Owner of Biggar restaurant destroyed by fire hopes to open another eatery

The owner of a beloved restaurant in the town of Biggar, about an hour west of Saskatoon, says she hopes to open another eatery sometime in the next two years.

Early Wednesday morning, a fire destroyed the Snow White restaurant, which has owned for the last 33 years by Maggie Tan.

Speaking by telephone, Tan said it’s been an incredibly difficult few days.

“I’m stressed,” she said.

“I love the restaurant, but it’s gone. So it’s my human nature. My heart is aching.”

“I need time to deal with this,” she added.

Tan admitted that she did not have insurance on the property, and is now looking to sell the land it sat on for $30,000, along with another home she owns where she keeps her restaurant equipment in town, in order to try and pay off bills and to raise money.

“Everything; the cost of the meat, the vegetables, everything. Costs are high. The profit is not much. By the time I pay everything, there’s not much left,” she explained.

“It’s not easy to run a business.”

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Still, Tan said that running a restaurant is something she is meant to do.

“I love my job. I love making good food. This is my core. This is my destiny. Now I feel like I’m kind of lost. I’m not complete. A part of me is gone,” she explained.

Friend and former employee Christina Pidwerbesky started a GoFundMe page for Tan, something she said she didn’t expect, but is grateful to see.

“I was crying. I just broke down. It’s very touching,” she said, adding that she’s also received thousands of messages from community members and others outside of the town who’ve stopped to eat at her restaurant over the years.

“It’s amazing. It’s unbelievable. It’s a miracle. It’s not even real,” she added.

Tan also has two daughters and two grandsons, supporting her.

In the meantime, she’s making plans to open another restaurant and has a two-year time frame. She’s hoping to find another location in town, this time to rent.

“We’ll go from there,” she said.

She’s not sure at this point what caused the fire on Wednesday, but thanked those who’ve reached out to her and her family.