Aaron Neil was making something this morning for the Little Gem that the popular 24-hour eatery hasn't needed in more than a half of century of business -- keys to the front doors.

"They say they haven't locked it up for 50 years so they had no need for keys," Neil, a locksmith with Fradon Locks, said as he fiddled with a lock.

A fire about 7 p.m. in a wall of the restaurant on Spencer Street forced the closure last night, owner F.R. "Doc" Good ("Don't let the last name throw you") said.

Good said he smelled something burning about 6:15 p.m. last night, but he didn't have any idea what. About 7 p.m., a customer who had been sitting on a picnic bench came in saying smoke was coming out of a wall.

Good went out and took four screws from a piece of the stainless steel siding and "it went into flames," he said.

Good was able to put out the flames, he said, and the fire department came and made sure the fire hadn't gotten beyond the walls.

"I think they did a beautiful job," he said.

The fire was confined to a wall on the southeast corner of the restaurant. Good said he is unsure of the cause, maybe electrical, maybe a cigarette got up in the wall, he said.

Customers at the counter made their way out safely, he said.

"They got a free meal," Good said. "They said they'll be back to finish."

Good doesn't know when the restaurant will open again but he wants it to be soon.

"I've got 21 employees depending on me to get it done as soon as possible," Good said.

The restaurant has never closed since it opened on Sept. 1, 1952, Good said. Not even during the Labor Day Storm 1998, he said, A five block area around the restaurant never lost power.

"We did some awesome numbers," he said.

After the customers left, Good couldn't just walk away.

"I slept here all night because I didn't have any keys," Good said.

He didn't sleep well. The phone rang every 15 minutes. It was either customers who had heard about the fire and were calling out of concern "or they were calling in to-go orders."

Originally published online here: http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2007/09/local_news_12.html