A SHISHA bar gutted by a fire on Christmas Day has reopened after having thousands of pounds spent on rebuilding work.
Riverside Shisha Cafe was set alight by Ahmed Ibrahim in a revenge attack after the 19-year-old was thrown out on Christmas Eve for "mouthing off to other customers".
The fire caused almost £100,000 of damage to the cafe and the adjacent Chester Green Fish Bar in City Road, Chester Green.
Manj Mundi, owner of the Riverside Shisha Cafe, said: "The place was absolutely gutted. It has had a big financial impact on myself. Christmas is usually a busy period so we lost a lot of business during that time and since.
"Also, just seeing all the time and effort put into building it up literally disappear in front of our eyes was hard to come to terms with.
"I don't understand how someone can have that mentality to just ruin someone's else's life like that.
''It wasn't just me that it impacted on – the chip shop next door had to close down and my five members of staff were out of work."
But the 26-year-old said there was "no point feeling angry about it" and had got on with rebuilding his business. He said: "We basically had to start from scratch. There was literally nothing left of the smoking area, and the whole of the inside had suffered smoke and water damage. It had to be gutted and replastered and the roofing had to be redone."
Manj said they had made changes in the process and believed that it was now better than before.
"We've improved the way it is set out," he said. "It's a lot nicer now."
Ibrahim, who admitted arson at Derby Crown Court, was sent to a young offenders' institution for two years and 10 months in May.
The court heard that he had returned to the cafe a few hours after being thrown out and set fire, in the early hours of Christmas Day, to the veranda part of the premises – where shisha, a syrupy tobacco mix containing molasses, is smoked.
CCTV, a footwear impression and witness statements all led to police tracking down Ibrahim, who was of no fixed address but lived in Normanton.
The court heard that £80,000 of damage was caused to the shisha cafe and £18,000 to the fish bar.
The shisha cafe, which serves coffees and waffles and crepes, is open between 6pm and 1am.
