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The bakery and greenhouse of Eli's Vinegar Factory, an Upper East Side oasis/grocery, of delectable food, burned down last night due to a five-alarm fire. The fire started in an oven and spread to the rest of the bakery and rooftop greenhouse, and the fact that the fire was also in the crawl space made it difficult for firefighters to extinguish it - causing it to become a five-alarm blaze. Owner Eli Zabar said that, fortunately, no one was hurt. The store where the baked goods and produce from the bakery and greenhouse was unharmed, but The Vinegar Factory will be closed in the meantime.
The Times article has detail on The Vinegar Factory itself; Gothamist thinks that the information that The Vinegar Factory's pizza's dough was kneaded in the bakery and the pizza's tomatoes were grown in the greenhouse will make Slice sad. The Vinegar Factory is a great place for brunch, so we hope it's back up soon.
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I live in the heart of Yorkville, on a floor in the high teens with a balcony that faces Northeast. Shortly after dark last night, I smelled what at first I took to be a pleasant fireplace-type fire; soon, however, notes of burning oil suggested otherwise. I went to my balcony and saw a huge black cloud, perceptible against the evening sky, and heard the fire alarms. At no time during the fire was I able to find out anything about it on the Web. (I didn't expect Gothamist to report it on a Sunday night.)
Although no one was burned by the fire, I daresay that at least several elderly people with respiratory problems were affected by the thick, black smoke.
I was at a friend's place two blocks away on 89th and 1st at the time. Didn't even hear the fire trucks. He was bummed to learn that the Factory was gone only the next day.