Mason Scioneaux
On Wednesday, the City of Oxford announced that the sidewalk and on-street parking in front of 208 S. Lamar — the building space most recently occupied by Stella Restaurant — would be closed, citing “structural concerns and potential hazards to pedestrians.” Earlier this week, on Sunday, Oxford building officials required Fill-Up With Billups to close to customers pending a further inspection of the building’s safety.
The 208 S. Lamar location was in the process of being renovated into a New Orleans-themed po’boy restaurant with a rooftop rum bar before the city’s announcement. The hazard prompted the Courthouse Square Preservation Commission to schedule an emergency meeting this morning where they will decide whether or not to demolish the building, according to a report from the Oxford Eagle.
Fill-Up With Billups, the breakfast restaurant and bar on the Square, has been closed indefinitely by Oxford building official Chris Carter following an issue with the floor last weekend.
“In an abundance of caution for the public welfare, I felt that it was prudent to require further invasive evaluation before allowing the restaurant to resume operation,” Carter said in a statement.
Oxford Police Department (OPD) Chief Jeff McCutchen contacted Carter early Sunday morning with reports of a loud popping sound in the restaurant, which remained open until 2 a.m. that day. OPD noted “deflection and sponginess” in a public use area of the floor. Deflection is an unlevel surface caused by structural strain, and sponginess indicates a floor that does not have adequate support.
Carter evaluated the restaurant, but he could not access the underside of the floor to determine whether there is any structural damage. He has requested access from the restaurant to examine under the floor and determine the cause of the issue.
“(How soon the restaurant can reopen) depends entirely on (the owners of the restaurant),” Carter said. “I don’t want these guys to (be) shut down any longer than they absolutely have to be. If I could’ve figured out a way to keep it safe for the public, I wouldn’t have closed them to start with.”
Carter, who has the final say to allow the restaurant to reopen, will inspect the damages again with a structural engineer to determine what must be done, and again after the repairs, to ensure they were sufficient for public use. He suspects the issue is the floor joists, which support the floor above the basement, and if the problem is not severe, he said it can be repaired in about a week. Floor joist repairs can range from a few hundred dollars to $10,000.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 18 years,” Carter said. “This is the first time that I’ve had this come up.”
Phillip Acosta, an engineer with W. L. Burle Engineers, an engineering consultant firm in Oxford, said that because of this type of issue, it is difficult to make estimates about the severity of the damage.
“I think it’s probably one of things where you probably don’t know how bad it is until you get in there and look at it,” Acosta said.
Acosta said there are two possible issues: one with the soil, in which the ground under the restaurant is giving way, or a foundation issue, meaning that the structural integrity of the floor is giving way. If Carter is right about the floor joists, Acosta said, then it is most likely a foundation issue.
The owners of Fill-Up With Billups could not be reached by the time of publication.
