A month and a half since dealing with the fallout from a chimney fire, Brad Cooper, owner and operator of Coop's West Texas Barbecue in Lemon Grove is appealing to the community for help to keep the eatery open.

"We're in a desperate mode here," Cooper tells his Facebook followers through a video. "We want to keep it going. We love doing what we're doing. My employees love serving people." The business has been at 2625 Lemon Grove Avenue for three years, Cooper told Lemon Grove Patch during an interview in September.

But following an Aug. 30 chimney fire, which did not damage the restaurant, Cooper stepped up social media appeals for support. Some of the restaurants woes were caused last month by news reports that portrayed the fire to be larger than it was, Cooper said. It may have led customers to erroneously believe they were closed, he said. "Someone had told me that there were headlines written about fire ripping through the restaurant. So I checked," he said in September. That week the number of customers declined, he said.

Cooper has since taken to Facebook to speak to his customer base to return and bring friends. On Oct. 12, Cooper made his appeal via video. It has been shared more than 100 times. In the video, Cooper tells customers they have always run on a tight budget and that they opened with what money they had. They did not take out loans, he said.

"We were just hoping that one day someone somebody with a big name would come in and discover us," he said.

The restaurant takes pride in its smoked meats. In the video, Cooper takes out and shows off a piece of smoked pork from the eatery's oven.