Hi-Ball Restaurant rises from the ashes of the Stadium Shopping Centre fire

Calgary restaurant rises from the ashes The Hi-Ball Restaurant is back in business after it was destroyed in the Stadium Shopping Centre fire. Shaun Frenette has more.

The Hi-Ball restaurant has re-opened for business a year after a fire destroyed their location at the Stadium Shopping Centre.

The Hi-Ball had been at a staple of the Stadium Shopping Centre for 20 years but is now doing brisk business at is new location at 16 Avenue and Home Road Northwest.

The multi-million dollar fire at the Stadium Shopping Centre destroyed six businesses and damaged several others on November 12, 2015 but the Phui family decided the very next day they were going to rebuild.

David Phui says that’s when the real work began.

“It was very hard to find a new location,” he says.

They looked at four or five place before they found a place to settle.

“We wanted to stay around our regular customers so sticking around the university and the Foothills Hospital,” says Phui. “It was really hard to find a location that would fit us.

It was also a costly venture; insurance paid for some of the costs but the Phui family spent hundreds of thousands making this happen.

“It took us months to find out what we need, where we wanted, and construction to redevelop how we want everything. It was a very hard struggle,” says Phui.

However, the family says all the hard work has been worth it.

“We had a lot of regular customers come in and welcome us and people sending us flowers to wish us good luck,” says Phui.

One of those happy customers is Lorraine Doig who made a point of coming to the Hi-ball for her birthday.

“We’ve been waiting. We’re just ecstatic and it’s been a long year,” says Doig. “We’ve tried other places but nothing like the Hi-Ball.”

Joyce Lee couldn’t agree more saying it was a family tradition to come to the restaurant.

“We went there all the time,” says Lee. “I remember as a teenager my parents took me to the Hi-Ball.”

The cause of the fire has not been determined and the Calgary Fire Department says it may be one of those cases where they never find the cause.

Another popular business, The Cat House, was also destroyed in the fire and the pet supply store is still trying to find a suitable location to re-open.