South Metro Fire & Rescue
Audio By Carbonatix
Sometimes you cook with fire. Sometimes the fire cooks you.
Three restaurants remain closed this week due to varying levels of damage following a fire at the strip-mall location they share at 2020 South Parker Road, just northwest of the Iliff intersection. The affected restaurants are House of Bread & Pastries, an Armenian bakery that appeared on the 2024, 2022 and 2021 Best of Denver awards lists, as well as Gyros & Kebab and a Blackjack Pizza.
Chopstix Fusion, which closed temporarily, is back open today, September 24, and so is the nearby Taco DF; neither suffered any structural damage in the fire. Chopstix is on our current 100 Best Restaurants list and was named Best Custom Cake Shop Serving Hong Kong Eats (what a combo!) in the 2025 Best of Denver.
The fire broke out early on Saturday, September 20. South Metro Fire & Rescue and members of the Aurora Fire Department and Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office were on the scene between 1 and 3:30 a.m. battling the blaze. No injuries were reported.
According to South Metro, the fire began in the kitchen at Gyros & Kabab, where flames were reported shooting out of the roof. That restaurant was heavily damaged, with boarded-up windows and charred walls and ceiling. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation by South Metro.
The neighboring Blackjack Pizza, which is one of the few Blackjack locations that serves halal toppings, also suffered notable damage and remains closed. Other restaurants suffered less damage, mostly lingering smoke. But because all power, water and gas to the entire complex has been shut off, the businesses had to temporarily close.
South Metro Fire & Rescue
While their structures may not have suffered much damage, the products and ingredients in some restaurants at the time of the fire had to be discarded due to smoke contamination and the loss of refrigeration. In an interview aired on FOX31 the morning after the fire, House of Bread owner Allan Torosyan noted he suffered thousands of dollars in losses from product contamination alone.
“You can always plan ahead, but you don’t know what lies ahead,” he said. “Something like this can completely turn everything upside down.”
This is the second strip-mall fire to affect local restaurants in recent weeks. On August 14, three other restaurants located ten miles away in Centennial were forced to close after being declared uninhabitable by building inspectors following a fire in the strip mall where they were located. Two of those restaurants — Baker’s Inn and Bawarchi Biryani Point — remain closed today, though Bawarchi is currently offering takeout and delivery from its food truck, which is parked at the location. ViVi Pho has reopened following renovations.
That fire began in the Bawarchi kitchen and spread to the roof, according to South Metro. No information has been released on what caused that fire, either, but as of now, no suspicious activity is suspected.
