Owners of destroyed Jasper deli hope to return to reopen it

Twenty years of memories are gone for the owners of a Jasper deli damaged beyond repair in July's wildfire.

But Wendy and Glen Leitch, with their daughter and son-in-law, hope to go back some day to open a replacement for the Patricia Street Deli, but not before they set up shop in Edmonton or another Alberta community.

"Chances are we'll open one here in Edmonton first," Glen told CTV News Edmonton.

"Jasper was our beginnings 20 years ago. We had the deli there 20 years ago, when we opened it, and we'll go back. That'll take a few years to go back, but we will go back. Jasper was very, very nice to us and very supportive."

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The Leitchs first returned to Jasper after the fire at the end of August to see what was left of the deli.

They weren't allowed inside it.

"We were devastated when we saw the deli and the shape that it was in," Wendy said of their former business home, which was located in a Patricia Street retail complex in the heart of Jasper's commercial district a block south of Miette Avenue.

"We've lost all of our memorabilia, and that's been really hard to not have that."

The wildfire that erupted in Jasper National Park on July 22 resulted in the destruction of a third of the townsite three days later.

In the wake of the wildfire, Wendy and Glen retreated to a farm near Legal thanks to the generosity of former customers and are now living temporarily in southwest Edmonton.

"We had put it out on our on social media, letting people know that Glen and I needed a place to stay for the winter, and 24 hours later, I was on the phone with Nancy," Wendy said, recalling their search following the wildfire.

It's that kind of connection that's keeping Wendy's and Glen's hopes of reviving the Jasper store alive.

The Leitchs said people have been asking when they'll reopen, but Glen said they can't yet commit to the idea of returning to the place in which the 69-year-old pair had planned to retire.

"I want very much so to open a Patricia Street Deli back in Jasper," he said. "It's just timing. I foresee we will open one here in Edmonton or in a community sometime in the near future, by the end of next year or beginning of 2026."

The Leitchs still have their home in Jasper and are renting it to friends still running a business in town, but while they can't fully commit to reopening in Jasper, Glen said the pull is there.

"We were just so popular and so supported," he said. "That's what I miss the most."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny