Curtain falls on The Great Caruso — for now

One of those Houston institutions Houstonist never got around to visiting burned this weekend: The Great Caruso, the 32-year-old westside dinner theater, was pretty much destroyed by flames Sunday morning. It happened when the restaurant was empty, which raised the suspicions of HFD investigators:

The source of Sunday morning's fire is still unclear. The building was empty, which clearly raises more than a few red flags for the Houston Fire Department's arson unit.

"When you look at electricity, time of day, if the building's occupied, those are all the things that they look at," said Captain [Raymond] Flanley.

Adding to the red flags is the fact that another restaurant near The Great Caruso also burned yesterday morning. The fire started just before 1 a.m. at the former Molina's near Westheimer and Old Farm, which has been closed for a year and has no utilities turned on. “We’re really concerned because we had another restaurant burn just a short distance away, and our arson units are investigating the cause of this fire,” HFD Deputy Chief Terry Stone told KHOU.

According to The Great Caruso's website, the restaurant will be closed for the "foreseeable future." Several other businesses in the shopping center where the restaurant was located had smoke and water damage, but none were destroyed.