Shop reopens month after downtown fire

COEUR d’ALENE — One month to the day after a fire damaged and closed his downtown business, Luis Gomez was happy and proud because 7/20 Haberdashery & Tailor Shop was open again.

“It’s like the phoenix from the ashes,” he said Thursday. “Literally from the ashes.”

The men’s fine clothing store found a new home just a block south at 116 N. Fourth St. It was a little unorganized, with empty racks and shelves sitting randomly around the 800 square-foot site. A long row of dress jackets was lined up against a wall, while dress shirts hung nearby.

But Gomez could not have been any more delighted as he recounted why it was important to reopen on Feb. 20.

“My merchandise is slim but I was determined to open on the 20th,” he said, smiling. “I wanted the negative to be open with the positive, the yin and yang.”

7/20 Haberdashery & Tailor Shop was one of six businesses in a 7,500-square-foot brick facility on the corner of Fourth and Lakeside that was destroyed or suffered smoke and water damage in an early morning blaze on Jan. 20.

Gomez said the morning of the fire was a “roller-coaster ride of emotions” for him and his wife, Shannon, as they pondered their next step.

“We were feeling terrible,” he said. “It was hard to take.”

But that very day, a friend told them a gallery was leaving its spot one block away. He checked it, negotiated for the space, and it was theirs.

“Here we are,” he said.

This is his fourth clothing store. The first, in California, didn’t quite work out when a business partner left with the money and the merchandise.

He reopened another in Stockton, Calif., in 2008, but it closed during the recession in 2010.

Gomez and his wife opened shop in Coeur d’Alene in August 2018 and were going strong until last month’s fire.

But, he said, they are far from finished. Just the opposite, actually. Perseverance is almost his middle name.

“Someone knocks me down, I get up and dust myself off and keep going,” Gomez said. “I’m not going to quit.”

He credits the Coeur d’Alene community with providing encouragement and holding fundraisers for his and the other businesses closed after the fire — Cole Taylor Salon, Schmidty’s Burgers, Heart City Tattoo, Farmer’s Insurance and Emerge gallery.

“Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” he said.

He likes the way his new location is coming together. He shows a Spazio casual dress shirt that is in perfect condition and says, “this here is from the fire.”

Gomez, with 50 years experience as a tailor, sells new clothing, does alterations and offers made-to-measure clothing.

He’s looking forward to his shop once again being visited by customers and helping them get just the right fit.

“I didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “I’m still working.”

He also explains that the “7/20” part of his shop’s name is a reference to July 20, which is both his and his wife’s birthdays, their anniversary, and the anniversaries of his parents and godparents.

“I couldn’t make this up if I tried,” he said.