🔒A fire closed its newest restaurant after four days. Now, Niche Hospitality is trying to retain its staff during the months-long Vivienne closure.

Vivienne Coastal Mediterranean restaurant hadn’t even been open a week in Worcester’s Glass Tower in Worcester when a fire broke out, forcing the nascent eatery to temporarily cease operations. Now looking at an extended period of time before the restaurant can reopen, the company behind Vivienne is trying to retain its staff through a series of fundraising events, at a time when the entire hospitality industry is facing a worker shortage. “We basically did about four weeks of training, building a culture, and building a family, and learning our menus and our wine lists and everything, and then we're only open for five days, and then the fire happens,” said Mike Covino, president of Niche Hospitality Group in Worcester, which owns Vivienne and other Central Massachusetts restaurants like The Fix Burger Bar and Bocado Tapas Wine Bar. Vivenne opened its doors on Sept. 3, but just days later on Sept. 9, a malfunctioning refrigeration unit on one of the wine towers caught fire, causing significant damage. Each entity involved in the malfunctioning equipment’s life cycle must now conduct its own investigation as part of the insurance claim process, which is expected to be a lengthy process, Covino said. Covino hopes Vivienne can reopen by the holidays, but the extensive and complicated clean-up process makes predicting the reopening date difficult.

Since Vivienne’s staff committed to this as their main form of employment, the extended closure is making their lives’ difficult, said Covino. To help retain staff after the fire, Niche Hospitality has organized four curated dining events run by the Vivienne staff to support the fund of Vivienne continuing to pay employees. “They just learned everything there is to know about Vivienne and the new restaurant, and we hired them, and we love them, and we want them to work with us,” Covino said. Three of the events are hosted at the Top of the Tower events space on the 23rd floor of The Glass Tower at 446 Main St. high above the ground-floor level of Vivienne’s operations. Tickets sold out for the first event featuring coastal Mediterranean food and wine, held this past Friday, said Covino. The other two Top of the Tower events will be this coming Friday and on Oct. 24.Tickets are $200 per individual guest, or $1,500 per table of eight. Further details on this event are available here. The fourth event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday (tonight) at Bocado Tapas Bar at 86 Winter St. in Worcester, featuring a signature Spanish wine dinner. Tickets are $150 per individual guest, including tax and gratuity. Further details on this event can be found here. Jill McSorley is an editorial intern for the Worcester Business Journal. She is a student at Assumption University studying communications and media, writing, and marketing.