Owners plan to rebuild after fire destroys Monkton snack bar

MONKTON, Vt. (WCAX) - A popular snack bar in Monkton was destroyed by fire. Sunday morning’s blaze may have paused orders for now, but the owners say they don’t plan to hang up the apron yet.

“Very devastated,” said Kim Jewell of Queen Bee’s Snack Bar. “Eight years of blood, sweat and tears, you know you put everything into it and now it’s nothing.”

Kim Jewell was in disbelief following the Sunday morning blaze.

Her daughter-in-law Kristen Jewell says it was an electrical fire.

“When I pulled in the driveway it was a full inferno at that point in time, and obviously the sun hadn’t even come up yet, so you could see it for a distance,” Kristen Jewell said.

“It went very, very quickly,” Kristen Jewell said. “What was it, like seven minutes?”

“Seven minutes,” Kim Jewell agreed. “Within seven minutes it was fully engulfed.”

Customers say it’s a big loss for the community.

“It’s gotta be good because people keep coming back,” said Norman Cobb of Bristol, who says he’s been a loyal customer since Queen Bee’s opened. “My son stops here every night, so you know it’s sad, it’s not good, you know it’s terrible.”

Now, customers are showing the snack bar support after a tough few days.

“It means a lot to us that the community has actually been outpouring for support of, you know, how can we help? Or do you need help cleaning up or rebuilding anything? Which is in the works, but yeah, it takes some time and insurance pieces,” Kristen Jewell said.

She says she and her family plan to bounce back.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said. “We’ll come back and give back to the community again like we used to.”

She says the fire won’t hold back their plans to expand the business.

“We have another trailer that we had already purchased... we’re in the process of getting ready to actually be a catering trailer,” Kristen Jewell said.

The owners say they will still hold Breakfast with Santa on Sat., Dec. 2 in Vergennes from 8 a.m. to noon, and they will still offer catering.

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Queen Bee’s destroyed by Sunday morning fire

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