When a fire broke out in the Michigan Street Diner's deep fryer at 10:30 a.m. on May 27, owner Gary Kuhn thought they extinguished it within minutes. Consequently, his staff continued to work through the lunch hour, not realizing that the fire was actually still smoldering beneath a platform in the kitchen.

At 3:30 p.m., after the downtown lunch spot was closed, flames started to leap from beneath the platform. Luckily, someone from the cleaning staff was working in the popular eatery and was able to call the fire department.

The fire was contained to the kitchen, but Kuhn says he's remodeled and updated quite a bit of the diner to bring it up to code.

"The diner's been around since the '30s so a lot of stuff was 'grandfathered' in," says Kuhn. "But once it was burnt we had to make sure the new stuff was all up to code."

Coincidentally, a fire destroyed the kitchen of Elsa's on the Park, also downtown, just a month earlier.

Kuhn plans to reopen his diner on Monday, Aug. 9. He says the new Michigan Street Diner, 220 E. Michigan St., will have the same menu, but a whole new look, including a new floor and booths. It will also be open seven days a week instead of five, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Some of the daily specials include pot roast on Mondays, meatloaf on Wednesdays, fish on Fridays and two soups made fresh daily. As for the weekend specials, Kuhn is going to wing it for now.

"We'll serve whatever's left over from the week," he says.