Cheesecake Factory in Novi reopens after fire

Novi — A popular restaurant at Twelve Oaks Mall reopened Monday afternoon, nearly 12 hours after an early morning kitchen fire slightly damaged the eatery.

The Cheesecake Factory has all of its cheesecakes available, but there will be a limited food menu Monday, said Shelby Morrison, operations support technician for the restaurant.

“We’re making a few repairs,” she said. “Since it’s our prep kitchen we weren’t able to get any new items prepped for today. Tomorrow we should be 100 percent operational.”

The fire at the Cheesecake Factory reportedly occurred at about 5:30 a.m.

“The problem was with a small gas line in the kitchen, which failed,” said Sheryl Walsh, Novi director of communications. “Workers had previously turned off the exhaust system in the kitchen in order to do maintenance. The morning crew was unaware of the shutdown and turned on the burners on the kitchen range.”

Walsh said the heat build up from the range caused the gas line to fail.

“However, the fire suppression system put out the majority of the fire,” Walsh said. “The manager of the restaurant put out the rest.”

According to Walsh, no other part of the restaurant, or the mall, was damaged by the fire.

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