Community rallies after Old Packinghouse fire

Click here to visit the GoFundMe page to support JR’s Old Packinghouse Cafe.

Five days after a six-alarm fire engulfed a historic warehouse and nearly destroyed his restaurant, Jr’s Old Packinghouse Cafe owner J.R. Guarraus sits on its porch with a smile.

The iconic cafe, which Garraus has owned for 18 years, is without power and closed for at least three months. The back office and storage area are in ruins, and myriad restaurant supplies strewn about in a sea of gnarled metal and charred wood.

But a neighbor has found Greasy the cat, the cafe’s unofficial mascot, alive and well. And the nearby business community has rallied to help Garraus and his employees while the restaurant is closed.

Creative Technology of Sarasota donated a banner with fundraising information and the owner of Kimal Lumber & Supplies stopped by to offer any wood for renovations. Other business owners and regular customers continue to stream in to offer help.

“Everybody’s stopped by,” Garraus said. “It’s huge.”

Employees have launched a GoFundMe page with a goal of $50,000 to rebuild the restaurant. 

“The money raised through GoFundMe will be used to hire contractors, electricians and other professionals needed to repair and rebuild the structure,” the fundraising page states.

Lost history

Though Garraus’ cafe was only damaged in the fire, the warehouse, known as the historic Old Packinghouse, was completely destroyed. With it, antiques and historical artifacts from nearly a century ago were also ruined.

Sam Fleischer, nicknamed the “Celery King,” built the warehouse in the 1940s as the production of celery boomed in the Fruitville area, according to the Sarasota County Property Appriaser’s website and documents provided by Sarasota County Historical Resources Digital Preservationist Larry Kelleher.

The Celery Fields are now a wetland and popular eco-tourism location.