Union Oyster House to reopen at 11 a.m.

David L Ryan/Globe Staff

The Union Oyster House is scheduled to reopen to the public at 11 a.m. Monday.

Joseph Milano, the restaurant’s owner, confirmed the opening time in an e-mail to the Globe Monday morning.

The restaurant has been closed since a small fire broke out on the outside of the building Thursday night, which prompted the evacuation of the 300-year-old building on Union Street.

Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said firefighters responded to the one-alarm fire around 8:30 p.m. and although they extinguished it “fairly quickly,” the restaurant filled with smoke. He said last week that the fire started near some exterior lights and the cause appeared to be electrical.

Milano praised how his staff responded to the situation and said he was grateful for all the messages of support from the public that’s he’s received over the past few days.

“Thursday evening was a frightening experience...thank God there were no injures,” Milano wrote in an e-mail. “The Fire Department deserves special credit in carefully extinguishing the fire with a sensitive concern to our historic landmark.”

The Union Oyster House is a well-known tourist destination located near Boston’s Faneuil Hall. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003 as the oldest continuously operating restaurant and oyster bar in the United States. The brick building that houses the restaurant dates back to 1716-1717, and hungry customers have been dining there since 1826.