Irene: Businesses Reopening After Dealing With Power Outages, Lost Food

With power out in various spots across Bridgewater, businesses had to shut down for a few days as they watched their food stocks dwindle down without working refrigerators—but now, days after the hurricane, they are back open and ready to move forward.

“Obviously every day you are not open is a loss,” said Gabriel’s Fountain manager Michael Montesano. “But it could have been worse.”

For the Martinsville business, power went out Saturday night, and didn’t come back until about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Montesano said the business remained closed for those three days, with only ice cream being served on Tuesday before the restaurant fully reopened Wednesday.

Fortunately, Montesano said, they had generators and didn’t lose too much of the stocked food.

“We had one generator on the site, and the owners got two more,” he said. “We had three going to keep our stock safe.”

Montesano said preparatory work was done to reopen the restaurant Tuesday, with the chefs re-making the food that had been lost, while they sold ice cream after they were sure the power wouldn’t go out again around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

“But with the amount of food we were able to keep, it was not that bad of a loss,” he said. “And we had a party booked for Wednesday, so we were happy we had the chance to get ready for today.”

“Because of the work the chefs had to do, we couldn’t officially open until Wednesday,” he added.

And for Panatieri’s Pizza & Pasta, on Washington Valley Road, the situation was pretty much the same with the restaurant reopening Wednesday after losing power from Sunday through part of Tuesday.

Unfortunately, said owner Vincenzo DiMeo, the restaurant lost a great deal of its food when the power went out.

“We lost about $7,000 to $8,000 worth of food,” he said.

The power, DiMeo said, went out around 3 a.m. Sunday, and didn’t come back until about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. Workers spent the day Tuesday getting the restaurant ready for its reopening before the Bridgewater Township Health Department performed its required inspection Wednesday morning.

“They had to check the food to make sure everything was OK,” he said. “We were very pleased that they came so early.”

DiMeo said the restaurant lost much of the food that was in its refrigerator, but it was all covered by insurance. There was no damage to the restaurant, he said, but they are just disappointed to have lost the day and some customers through the beginning of the week.

“Workers lost hours and money, but we were not too worried about business,” he said. “Customers just went to our location in Warren.”

In fact, DiMeo said, spending the day Tuesday remaking the fresh sauces and other items was a good exercise for the staff.

“It brought us closer together,” he said with a laugh. “We were here at 7 a.m. Tuesday to work on this.”

“And there was no damage to the building, but we lost some business from some customers because a tree fell on Mt. Horeb Road and closed the road,” he added.

On Old York Road, owner Richard Angelica was the only one of the three dealing with actual flooding, being located on a road that had to be partly closed for several days itself because of flooding.

“There was water in the basement Sunday,” he said. “And the power was out for two days.”

Angelica said he lost all the food in the basement, which had to be replaced before the expected opening Thursday.

But by Wednesday afternoon—although he said the business would be done selling ice cream for the season because of what was lost in the power outage—Angelica said it was all about just replacing the lost food.

“We’re not concerned about the business,” he said, adding that there was no real damage to the restaurant.

None of the businesses have been open long enough to have dealt with Hurricane Floyd as well in 1999, but they all said this week's hurricane didn’t make for a huge loss.

“It was a hassle more than anything,” DiMeo said.