A fire has shut down La Cuchara for the foreseeable future, its owners said Monday.

“Our staff and patrons did a good job in a very difficult situation and everybody left the building safe,” said co-owner Jake Lefenfeld of the blaze that sparked at the beginning of dinner service Sunday evening inside the Hampden-area restaurant.

His brother, chef and co-owner Ben Lefenfeld, said the fire was limited to the restaurant’s hood system, though he appeared stunned and baffled about what caused it. “We’ve been very judicious about getting our hoods cleaned once a month,” he said, and staff clean their filters daily.

The decade-old, Basque-inspired restaurant is known for its pintxos, or small bites, and rotating menu of grilled entrees. The space features a wood grill that Ben said burns white oak logs always purchased from the same source to ensure the appropriate moisture level.

The owners praised the Baltimore City Fire Department for quickly responding to the scene Sunday evening and dumping hundreds of gallons of water onto the kitchen to douse the flames. The department said a fire discovered in the venting system was brought under control at 5:33 p.m., with no injuries.

It’s been a challenging winter for fires in the neighborhood and beyond. Well-known Hampden hardware store Falkenhan’s was destroyed a few weeks earlier by what officials characterized as an electrical fire. In November, a nearby historic former police station called “The Castle” was hit by a separate blaze. And last month, Harford Road pub Micky’s Joint shut down following a fire in a dumpster just outside the building.

A yellow “closed” notice from the city’s health department was affixed to the front door of La Cuchara on Monday morning. While the restaurant’s dining area appeared to be physically intact, the owners said the water used to put out the blaze caused substantial damage to the kitchen. It will be some time before La Cuchara can reopen, though the owners declined to speculate how long it could take.

“Not this week,” said co-owner Amy Lefenfeld.

The Lefenfelds opened the restaurant inside the Meadow Mill complex at 3600 Clipper Mill Road in 2015. Among other things, the Meadow Mill building once housed a factory where London Fog raincoats were made. It is also home to a candle-making studio, offices and a storage facility.

The Lefenfelds are also set to open Seppia, an Italian seafood restaurant, in Hampden sometime this year. But cleaning up the wreckage at La Cuchara seems likely to take precedence for now.

On Monday, that meant dealing with insurance claims and making difficult calls to customers. “I need to call somebody that had a rehearsal dinner scheduled for Friday,” said Jake.

This article has been updated to correct that "The Castle" is a former police station.