PORTERSVILLE — A popular dining spot remains closed after a fire broke out in the kitchen area just three hours after it closed Sunday night.

But quick action by firefighters helped minimize the damage to Brown’s Country Kitchen on West Portersville Road in Portersville.

“I have no idea when we’ll be able to reopen but I plan on it,” owner Harold D. Brown said this morning.

A cause of the fire about 11 p.m. was not immediately known but it was believed to be accidental. The state police fire marshal is investigating.

“I was told (fire investigators) think it was electrical,” Brown said. “Nothing suspicious.”

A passing motorist noticed smoke coming out of a window at the restaurant and called 911. Before long, the first fire engine was there.

“There was smoke and fire coming out the front of the building,” said Chief Tim Saunders of the Portersville-Muddy Creek Township Volunteer Fire Department. “It looks like it started in or around the kitchen.”

A fire crew forced its way inside the locked building, which activated the burglar alarm monitoring system. The restaurant had closed at 8 p.m.

Saunders said firefighters armed with two water lines had the blaze under control within 10 to 15 minutes.

Brown, who lives in Scott Township, Lawrence County, just over the Butler County line, was home when he got a call from the monitoring company soon after the fire.

He wasted little time driving to the restaurant he’s owned for 32 years.

He was accompanied by his wife and co-owner, Gretchen, and their son, a cook who Brown also calls “my right-hand man” in the business.

“When we got there we saw fire trucks and smoke coming out of the roof and a vent in front of the building,” Brown said.

Fire damage was contained to the kitchen on the main floor.

The neighboring dining room and the rest of the restaurant, which includes a seasonal ice cream stand and a basement sustained smoke and water damage.

“Structurally, it’s not bad,” Brown said of the building in the fire’s aftermath

He planned to meet with his insurance agent today but a damage estimate was not immediately available.

“I feel bad for my employees,” Brown said. “I have a good and loyal group and I want to be back open as soon as possible,”

He said he has 25 employees, most who work part-time.

Assisting the Portersville VFC were firefighters from Prospect, Unionville, Connoquenessing, Slippery Rock and Scott Township.