By Miles Layton
EDENTON — Received a text this morning from a trusted source — Ralph’s Pizza caught on fire Tuesday morning.
Yep – as soon as I received that text (thanks for the tip), I walked over to the restaurant on North Granville — you could see a few police officers talking and surveying the scene. A faint smell of smoke was in the air.
Chowan County 911 said the fire was reported around 2:20 a.m., with Edenton Fire Department responding.
From what I could tell, it looked like fire affected the attic because the upstairs front window was gone; the charred frame remained. There was exterior scorching too where the attic met the outside wall facing North Moseley Street. A gallery of photos appears at the end of the story.
Yes, I’ve contacted the Edenton Fire Department and Edenton Police Department. More importantly, I’m going to wait for them to give me word on what happened rather than pestering the chiefs every 20 minutes, desperately wanting a statement, as out-of-town media outlets usually do when something bad happens.
Last note – I’m not going to speculate as to the cause of the fire. As soon as I know something, I’ll either update this post or write a new story.
That said, I do hope everything works out for Ralph’s owner, Ralph Casbarro and his wife, Leslee — I suspect they’ve had a rough year. Prayers for you folks.
While I’ve never tried their New York-style 18-inch pizza, it’s on my to-do list.
A little background — a couple of years ago or so, Casbarro left his Wall Street job for culinary school, then moved from New Jersey to Edenton with his wife, where they bought and restored a home on South Oakum. Afterward, they decided to open the pizza business to keep themselves busy.
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