Landmark business to reopen after fire

Mural to be painted Saturday to hide evidence of September blaze

By :GREGORY FOLEY

Nearly three months to the day after a mysterious fire destroyed nearly an entire block of Main Street in Ketchum, one of the two businesses closed by the blaze will reopen.

The Sawtooth Club, a landmark bar and restaurant that was not destroyed but was damaged by the fire, will reopen Saturday, Dec. 13, from 3 to 6 p.m. for a Holiday Open House. The event will offer complimentary appetizers, egg nog, hot buttered rum, champagne, beer and wine. Those who attend are asked to bring a small monetary donation for the Blaine County Hunger Coalition.

Meanwhile, the Sawtooth Club, the Roosevelt Grille, Engelmann Construction and Webb Landscape, plus real estate agents Bob Kantor, John Sofro and George Kirk, are working together to erect a plywood fence along the sidewalk between the Sawtooth Club and Sotheby's Real Estate. On Saturday, Dec. 13, from noon to 5 p.m. young, local artists from area high schools will paint a "Winter Wonderland" mural on the fence. The mural is intended to hide the gap in the Main Street facade left when the fire destroyed Whiskey Jacques' saloon and the empty building that once housed Dirty Little Roddy's bar and nightclub.

The fire, which has been deemed suspicious but has not been solved by investigators, tore through the west side of Main Street on Sept. 15. There is a plan in place to rebuild Whiskey Jacques' in its existing location.