21-04-2025
Hit-and-run pickup driver destroys front of downtown Anchorage dumpling eatery
Apr. 21—A pickup crashed through the front of a downtown Anchorage restaurant early Sunday before the driver fled the scene, police said.
An unoccupied blue Dodge Ram "had collided with and come to rest inside" Anchorage Pel'meni as reported just before 3:30 a.m., according to a report provided by an Anchorage Police Department spokesman.
Witnesses described seeing a man about 6-foot-3, between 25 and 30 years old and wearing a light-colored jacket and jeans, flee on foot immediately after the crash, the report said.
An employee inside the building at the time who suffered an eye injury was treated by medics, police said.
Officers learned a white Ford F-150 may also have been involved in the incident, according to the report. Police didn't immediately answer questions asking how that truck may be connected to the building damage.
No arrests had been made as of Monday morning.
Anchorage Pel'meni opened in 2022 after running a popular location in Juneau for years. The restaurants serve Russian dumplings especially popular with late-night clientele.
Restaurant owner Mark Moore said in a message that the establishment was "thankful it's not worse."
The restaurant has been boarded up to keep out the weather and Moore said a structural inspection was planned Monday.
It's possible the restaurant may put up a temporary wall and serve takeout customers if building managers approve, but the situation is preliminary, he said. "We are just starting to look and see how extensive it is."
