A weekend without water costs Atlanta restaurants

Several water main breaks Friday left Atlanta restaurant owners bracing for the effects on business over the weekend. Restaurants in Little Five Points, Downtown, Grant Park, Old Fourth Ward, West End, East Atlanta, Midtown, Inman Park and Candler Park were forced to close due to water outages or low water pressure. ‘water. And they wondered if it was just an overnight headache or something worse.

Some woke up Saturday to water pressure restored but with a boil water advisory in effect, while others found their faucets completely dry. Operators had to either close their doors or find workarounds.

Closing costs

Bovino After Dark, a supper club that operates from a counter inside Hop City in the Lee + White mixed-use development in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, was closed for all of its shifts Friday through Sunday due to water problems.

Co-owner Alex Sher estimated the business’ loss at between $10,000 and $14,000. He said the timing, at the end of the month, when most businesses must collect rent and pay expenses, couldn’t have been worse.

Bovino, which continued to pay its employees over the weekend, is offering buyout options, catering menus, and off-site and special event packages to try to recoup losses. Sher said that if necessary, revenue from other businesses he co-owns, including Stone Mountain Cattle and Sausage World, can help cover things financially until Bovino can operate normally.

“If we didn’t have other companies, this wouldn’t be acceptable,” he said. “We have friends who I don’t think will make it past the 10th of the month. Summer is already slow for everyone.

On Monday, Bovino staff began evaluating which perishable food items could be recovered or composted.

Even with insurance, Sher said the costs of forced closure over the weekend are immeasurable.

“Even franchises have limits,” he said. “There’s no way to completely compensate for that.”

Reid and Sophia Trapani of La Semilla were forced to close their Reynoldstown restaurant Friday. On Saturday, there still wasn’t much water pressure so they had to cancel more than 100 reservations, Reid Trapani said.

To compensate at least a little for the loss of income, the couple opened take-out meals on the terrace. He adjusted the menu with dishes that required less water to prepare. And in an effort not to waste food, they turned gallons of peach-basil agua fresca that had been made with clean water just days before into margaritas. He said customers tipped well, which helped compensate hourly employees who lost a night of work, but he still estimated it represented a loss of at least $20,000 for their small business.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick, founder of Giving Kitchen, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that helps restaurateurs in crisis across the country, said several workers affected by the water main break have asked for help. help.

“When you’re already in crisis, little extra things can pile up,” Hidinger said.

She said Giving Kitchen has directed people to rental or utility assistance organizations, and said it’s critical for the public to support restaurants during difficult times.

“When restaurants reopen, go visit them and tip extra, be kind and grateful to the staff who are going out of their way to serve us.”

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Everyone on the bridge

Longtime Kirkwood restaurant Sun in my Belly is no stranger to pivoting on the fly. Megan Cook, catering director and sister of owner Max LeBlanc, said she began developing a plan almost as soon as she learned of the water main break.

She closed the restaurant early Friday when the water started to recede, and by Saturday morning she realized they wouldn’t be able to open at all. Closing Saturday meant losing about $14,000 to $16,000, she said, so Cook knew they couldn’t afford to lose the Sunday business as well.

Saturday morning, they took action. Cook said the team contacted their luxury bathroom company to rent portable toilets, purchased fresh ice from one of their vendors and gathered five-gallon jugs of water and as many bottles of personalized water that they could find.

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

Credit: Jason Getz / [email protected]

“We basically just called the troops,” she said. “Everyone we’ve worked with over the last 25 years saw what we could do and we worked with them to see how we could see this through, because we didn’t know how long it was going to take. “

On Sunday, chefs arrived two hours early to begin boiling five-gallon containers of water to prepare any dishes that would need it in advance. Around midday, they had to scale back the cafe’s menu because they couldn’t heat enough water to fill orders, but in exchange, Cook added drink specials and menu items to keep customers well-fed. And on Sunday evening, she brought in employees to thoroughly wash and treat all the dishes and glassware.

Sun in my Belly has been around for about 30 years, so they’ve faced countless challenges, from the 2008 recession to COVID-19, Cook said. They have had the same leadership for over a decade, which allows them to act quickly as a team to produce backup plan after backup plan.

Despite thousands of dollars in lost income, Cook said she thinks “the city of Atlanta has turned things around pretty quickly,” especially since she and her brother are from Louisiana where they had to face numerous natural disasters.

“We have a lot of things we have to pivot on every week,” Cook said. “So it was just another glitch in the system, like we knew what to do.” »

Kitty Dare in Inman Park was forced to close Friday and Saturday, but was able to reopen Sunday for brunch after the water was restored.

Co-owner Jamshad Zarnegar said executive chef Giuseppe Esposito took precautions under the boil water notice to continue to be able to serve food safely. Zarnegar hopes to offset some of the financial hit by hosting an all-you-can-eat buffet on Mondays at 6 p.m., when the restaurant is not normally open.

“It’s a huge loss, especially for our hourly employees,” Zarnegar said. “Many of them are living paycheck to paycheck, and we hope to reimburse them for some of those lost hours.”

He said the lack of communication from the city has been frustrating, but the support of the Inman Park community has been a bright spot during a difficult weekend.

“We’ll get over it no matter what, but it’s a problem we really didn’t want to experience,” he said.

Credit: John Spink / [email protected]

Credit: John Spink / [email protected]

Communication frustrations

Fifth Group founder Steve Simon said the biggest challenge was “trying to understand what was going on.” I think that’s what everyone ran into. We didn’t know what to expect or when to expect it.

Between Friday and Saturday, information from city officials slowed to little more than a trickle with about 12 hours between updates until the city of Atlanta shared on Instagram that Repairs on the break near Joseph E. Boone Boulevard were completed, but the post was later posted. deleted. Several restaurateurs said they gathered most of their information through word of mouth, social media and news posts.

Fifth Group closed Alma Cocina Town Center on Friday, eventually reopening it in time for dinner service on Sunday. Low water pressure in Ela, Virginia-Highland delayed Friday’s opening of service. But the group was particularly concerned about its Midtown restaurants, South City Kitchen, Lure and Ecco.

“With that geyser coming out of (West) Peachtree, we were really scared all weekend. We have three restaurants within a few blocks. Fortunately, none were hit.

Despite the lack of information from city officials, Simon said Fifth Group “went into over-communication mode” through company text messages, e-blasts and media use social. “We were able to get by and figure it out,” he said.

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