.

He opened Commonwealth Kitchen & Bar in 2024 in the former Bank of Toronto building. The three-storey building, a designated historic site, was built between 1905 and 1907, the Manitoba Historical Society says.

The building once housed Mexican eatery La Carnita, which shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca