BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A popular Bethlehem restaurant is closed following a small fire, a post on its Facebook page said early Saturday.
“Dear valued customers, due to a small fire, Red Stag Pub will be closed until further notice. We will provide updates soon,” a post on Facebook said.
McCarthy's, at 534 Main St., grew from a bakery and tea room into a restaurant known for its authentic Irish and British Isles foods made from scratch.
In 2013, it morphed into McCarthy’s Red Stag Pub & Whiskey Bar — adding the Red Stag emblem and significantly expanding menu offerings.
Owner Neville Gardner said the fire broke out about 4 a.m. Saturday in a utility room.
“Something got left up against the furnace that heats the hot water for the pub main floor. It started a fire there in a container full of dirty rags and some other materials,” he said.
Gardner said the heat melted part of an overhead water line that broke and actually put out the small fire.
“It was a lot of smoke, mostly contained in the restaurant and the upper great room,” he said. “By the time the fire department got there, the fire was out.”
Gardner said no one was in the building, which closed around midnight. When the smoke alarm went off, the manager was able to remotely check the security cameras from home and saw smoke. He immediately instructed the alarm company to dispatch the fire department, Gardner said.
He said he wasn’t sure how long it would take to get back up and running.
“We’re hoping it will be a week or less,” Gardner said.
He said he initially had trouble understanding how a fire that started on its own was practically extinguished without any intervention.
"The place is haunted, you know," he said. "It's so bizarre that the fire put itself out. It could have burned the whole place down."
The pub has a room called the Lafayette Room in honor of Revolutionary War Gen. Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette stayed at the home that used to stand at the site after he was wounded in the Battle of Brandywine in 1777.
Gardner believes that the building remains inhabited by a poltergeist — the woman who nursed Lafayette back to health before he left Bethlehem and rejoined Gen. George Washington's army at Valley Forge.
"A lot of strange things have happened over the last 20 years," he said.
McCarthy’s menu features homemade Irish food such as a boxty and scones, along with Guinness lamb stew, Scotch eggs, fish and chips and more.
It’s also known for an extensive whiskey menu and selection of loose leaf teas and desserts such as sticky toffee pudding.
Donegal Square, the adjoining Celtic gift shop also operated by Gardner, was not affected by the fire and opened Saturday as scheduled.
