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1.<\/strong> Joel Ruiz works at the Country Kitchen on PCH as businesses reopen after being closed due to the Palisades fire. 2.<\/strong> A painting of the Country Kitchen hangs on the wall of the roadside restaurant. <\/p>\n PCH was closed to nonresidents<\/a> for five months following the Palisades fire, isolating the once-bustling businesses that catered to beachgoers and tourists. <\/p>\n According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades fire charred more than 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,000 structures. The blaze burned the vast majority of homes along the ocean from Topanga Canyon to Las Flores Canyon. <\/p>\n Nearly 800 structures were lost in Malibu, including the Reel Inn, a seafood restaurant just a few miles down the road from the Country Kitchen. Other popular restaurants including Duke\u2019s Malibu are still closed due to damage. Caffe Luxxe near Carbon Beach was closed for months before reopening in May. <\/p>\n Jefferson Wagner, owner of Zuma Jay\u2019s surf shop, reopens after being closed due to the Palisades fire.<\/p>\n It should be peak summer season for Zuma Jay\u2019s, which has been selling boards and wax to surfers since 1975. Instead, sales are about a third less than normal. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s better, but not like it was last year at the same time,\u201d Jefferson Wagner said. He couldn\u2019t pay his four employees for months. <\/p>\n Wagner holds an old young photo of himself and his daughter.<\/p>\n Some estimates put the total cost<\/a> of the Los Angeles area wildfires at $250 billion. Gaps or delays in insurance coverage have kept many from cleaning or rebuilding their property at the pace they hoped. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still trying to get back to what we had before,\u201d said Malibu City Councilmember Doug Stewart, who was serving as mayor during the Palisades fire. \u201cThe store owners and restaurants are telling me that things have picked up considerably, but they\u2019re still not back to what they\u2019d expect to see for the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Stewart said most businesses in the community were spared from being burned to the ground but are still struggling to reopen and stay viable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s less of a rebuilding issue and more of a question of making sure that they\u2019ve been able to survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The businesses neighboring the Country Kitchen in the strip mall along PCH have all had to adapt to the aftermath of the fire. Even the view from the parking lot is different, with vast stretches of the ocean now visible where homes had previously stood. <\/p>\n Carter Crary, co-owner of scuba shop Malibu Divers, poses for a portrait shortly after his business reopened.<\/p>\n The scuba shop<\/a> Malibu Divers officially reopened May 23, the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom reopened PCH. Co-owner Carter Crary came into the shop every day while the road was still closed, serving an occasional customer. Business was down about 90% for more than four months.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a definite change since the highway reopened,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not yet where we should be for this time of year, but we\u2019re on a trajectory that has us heading in the right direction.\u201d <\/p>\n Malibu Divers doesn\u2019t have business interruption insurance but was able to offset some of the losses caused by the fire with a Small Business Assn. emergency loan. Crary estimated his business has lost out on $150,000 in revenue since January. The shop earns between $500,000 and $1 million in a normal year. <\/p>\n Crary employs around 12 staff members, but he\u2019s currently not able to pay or bring in his in-store employees. The dive shop, which offers rental gear and scuba lessons, opened in 1969 and is usually busiest between May and September. <\/p>\n Business has been further impacted because people aren\u2019t diving in the areas where the Palisades fire burned. Most divers are going north for cleaner waters, Crary said. <\/p>\n Malibu\u2019s scenic beaches, now contaminated with heavy metals and debris from the wildfire, usually attract customers to Roxanne Jensen\u2019s souvenir shop, Blue Malibu, located a few doors down<\/a> from Malibu Divers. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been very slow because people don\u2019t know we\u2019re open,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cWe have to be patient. As long as the ocean is there, the customers will come back.\u201d <\/p>\n Jensen closed her store for five months after the fire destroyed the merchandise on display and drove away tourists. July and August are typically big months for sales, said Jensen, who runs the shop with her husband.<\/p>\n Jensen\u2019s landlord is allowing her to pay half her usual rent, but even that is hard to come up with, she said. She opened her shop 10 years ago and sells sweatshirts, swimwear and gifts.<\/p>\n Jensen said she has faith the Malibu community will rebound, like it has several times<\/a> in the past after disastrous wildfires and landslides<\/a>. She stood among her merchandise on a recent quiet Wednesday and was cautiously hopeful.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe next summer will be normal,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Though the Country Kitchen employees had to stay home with no pay for months, they are back now, serving chili cheese fries, omelets and buffalo burgers. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople love this place,\u201d Ruiz said, standing in front of spot where he has worked most of his life. \u201cWe had customers calling who wanted to come in, but for a long time they weren\u2019t able to.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six months after the Palisades fire roared down Pacific Coast Highway, the Country Kitchen in Malibu is open…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,43288,43290,43292,2961,224,5337,43285,43287,11395,9105,43289,17254,43291,8463,43286,10686,9207,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-59510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-country-kitchen","11":"tag-crary","12":"tag-gift-shop","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-malibu-business","17":"tag-many-customer","18":"tag-may","19":"tag-month","20":"tag-ocean-view","21":"tag-palisades-fire","22":"tag-pch","23":"tag-restaurant","24":"tag-roxanne-jensen","25":"tag-shop","26":"tag-small-business","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114840160756329146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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