When I was young, I never needed anyone...

Hatfield restaurant burns in 'Holy Smoke'
Posted by The Republican Newsroom June 21, 2007 07:56AM

HATFIELD - An early morning fire has apparently destroyed the Holy Smokes BBQ and Whole Hog House restaurant on Routes 5 and 10, state police said today.

The call for help came into state police at 3:30 a.m., according to state police in Northampton, whose barracks are one mile south of the restaurant.

The restaurant, on a section of the state highway known as West Street, appears to be completely burned out, he said.

Traffic is flowing slowly through a single lane on that section of Route 5 as firefighters continue to work at the scene, he said.

Besides the Hatfield Fire Department, firefighters from Northampton, Sunderland, Whately, and Deerfield helped to battle the blaze, police said.

The restaurant opened two years ago, and has earned a reputation for barbecued ribs.

State police said the place appears to have been destroyed by the fire. He said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Housed in a deconsecrated church, Holy Smokes is run by partners Seth Crawford, Leslie and Lou "Papalu" Ekus.

The restaurant, at the corner of Church Street in West Hatfield, featured pews, recycled as parts of dining-room booths and oversized pig sculptures overhead.

Last year a fire burned down my friend's restaurant, A Bottle Of Bread, and we are all still recovering from it. It was a place people loved. I remember when I first moved to the area Sal and I would go and sit on the porch and be a family by the Deerfield River with the future bright bright bright. Sal and Frank and I went to Thanksgiving there before the fire...just weeks before the Dec 2005 fire and it was a happy happy time.



Well, the brave proprietress of A Bottle is now brushing off her chinos and putting a new restaurant together here in Greenfield which is almost reason enough to stay in the area. Bravo, Maggie. But then today I saw this horrible news about another one of my favorite restaurants being struck down. (see above news clipping)

I haven't been to Holy Smokes since the break up. F + I would go there almost every fortnight if not more often. The whole place stunk of our relationship so I was never quite able to recoup my ownership of the barbeque joint. Now, I see that it is burned down and I had never gone back. I miss it.

When I was a kid, my parents decided to move from the city of Syracuse into the suburbs of North Syracuse and they were very excited about their favorite restaurant being nearby their new home. A week before we all relocated to the suburbs, the place burned down.

Is it me?