On June 12, a fire in the apartment building above Vito's caused water damage, and temporarily closed the club. Owner Greg Lundgren spoke with jazz reporter Robin Lloyd about the history and the future of Vito's, and the need for help to retain the club's staff.

On how he and his partner Jeff Scott purchased and revived Vito's in 2010: We had been operating The Hideout across the street for ten years, and were deeply invested in the First Hill neighborhood. Vito's is just kind of an institution. It's a place where my dad hung out in the sixties and seventies, a place where I hung out in my early twenties. And when it closed in 2008, I was just really hoping that somebody else would do it, somebody else would restore it and respect its history and the heritage that’s so rich there.