"It's like I lost a home, and there's a lot of family I can't see right now," said owner Ben Barrow. "But we're going to rebuild - we'll restore it, make it better."
The soul food kitchen that stood for 30 years at the corner of 135th Street and Lenox Avenue - a favorite of Bill Clinton and P. Diddy, and featured in the music video for Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name" - was gutted by fire early yesterday morning.
FDNY officials believe the blaze started near a grease-filled deep fryer in the heart of the kitchen.
Investigators said the fat-soaked machine had been left on after the diner closed at 10 p.m., and about four hours later ignited. The flames fueled a fire that melted the diner's Formica counters and linoleum floors.
"I don't know what to think right now," Barrow said. "I'm worried about a lot and I don't know if this was done on purpose."
Barrow has three years left on his lease and is hoping to extend it for 10 more after investing time and money in a planned 45-seat expansion. His plan was to allow outdoor dining at the restaurant, which sits on an increasingly desirable patch of real estate.
"Now everything is gone - and I am at a loss to know when I'll be back," Barrow said.
A long line of faithful customers kicked through shards of broken coffee cups and shattered plates outside the eatery early yesterday and begged Barrow to bring back the diner.
"Hopefully he rebuilds and it doesn't turn into a Starbucks," said Heyward Johnson, 46. "People love this place."
Millie Barretto, 30, said she sat in the diner every morning before work and had her favorite: French fries, waffles and wheat toast.
"This place meant a lot to all of us," Barretto said. "It's an old-fashioned place where if you were having a bad day, the waitresses could make you laugh."
Barrow said his 33 employees, now out of work, had kept the place running for 16 hours a day, every day, and "I'm going to do what I can to help them."
The diner was one of a handful in Harlem where $2 bought a spicy Jamaican meat patty and a soda, or a bottomless cup of coffee and a bakery-fresh roll.
But many, especially the wall-to-wall Sunday church crowd, came for the waffles and chicken breakfast or the collard greens and eggs - all made with a Deep South flair.
Until he rebuilds, Barrow recommended people detour down to 116th Street to soul food staple Amy Ruth, where, he joked, his friend can cook "almost as good as we did at Pan Pan."
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