The phone rang at around 3 a.m., five days after Arthur's opened in its new Addison building. Lightning had struck, blowing out a transformer in the bar; the restaurant was in flames. Mohsen Heidari watched it burn for almost eight hours.
He had waited tables at Chateaubriand on McKinney Avenue in the early 1970s. In 1988 he bought Arthur's, a steakhouse open since 1948. "It was always my dream to get involved with a restaurant of that caliber."
The dream traveled hard. The old building turned out to have asbestos problems, and its owner bought the tenants out of their leases. A move to Maple Avenue collapsed after a six-month renovation - the kitchen too small, the room seating between forty and fifty. "I'm glad I didn't go for it. But I lost a lot of money in that building." So he bought the Addison building outright. No lease. He opened October 11, 2000.
Five days later, the fire. "I didn't know which way to turn. I had to start all over again. All that was left for me was four walls. Everything was gone."
He rebuilt on the same spot. Arthur's has been open there ever since.
A quarter century, now. Regulars call him Molson. This February a couple marked their 47th anniversary; others bring 80th birthdays, 50th anniversaries, a fifth straight Christmas Eve. There is live music in the bar every night, and a dance floor open every night.
When a night of yours deserves marking, take it to 15175 N. Quorum Drive. Dinner in a curtained booth, then the bar, the band, and one slow dance before you leave, in the room that has kept other people's years since 1948.