Bread and Water Company reopens in Belle View Shopping Center

November 8, 2019 Business and Development
The four men with arms around each other and smiling
Joel Bez, Guy Fernandez, Hamed Ba, and Bread and Water Company owner Markos Andreas Panas pose for a picture inside the bakery/cafe on Thursday. Bez came from Florida commercial equipment company to help with over repairs. (Bread and Water Company image)

Bread and Water Company reopened on Friday morning, a little more than two weeks after it was damaged by a fire at the Belle View Shopping Center.

The popular bakery/cafe said on Facebook that all their ovens were “back up to capacity” and that the location would be open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

One of more than a dozen businesses forced to close for repairs after the October 21 fire, Bread and Water Company said it will have a limited menu as they continue to get back on their feet, the Facebook post said.

“In order to start we had to limit ourselves to coffees, pastries and breads only for tomorrow, and we are still in the process of some furniture, equipment and wall menu placement etc.,” the post said. “The kitchen is scheduled to resume [Saturday] morning with a menu of many (but quite possibly not all) of our staple offerings.”

Bread & Water Company was able to regain limited use of their ovens late last week, allowing them to bake goods to sell at the Old Town Alexandria and Burke Farmers Markets last weekend.

Front of business at night, with boarded up entrances of cleaners and Yido Ramen & Sushi in the middle
Yido Ramen & Sushi and the Belleview Cleaners are seen boarded up last week after the fire.

The October 21 fire at the shopping center caused more than $5.8 million in damage, according to the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department. The fire began only a few doors down from Bread and Water Company, but previous postings on Facebook indicated that bakery/cafe had managed to avoid the severe damage other businesses at the center suffered.

At least seven other businesses at the shopping center remain closed — Yido Ramen & Sushi, the Belleview Cleaners, Eagle and Empire, GolfTec, Roy Rogers, Wine & Design, and Spokes Etc. Eagle and Empire has indicated on Facebook that they are hoping to reopen soon, but the rest of the businesses appear to be closed indefinitely.

Two other popular businesses in the shopping center, Dunkin’ Donuts and Dishes of India, reopened at the beginning of this week.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although the fire department did say that it started in the kitchen of one of the businesses. The fire department did not name the business; the two tenants with the worst damage are Yido Ramen and Sushi and the Belleview Cleaners.