Two Greek restaurants owned by the same family were set on fire on Tuesday night, leaving one gutted and the other significantly damaged.
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The Olive restaurant at Hawker was damaged before a passer by helped to extinguish the fire, while the Olive restaurant at Mawson was destroyed in a blaze.
Owner Dimitri Yianoulakis said he and his family were devastated by the fires, which he found out about at 2am on Wednesday.
The fires were being treated as suspicious, ACT Fire and Rescue commander Sam Evans said.
Mr Yianoulakis said it would be possible to rebuild the Hawker restaurant but the Mawson premises had been "completely gutted down to rubble".
A witness partially extinguished the Hawker fire with a handheld extinguisher before firefighters extinguished the fire.
ACT Fire and Rescue extinguished the Mawson blaze.
"As you can understand, we're heartbroken," Mr Yianoulakis said.
He said his mother, who was heavily involved in running the businesses, was devastated by the fire.
"We haven't had any incidents in the shop, it's just happened out of the blue."
Mr Yianoulakis said the family was committed to rebuilding the two restaurants, and would make it happen as quickly as possible.
"It's not the end of Olive. We want to rebuild and support the local community like we've been doing for so long," he said.
"We're not here to make profit, we're here to make a living and give back."
Mr Yianoulakis said there was "no denying it's an alleged targeted attack".
The Yianoulakis family has a long history in the Canberra hospitality industry with Mr Yianoulakis's parents, John and Aleka, arriving in Canberra in 1964. Before opening the two Olive restaurants, the family ran the trattoria at the Hellenic Club.
Commander Evans said the Mawson fire was brought under control within a couple of hours.
The Hawker fire started shortly before the Mawson fire, Commander Evans said.
Olive at Mawson opened in 2014, while the Hawker restaurant followed in 2017. Mr Yianoulakis said the family had been planning to open a third restaurant in Gungahlin before the fire.
The neighbouring business to the Mawson restaurant, Just Clowning Around, which hires out costumes from a basement shop beneath the restaurant, was also damaged from the fire.
Co-owner Brendan Lee said it was horrible to see the business, built up over the last 25 years, burn.
"We haven't seen downstairs, but seeing upstairs it's pretty horrific," he said.
The downstairs area held about 1200 costumes and was cordoned off because of high toxicity levels, Mr Lee said.
Mr Lee said the restaurant owners were nice people.
"They work hard, they put a lot of hours in. We're both small business people doing the best we can."
Staff had been sent to another store in Belconnen, and Mr Lee said the business could still be contacted by phone for those customers who were booked in to collect costumes or balloons in the next few days.
