Pismo Beach Restaurant Gutted by Fire

A fire nearly destroyed a well-known Pismo Beach restaurant early this morning .

Giuseppe’s Cucina Italiana in Pismo Beach is described by locals as a popular restaurant for dinner, drinks, banquets and weddings.

Fire officials say the fire broke out just after 2 a.m.

“I was here last night yea I locked up about 1:15, 1:30,” manager of Giuseppe’s Cucina Italiana Aurash Afshar said.

Aurash Afshar is the manager of Giuseppe’s Cucina Italiana in Pismo Beach – a long-standing local family restaurant. He found himself quickly back at work around 2:30 Saturday morning as firefighters did their best to salvage the building – that’s stood since the 20’s.

“You know it’s devastating for everyone, the family is completely devastated,” Afshar said.

Giuseppe’s has been in business here for over 28 years – they plan to rebuild.

“The outpouring of support from the community has been tremendous, I was expecting that but not quite as much as we’ve been getting,” Afshar said.

Locals are shocked.

“I eat at Giusepps’s about two or three times a month, so I’m going to miss it a lot..a lot,” family friend Robin Mccurdy said.

Family friend of the business Robin Mccurdy says this is a tight-knit restaurant.

“Good bar and good family people and we love each other, a lot,” Mccurdy said.

The cause is still unknown but firefighters say it appears to be accidental and not considered suspicious. The building is insured – the damage estimated in the millions. One firefighter was injured but is expected to be okay.

“It received a lot of fire damage but buildings that were built in the 20’s are extremely strong so we’re hoping they can salvage a lot of this building,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Tom Mcewen said.

“All these people here to support us, so it’s really nice,” Afshar said.

Afshar says the one good thing out of this terrible fire is that the banquet room was untouched and that all their weddings and events this summer will carry on as scheduled.