A beloved Largo restaurant was destroyed in a fire early Sunday morning.

The Fireplace restaurant was a popular neighborhood restaurant for more than 40 years.

The restaurant and its neighboring small businesses on Seminole Boulevard caught fire shortly after midnight. It took dozens of firefighters a few hours to extinguish the flames.

No one was inside at the time of the fire and no one was hurt.

"It’s heartbreaking,” customer Sarah Shelton said. “It is because it’s been here so long."

The Fireplace was a Sunday breakfast spot for Mike Buchanan and his family.

"We’ve been coming since here before [my son] was born,” Buchanan said.

Instead of the waitresses they knew by name, the Buchanan's were greeted by broken windows and blackened walls.

"I can’t believe how bad this is,” Buchanan said. “There’s no rebuilding."

Dozens stopped by the strip mall Sunday, taking pictures of the damage and sharing their favorite stories.

"It’s horrible for me to see,” Alex Kern, The Fireplace Restaurant owner, said. “I was not sure it was so extreme."

Kern, who is from Austria, took over the restaurant less than a year ago. He said he was eager to carry on the Fireplace’s rich tradition and accomplish his goal of opening his own restaurant.

"This was a big dream to come here to America,” Kern said.

Kern said he has 12 employees who are without jobs because of the fire.

"To us it’s breakfast, to them it’s their life, you know? It’s a lot bigger for them, I feel bad for them,” Buchanan said.

Also lost in the fire was House of Shades, Lamps and Lighting. Michael Carter and his wife Sharon opened the store 18 years ago with a few hundred lampshades and $2,600.

They survived economic downturns and the challenges of being small business owners. All of the store’s inventory, including more than 13,000 lampshades, and expensive chandeliers, were destroyed. The business also did lighting repair work.

"We're going to try and see if we can rebuild, you know? Our community needs a lighting store; there's not many of us left anymore,” Michael Carter said. "We're not going to give up."

"It's been a hard long road. It's just terrible to have to look at it this the way it is now," Michael said.

A gofundme account has been set up to help the business owners and their employees.

Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire.