Ponce City Market restaurants lose money after Atlanta water main breaks

Mandy Slater, co-owner of Slater Hospitality, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she started losing water pressure on the 10-story roof Friday morning. By the afternoon, the taps were dry even though the rest of the Ponce City market was still operating. It was not until Sunday afternoon that they were able to partially reopen, she said.

Slater estimated the lost revenue at $230,000. They do most of their business on weekends. Since they are located on the roof, Slater said they are “basically closed” for about three months of the year, during which time they retain their staff and incur many expenses as a large venue. Their peak season really begins in May and June, and this income allows them to stay in business for the rest of the year.

“It was a big blow for us,” she said.

Slater said many in the service industry have been “struggling for several years now since COVID-19,” so even if it’s just a weekend of lost business, it can have a considerable impact.

The remainder of the Ponce City Market, which includes a food hall, full-service restaurants and retail stores, closed Saturday afternoon until late Sunday morning. Tal Baum of Oliva Restaurant Group closed three of his restaurants, two of which are inside the Ponce City Market. On Saturday, Baum said the entire complex was evacuated when the water was shut off because all businesses shared the same facilities, including restrooms.

Baum declined to share the total amount of income she lost over the weekend, but said it was “substantial.” Her insurer already denied a claim she filed, but Baum said she’s still working “to make sure our insurer understands the damage that’s been done here.”

Earlier this week, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced plans to create a $5 million relief fund to help small businesses that suffered losses during the outage. While that will be appreciated, “it doesn’t meet our immediate needs,” Baum said, citing expenses ranging from from taxes on rents to salaries.

Slater said she was hopeful about the relief fund, “but $5 million is really not a lot of money, considering all the businesses that could have been affected in that area, so I I think it will go relatively quickly.”

Part of those losses include wages and tips that service workers would have earned on a busy Saturday night. LaRayia Gaston, owner of LaRayia’s Bodega in Ponce City Market, closed her restaurant but continued to pay her five employees for the hours they allegedly worked, she said.

Gaston reopened her vegan stand on Sunday, but the next few days were still much slower than usual because people in Atlanta didn’t know what was happening, she said.

“I can only hope that the city will support us and help us and give us some money for what we lost, but I still can’t wait for that,” she said. “People’s bills keep coming no matter what.”

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