Restaurant and event impresario Barton G. is known for lighting up birthday desserts with grandiose sparklers at his Big Top-themed South Beach resto.
But last night, fire officials reported that the Little Haiti warehouse that contained millions of dollars worth of supplies for his event planning business went up in flames, and it took almost two hours and 60 firefighters to contain it, Miami Fire-Rescue spokesman Ignatius Carroll told the Sun-Sentinel.
"Right now we don't know what caused this fire," Carroll told NBC6. "Talking to the people who were here, they said they closed up shop around 7:30 p.m. and an hour later we started getting phone calls about a fire."
Luckily, no one was inside at the time.
This has turned into a bittersweet week for Barton G. Weiss, as his latest venture, Prelude, housed in the Arsht Center, is scheduled to celebrate its grand opening with a who's-who cocktail party on Thursday evening.
In addition to his West Avenue restaurant, which has served celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Will Smith, Weiss is known for his over-the-top parties, which have been known to feature the occasional giraffe, that he is hired to plan for the crème de la crème of Miami.
"The important thing is that there was no loss of life," Weiss expressed. "While I have lost many treasured personal items as well as linens, furniture and props for our events and restaurants, Prelude by Barton G will open as planned and we are fully operational in producing events and all our other business operations."
