New look, same taste: Palmer area Chinese restaurant reopens after fire

PALMER — Burger Jim has been closed for 37 days. But starting July 5, the Palmer area restaurant that fuses classic American hamburgers with Chinese food will be open with a new look, but the same taste.

The restaurant, located at the corner of N. Stringfield Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, was remodeled after a fire started from an overworked electrical outlet that two coolers were plugged into while no one was working on May 28. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and employees got to work the very next morning to get a head start on the new and improved Burger Jim.

Restaurant owner Ronald Tzou said that just to replace the two coolers and the outlet cost upwards of $10,000. Tzou’s father, who owns the building, has been dealing with the insurance companies since the fire, and cannot put a number value on the damage to the building. Through the hard work of dedicated employees, the restaurant will reopen with a new look.

The dining room ceiling has been raised, painted, and new lighting has been installed. A new wall separates the kitchen from the dining room, offering cooks and wait staff more privacy. The front desk has been resituated and painted, and the kitchen has been repainted. New coolers have been installed, and after all the work that has gone into remodeling the restaurant after the fire on Memorial Day Weekend, the employees and the customers are ready for the reopen.

“It was chaotic,” said Tzou.

Tzou was in Oregon at the time of the fire and recalls taking upwards of 20 phone calls back-to-back explaining what had happened to the restaurant. Tzou started in the restaurant business straight out of college, and said he hasn’t had a break from cooking this long since. He has not been entirely out of the kitchen, as Tzou and Jason Yim opened Seoul Casa, a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant across from the Dimond Center in Anchorage at the beginning of June.

Employees were scrubbing the new floors and the front desk had just been painted on Monday. Most of the work remodeling had been completed and employees were anxious to get back to serving food.

“I’m excited to open,” said Haylee Duguid.

Tzou said restaurant employees started to do whatever they could as soon as possible.

“We started cleaning everything out as much as possible, whatever we could touch. I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Tzou of his cooks turned construction workers. “They definitely came through so much. I was busy opening up the new restaurant in Anchorage and Bernard [Tzou], Daniel [Brink] and Jason [Yim], they’re here every single day with my dad and the handy man. These guys are talented. Everyone’s universal over here. No one does one thing.”

Tzou said there was an outpouring of support from the community, asking how they could help and when the restaurant would reopen.

“I’m so thankful,” said Tzou.

With the new look inside the restaurant will also come the advent of new menu items. A gyro burger will be added to the menu along with other items. While the interior may look different and the menu may have some additions, Tzou doesn’t want to fix what isn’t broken.

“It’s the same taste, that’s the most important thing. I’m not changing up anything in the kitchen. It may look new but it’s going to be the same food,” said Tzou.

Tzou and his employees, however talented at reconstructing a restaurant, are looking forward to the day they open.

“We just want to have a positive attitude and be mentally prepared, “ Tzou said. “Nobody’s going to be lazy, especially all these main guys. They’ve been here every single day it’s all muscle memory.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.