Nestled on the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and East Calaveras Street lies a modest burger joint with a bright red roof and a mural on the exterior that reads, “Come for the food, stay for the friends.”

For nearly 37 years, Fair Oaks Burger has been serving Altadena, offering a selection of Mexican, Chinese and American staples. It’s the kind of neighborhood institution where patrons are like family and the food is as comforting as a home-cooked meal.

“We’re like the neighborhood ‘Cheers’ bar,” said Janet Lee, who with sister Christy Lee owns the venerable spot. “I kind of feel like a cook/part-time therapist.”

But when the Lee sisters woke up on Jan. 8, like the rest of the Altadena community, they weren’t sure if the beloved eatery would still be standing.

Somehow, it survived.

On Jan. 7, as the relentless Santa Ana winds tore through Los Angeles County, it was business as usual at Fair Oaks Burger. In fact, because so many had lost power at home, many customers poured in.

At around 6:15 p.m., a customer, amazed that Fair Oaks Burger still had power, informed Janet and Christy Lee of a fire in Eaton Canyon. At 6:45 p.m., the power in the restaurant went out completely.

When the Lee sisters stepped outside onto the restaurant’s parking lot, they saw just how big the fire had gotten.

“That’s when we were like, OK, you know what? This is too dangerous. We should just evacuate. We can come back tomorrow, clean up and do whatever, but we just need to get our employees out of here. We literally just shut the doors and went home thinking we’re going to come back tomorrow and just clean up,” explained Janet Lee, echoing a naive assumption about the fires known all too well by Angelenos.

In the late ’80s, Janet and Christy Lee’s parents were “restaurant flippers” who bought restaurants and converted them into businesses that could turn a higher profit. While their parents worked full-time, the Lee sisters spent their childhood at Fair Oaks Burger in place of babysitters and day care and worked there as teenagers.

After a decade, Lees’ parents sold the restaurant, which went through a series of ownership changes. But after the sisters grew up, and Janet Lee graduated from culinary school, the two decided to take over the business, which they’ve now been operating for the past 17 years.

“Because we worked there when we were teenagers, we knew the community already. When we came back, it was very easy to establish that rapport again with the community,” Janet Lee said. She joked that her and her sister have “heard it all,” from divorces to typical family bickering. Its centrality to the everyday lives of Altadena residents transformed Fair Oaks Burger from a humble eatery to a buzzy neighborhood joint.

After closing Fair Oaks Burger, Janet and Christy Lee rushed to evacuate their parents, who lived two minutes away from the restaurant. Since then, the elder Lees and Christy, who also lives in Altadena, have been living with Janet in the San Fernando Valley.

Concerned customers who had stayed behind in Altadena longer than the Lee family had sent them videos of the fire and the city engulfed in flames. They believed that Fair Oaks Burger didn’t make it.

Nearly every business and residence near Fair Oaks Burger, including the elder Lees’ home, had burned down in the Eaton fire.

“Before we even went [back], we thought the restaurant was gone … we didn’t think it would survive. The following day, we were just so sad, because we knew the house was gone, and we were like, OK, well now our business is gone. We were just devastated,” Janet Lee said.

That was until one of their customers, who didn’t evacuate from Altadena, decided to check if Fair Oaks Burger was still standing — an example of just how loyal their customers are, Janet Lee said. The customer walked to the site of the restaurant, which he found out was astonishingly still standing. He took a video and sent it to the Lee sisters.

Despite receiving the good news that the eatery had survived, which Janet Lee believes is due to being situated on a corner and surrounded by their concrete parking lot, the two sisters are struggling with how to proceed. For a month, their power has been out and the water from their supplier, Lincoln Avenue Water Co., is unable to be used for cooking and drinking per a “Do Not Drink-Do Not Boil” order that is still in effect.

As one of the few businesses that survived on the street, Janet Lee said she and her sister have been dealing with survivor’s guilt.

“It’s our fault because we didn’t start a GoFundMe, because we felt guilty. … We felt like, at least we have our building, at least it’s not going to be as difficult for us to rebuild. We thought like, we can’t put up a GoFundMe,” Janet Lee explained. But soon they began to regret that decision upon realizing how much it would take to rebuild and compensate their employees while their doors are shut.

Now, Christy and Janet Lee are deciding how to move forward.

“Once we got to our property, after we physically saw the building, it looked fine. But then we saw what was surrounding it. Then we realized, no, this is not going to be easy.” Though the restaurant was spared in the fire, many of their loyal customers had been displaced. “There are no neighbors,” Janet Lee said.

Janet Lee’s former culinary teacher and his wife, whose taco joint was nearly wiped out during the pandemic, have been giving the Lee sisters guidance on how to recover from a disaster. They anticipate being able to reopen, even if on a smaller scale or outdoors, like through a pop-up kitchen in the parking lot, Janet Lee said.

She’s also received requests from customers who want to financially support Fair Oaks Burger while they’re closed through buying merchandise. They’ve even had elderly customers who’ve decided to rebuild outside of Altadena stop by the restaurant and say their goodbyes. Despite not publicly soliciting help from their Altadena neighbors, it seemed to pour in, anyway.

“Altadena was so special,” Janet Lee said. “It’s difficult for people to understand who haven’t lived there. … Altadena was this magical little unicorn community.”