Rocky Clemens, owner of Gordy's Sub Pub, offered $5,000 today for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals believed to have set his restaurant ablaze early Saturday morning.
Warsaw Fire Department has yet to officially rule the fire an arson as of this morning.
At 12:59 a.m. Saturday, police and fire crews were dispatched to the restaurant at the corner of Winona Avenue and Buffalo Street.Original reports from the scene had the fire coming out of one dumpster behind Gordy's.
Warsaw Fire Department Chief Mike Rice confirmed this morning that, in fact, two dumpsters were set on fire. Fire crews originally were dispatched to a fire at a dumpster near the Chamber of Commerce building adjacent to Gordy's.
When Warsaw Police Department officer Brandon Zartman arrived, he discovered that a second dumpster behind Gordy's was on fire. That fire ran up a utility pole next to the restaurant and then caught the building's roof on fire.
Eyewitnesses at the scene said they observed several juveniles near the dumpster at the time of the blaze. Those juveniles then fled the scene.
Around that same time, a group of juveniles nearby were arrested for underage drinking. An ATF-trained dog was brought in to sniff the juveniles for accelerants, though none were found. This led to speculation that those arrests were made in connection with the fire at Gordy's.
Rice also confirmed that three weeks ago, there were several reports of dumpster fires in the vicinity of Gordy's.
Clemens has owned Gordy's since buying it from Bruce Shaffner in 1990.
The building started out as the Village Inn Pizza Parlor in the 1960s. In 1971, Beecher Wiggins, father of Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins, added the well-known A-frame structure to the building. He also added the upper floor of the building that became known as The Top Of The Inn.
After Shaffner purchased the building from Wiggins, the upstairs became a Mexican restaurant called Tumbleweeds, with the downstairs renamed Shaffner's Pizza Parlor.
Shaffner, who owned the building for nearly 10 years, changed the name to Ruben James' Gathering Place before selling it to Clemens.
Gordy's Sub Pub originally was located on West Center Street, where the Downtown Eatery and Spirits, is now.
According to Clemens, Beecher Wiggins is expected to go to the business to overlook the damage.
More than 20 people are now out of a job with the closing of Gordy's.
Gordy's Sub Pub was one of only a handful of locally owned and operated restaurants in the city.
Gordy's was also one of a few of businesses in town with a three-way liquor license, despite the fact that beer or liquor isn't sold at Gordy's.
