Three months after being engulfed in flames, the rubble of Social Gastropub still sits along Dixie Highway across from Levis Commons in Perrysburg, pending a resolution to a handful of investigations into how it got there.
“The investigation remains ongoing and we have no new details at this time to be released,” said Andy Ellinger, public information officer with the state fire marshal.
Marie Dunn, spokesman for the city of Perrysburg, added that insurance investigators are also still working at the site and determining associated costs on their end.
Crews were called to the restaurant, opened by retired football standout Bruce Gradkowski in 2013, on the afternoon of June 23. Then-Perrysburg Fire Chief Rudy Ruiz noted at the time that the fire appeared to have been started on the outside of the building, which was declared a total loss later that day.
Mr. Gradkowski did not respond to a request for an interview Monday.
Social sat along one of the busiest shopping, dining and overall business thoroughfares in the Toledo metropolitan area and local business are divided as to its legacy.
“It is definitely an eyesore,” said Jeff Pettit, owner of Artistic Memorials, which sits outside the Greentowne Plaza north of the Social site. “I walk down to Scramblers for lunch frequently so I cut through there. It is still stinky. I don’t know what the hold up is.”
Still, like many of his contemporaries, Mr. Pettit has confidence that the site can be refurbished, pointing to a continued interest in the area from groups such ProMedica. At the beginning of the year, it moved its ambulance service to an old Caterpillar dealer across Jefferson Street from his business.
Elsewhere, Agave & Rye, a Mexican restaurant chain with locations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee, is putting the finishing touches on a Levis Commons location directly across Dixie Highway from the Social site with eyes on opening in early November.
“It is a great location, they just have to clean up what is there,” Mr. Pettit said. “I don’t know if they could get that size of a building back in there because when you tear something down, a lot of times there will be zoning codes but this is definitely a happening area.”
Mindy Snow, co-owner of Snow’s Wood Shop, which sits just south of the Social site, took a softer stance on the site’s appearance.
“I never thought about it like that,” Mrs. Snow said on the existing rubble being a potential eyesore. “Every time I go by there I just figure they are working things out with the insurance company. To me it does not seem like it has been there for that long.”
Mrs. Snow said she ate at Social a few times, and it stuck in her mind as a unique place. She said her main concern was for the human effects of the tragedy and of the jobs lost.
“I really feel bad for everyone that worked there,” she said. “I just hope that they have gotten things worked out.”
The fallout from the fire is being felt inside Levis Commons too.
Maddie Batu, an employee at Shimmery Belle Boutique inside the outdoor mall, was quick to point out she was working the day of the fire and that as someone who commutes from Bowling Green, she drives by the burned-out site often.
“There is so many businesses around here, and that just looks like a disaster,” Ms. Batu said. “It is kind of sad to look at.”
Even so, Ms. Batu also remains hopeful that construction can begin anew on the site for whatever uses there might be.
“I always heard really good things about Social,” she said. “I think they could definitely put that restaurant back in there or even another restaurant.”
First Published September 19, 2022, 9:46 p.m.
