NY Post – November 06, 2014
by Matthew Abrahams
This may be the most elegant fire ever.
Customers at the posh Upper East Side restaurant Il Mulino jumped up from their saltimbocca and dry-aged porterhouse to run for the door when a blaze broke out during lunch service Wednesday.
The fire started in the basement of the East 60th Street bistro at 1:10 p.m., and quickly billowed smoke among the white-cloth-covered tables of the dining room.
Coughing foodies dropped their forks and evacuated.
“It was like fire drill,” said Pernell Wright, superintendent of the building that houses Il Mulino. “They got everybody out of there.”
The alarmed epicureans hung around near the door to see if they could return to their gourmet meals or if their favorite boite would wind up charbroiled.
The full extent of the fire became apparent, however, when a worker opened a smoking sidewalk grate that leads to the basement.
“When they opened the grate, flames came out,” said Wright. “They started running away [from the building.]”
Some 60 firefighters soon arrived and knocked down the fire, which left two people, an employee and a resident of an apartment above Il Mulino, suffering smoke inhalation, an FDNY fire marshal said.
Philippe Delgrange, 62, the owner of a nearby restaurant, described a harrowing scene as the FDNY plucked the resident of the building to safety.
“There was one girl upstairs, so they tried to get her with the ladder. But she was too scared [to climb out the window], so they had to go inside and get her,” he said.
The restaurant’s general manager, Michael Greco, said, “We don’t know the cause yet.”
Workers, however, said they believe it started in some trash. The FDNY is still investigating.
Il Mulino will be closed until at least next week, Greco said.
“This is all new to us,” he said.
The eatery is one of New York’s most highly regarded Italian restaurants, with a Zagat score of 25 out of 30 for food. That rating puts it on the border between “excellent” and “extraordinary,” according to Zagat.
The restaurant has an A grade from the city health department.
Delgrange said Il Mulino’s owners are “very nice people.”
“When I first opened the restaurant, they were over here every day to see how they could help,” he said.
Additional reporting by Natasha Velez and David K. Li
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