The new Sweet Basil is weeks away from reopening (VIDEO)

Charli Singh was startled awake on April 2 by a phone call. It was 4:12 a.m., and the alarm at his restaurant – longtime favorite Sweet Basil at 2424 N. Woodlawn – was going off.

He got out of bed to go check on things, assuming the culprit was wind or a door left unlocked.

“When firetrucks started passing me at 21st and Rock Road, I wondered,” he said.

Singh pulled into the parking lot, where he was greeted by 16 firetrucks. A fire had started just inside the front door of his 23-year-old restaurant, and Styrofoam to-go containers caught in the blaze served as fuel. By the time the fire was put out, the front entry was destroyed, the green carpet with tiny flowers on it was soggy, and the dining room was covered in a layer of soot and smoke. Neighboring businesses were damaged as well.

“I thought, ‘Well, it’s pretty bad. It’ll take two months, but we can clean it up,’ ” Singh said.

That was almost a year ago. An exact cause of the fire was never determined, Singh said.

Now, about nine months later than Singh originally had estimated, Sweet Basil is almost ready to reopen. Customers could be back enjoying chicken Marsala and penne del mar as early as March 26.

When they walk into the restaurant, though, they won’t recognize it. The remodel Singh predicted turned into a rebuild, a half-million-dollar process that required months of permits, red tape and insurance wrangling but that also resulted in a brand-new restaurant. Nothing from the interior of the previous Sweet Basil remains except the address.

The pre-fire Sweet Basil had red booths around the edges and going down the center of the dining room. The new Sweet Basil has an open dining room floor with new tables and chairs, a few modern-looking booths and a row of banquette seating.

The old Sweet Basil had a cramped service bar hidden in the kitchen. The new Sweet Basil has a full bar with built-ins that will allow Singh to display his wine collection.

Singh also was able to add about 700 square feet at the back of the business and now has a back door. His spotless, never-used kitchen is bigger, as are the restrooms, now compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The restaurant is now wheelchair accessible, and Singh also was able to add a large vestibule at the entrance, which will prevent cold air from rushing into the small restaurant every time the front door opens.

The new Sweet Basil, which also has a sleek new logo, will be “more metropolitan,” said Singh, who plans to hang art by local artists and update his menu a bit, adding more seafood dishes.

“We just had an opportunity to re-brand ourselves, to do what we always wanted to do,” he said. “It’s going to be more open and modern. We’re not going to be stuck back in 1985.”

Sweet Basil originally opened in 1984 as a restaurant called Frank’s Place. The restaurant got new owners, who changed the name to Sweet Basil in 1991. Two years later, Singh became the owner.

Singh said he expects about half his staff to return to their jobs. His two top employees – 10-year manager Jason Roller and eight-year assistant manager Adrienne Motley – stuck with him throughout the process. The three said they were constantly discouraged by setbacks. They remember when the two-month estimate turned into six, and they were despondent. Roller said he would often spend days sitting with Singh in front of his home computer, making phone call after phone call and wondering whether they’d ever be able to get the restaurant back in business.

They’re looking forward to a return to normalcy and to seeing the regular customers they’ve been missing, including one who used to come in every day for lunch, promptly at 11 a.m.

Among other changes: Sweet Basil will no longer close for an afternoon break but will remain open so that patrons at the new bar can enjoy happy hour. Also, although its Monday through Saturday lunch buffet will return, the restaurant will offer a new lunch menu with a la carte items.

Sweet Basil also will slowly make its way back to charity functions around Wichita, where it regularly provided food, starting with the Midwest Winefest on April 25.

“It’s going to be different,” Roller said. “But change is good.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 5:16 PM with the headline "The new Sweet Basil is weeks away from reopening (VIDEO)."