The Atlanta Fire Department responded to a rooftop fire at University Barbershop and The Crazy Coffee Company early Monday morning after some Clark Atlanta University football players noticed smoke.
The two businesses are located on the corner of James P. Brawley Drive and Martin Luther King Jr Drive, near the end of a pedestrian street often referred to as "The Promenade" or "The Strip."
Terrance "Tee" Barron, owner of University Barbershop, said the fire department told him that the fire started in the coffee shop's back panel where the power comes in the electric box. Barron said he arrived at the scene at about 6:30 a.m. and discovered roof, smoke and water damages.
Barron declined to comment if any legal action would be taken against The Crazy Coffee Company. "The insurance people will handle everything that's going on," he said.
Representatives of The Crazy Coffee Company were not available for comment. Currently, the doors and windows of the coffee shop are boarded with plywood.
Barron hopes to reopen his business by January 2008. In July 2006, the barbershop closed for renovation and reopened with a new ceiling, bathroom, walls and work stations.
The business also added new upholstery to its vintage chairs, which may have suffered from the fire. For safety reasons, Barron has been unable to evaluate all of the shop's damages. The shop reopened about two months later in September—just in time to serve the returning students who make up over half of the shop's clientele.
Barron was eager to share the importance of the barbershop on campus and in The West End.
"This is where you come—you socialize and you learn to work with your peers. I can't really describe it, but you do learn," he said. "You don't just learn how to cut hair at University Barbershop, you learn how to be a business man or a business woman."
Barron said the full service barbershop and salon is not only a place for students, but for Atlanta natives and visitors of the community. Since the shop opened over 50 years ago, it has serviced individuals from Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali to Judge Greg Mathis and The Atlanta Hawk's Joe Johnson.
"We're not leaving. We've been here since 1956," he said. "We've been a mainstay in the AUC and in the neighborhood."
