Crime & Safety

Extravagant Midtown Restaurant Shed Is Engulfed In Flames

Dramatic video showed the $400,000 outdoor dining structure at a popular Midtown bistro being consumed by fire early Wednesday.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — An ornate outdoor dining shed at a popular Midtown restaurant was engulfed in flames early Wednesday, forcing firefighters to come extinguish the blaze.

The elaborate dining enclosure outside Quality Bistro, on West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, caught fire just after 4 a.m. Wednesday, the FDNY confirmed.

Dramatic video posted to Twitter showed flames shooting out of the eastern side of the structure, which was covered in fake ivy and enclosed on three sides.

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The Quality Bistro dining shed as it appeared before the fire. (Google Maps)

Quality Bistro had spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to build the structure, which consisted of 14 "private cabins," CEO Michael Stillman told Eater NY last year — an investment that seemed to go up in smoke within minutes on Wednesday.

The neighboring dining shed across the street at Estiatorio Milos also caught fire, according to the Twitter user, posting under the username "James's House." The two sheds sit just a few feet apart, separated by one lane of car traffic.

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The fire was put out by 4:26 a.m., an FDNY spokesperson said. No injuries were reported.

An FDNY spokesperson could not say whether criminality was suspected, saying only that fire marshals were investigating the cause.


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