5
VANCOUVER — As much of Vancouver sat in darkness Monday night, at least one restaurant went out with a bang.
"Who's laughing at the kitchenless restaurant now?" said Kurtis Kolt, general manager of Salt Tasting Room. As it serves only cured meats and cheese, Salt was able to operate its usual lunch and dinner service, working by candlelight and pumping out music from a battery-operated boom box. "Our food just improved as the day went on," laughed Mr. Kolt.
But as Tuesday morning came with no sign of power returning, it was a different story: Salt's cold store was no longer at a safe temperature and stock was being ferried to a walk-in cooler at a food import company across town.
With the downtown power outage caused by a fire at B.C. Hydro threatening to stretch into a four-day blackout, restaurants across the downtown core were scrambling yesterday to salvage as much stock as possible. Though some restaurateurs were originally told to expect power back by 11 a.m. Tuesday, later estimates from B.C. Hydro were suggesting Thursday as a more realistic goal.
Related Articles
Salt's owner, Sean Heather, was pleased the room held out so long. His neighbouring business, the Irish Heather pub, was not so fortunate.
"The Heather never got off the ground," he said. "We put the perishables on ice overnight and are transporting them along with Salt's stock. Luckily, we managed to postpone our delivery which was due on Monday."
Still, he estimates Monday's closing cost $3,000 and he expects to lose at least the same every day the Heather is shut, on top of the lost revenue from Salt.
Down the street at Boneta, owner Mark Brand was busy trying to contact customers with reservations for last night. "I have 45 people in the book I can't access," he said. "We have so many clients who come here to celebrate a special day and we can't provide it."
"Right now, I have no idea when we will open whatsoever," Mr. Brand said. "We are losing $6,000 a day, bare minimum. That doesn't include costs from lost food or the wages we still have to pay our salaried employees."
The problem for many restaurants is not just how long they have to close, but the time it takes to be ready for service once they have power back. Brian Fowke, chef-owner of Metro restaurant, estimates he needs 24 hours after the electricity is turned back on until the kitchen is ready to operate fully.
"I had to throw out all my sauces," he explained. "That means I have to start the stocks from scratch and veal stock takes 24 hours to cook."
Metro's summer seafood menu was scheduled to begin today. Mr. Fowke took delivery of thousands of dollars' worth of expensive products, including Alaskan King crab, Qualicum scallops and Monterey calamari on Monday before his power went out. "Luckily," he said, "my friend, Neil Wyles, who owns the Hamilton Street Grill in Yaletown, has let me fill his freezer and store $10,000 worth of seafood in his fridge."
Still, after receiving information from the health inspector about how long he could store other perishables, Mr. Fowke had to throw $5,000 worth of dairy products in the garbage. His plan was to have staff give the restaurant a thorough cleaning yesterday afternoon, before taking them all out for dinner and drinks. "We just have to find somewhere that's open and can take 40 people," he said.
Gastown's restaurants have been the hardest hit. The huge patio at Chill Winston sat empty in the sunshine, unable to sell drinks while the kitchen was closed. Likewise So.Cial, Flux and The Old Spaghetti Factory remained shut yesterday.
If the power is off until tomorrow, it's going to cost these rooms dearly. Tonight is the annual Tour De Gastown, BC Cancer Foundation's fundraising bicycle race through the streets that boasts Lance Armstrong as a former winner.
"The Tour De Gastown is like a really busy Friday night," explained Mr. Heather. "Even if we get power back in the morning, how do we prep for that volume of business? It's a disaster."
But it wasn't all doom and gloom: At places unaffected by the outage, business was booming.
Steamworks Brewing Company and Jules Bistro were slammed, as was the Hamilton Street Grill. "We did three times our normal dollar take on Monday," said Neil Wyles, owner of the latter. "It was crazy - at one point I had to tell my servers, 'No more: that's it.' "
