Condo Association Sues Salt + Smoke Over CWE Fire

A new lawsuit accuses barbecue juggernaut Salt + Smoke of accidentally causing a catastrophic fire that ravaged nearly an entire block of the Central West End — and then failing to cover the costs of the condo association with whom it shared a building.

The lawsuit was filed January 12 in St. Louis Circuit Court on behalf of the Euclid East Condominium Association and several related limited liability companies and board members. They say they own 11 units in the building at Euclid and McPherson.

The suit says the fire was caused by the restaurant's "greasy rags" being placed in a cart "made of flammable cloth and plastic, and which contained flammable soiled linens." The cart was allegedly allocated just outside the restaurant in a common area of the building.

"Thereafter, the Greasy Rags that Euclid Salt + Smoke placed and stored as aforesaid combusted, caught fire and started a fire which spread to other portions of the Building, causing substantial destruction of and damage – including smoke damage – to the Building, with such destruction and damage extending to the condominium units within the Building as well as common areas," the suit alleges.

The fire that broke out in the wee hours of June 24, 2022 destroyed not only Salt + Smoke but also neighboring restaurants Mission Taco Joint and Ranoush, all of which sat on the same block of Euclid. Due to the extensive fire damage, none of the restaurants have yet to reopen.

The lawsuit was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Salt + Smoke owner Tom Schmidt told the daily he was disappointed by the suit but would not be commenting on it.

One month after the fire, the suit says, Schmidt's landlord, Rothschild Management LLC (also known as Red Brick Management) informed Salt + Smoke that they intended to rebuild and restore the building, so the restaurant's seven-year lease still remained in effect. The lease, they wrote, allowed 180 days to do so.

However, in January, Salt + Smoke informed the company that the time had passed, the building had not been rebuilt and the lease was now terminated.

The suit alleges that, under terms of the lease, if damage was caused by the tenant, the "tenant shall pay landlord the difference between the actual cost of rebuilding and any insurance proceeds received by landlord." The suit says the actual cost of rebuilding "substantially exceeds" the insurance funds.

The condo association and its related parties are now suing Euclid Salt + Smoke LLC and Schmidt Restaurant Group for breach of lease and negligence. They're also suing Schmidt as an individual, saying he signed a personal guaranty for the lease.

The suit was filed by Gerald P. Greiman of Spencer Fane LLP.

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