Popular SF bakery Reem’s temporarily closes after oven explosion: ‘Damages beyond repair’

Popular San Francisco bakery Reem’s California has made the decision to shut down for the remainder of the month after its central oven exploded early Wednesday morning, “creating damages beyond repair,” owner and chef Reem Assil wrote in a statement.

“The five employees who were present were thankfully not in the crossfire of the explosion and were unharmed,” continued the statement. “They demonstrated tremendous leadership acting swiftly to localize the damage.”

The cause of the incident is unknown, though it has forced the bakery’s San Francisco location to cease all takeout and delivery at a time when such services are just barely keeping the restaurant industry going.

Reem’s made history as the city’s first full-fledged Arab bakery when it moved into the former Mission Pie space at 2901 Mission Street. Assil previously helmed a few successful pop-up events there featuring her own flatbreads, which were known as Man’oushe Mondays. Her new bakery opened to the public in March, just six days before the shelter-in-place order forced it to shutter again. 
 
Over the next couple of weeks, Reem’s says it will invest in cross-training and staff development as it assesses the damages to the building and the cost to replace the incinerated deck oven. Employees will be paid until the bakery finds a way to safely reopen in 2021.

Though Assil noted hundreds of thousands of independent eateries nationwide have closed for good during the pandemic, she doesn’t count her own restaurants among them just yet.

“We know the threat of this fate is real, but we are committed to building resilience across our restaurants so that we can pave a different path and tell a different story,” wrote Reem’s.

In the meantime, the bakery will continue to operate from its original Fruitvale outpost in Oakland, which earlier this year transformed into a commissary kitchen, providing hundreds of free meals to East Bay residents affected by the pandemic. Now, they’ll use the space to prepare holiday meal kits, which can be pre-ordered on their website. Reem’s also recently launched an online merch store, selling T-shirts, posters and gift cards to bolster support during an already challenging time.

“No material thing can replace the value of the lives of essential workers who put their bodies on the line to keep our community fed and nourished,” wrote Reem’s. “We are proud of our team for handling a stressful and scary moment and see this as a moment to invest in our collective healing.”

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