Sonoma County restaurateurs are racing to prepare themselves for a proposed power outage that could have a devastating impact on their bottom line. At risk: Hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of refrigerated and frozen food that could quickly spoil if their electricity goes out for an extended amount of time.
That’s in addition to the potential revenue loss of having to close their doors for multiple days.
“We’re in the throes of this right now,” said Domenica Catelli, of Catelli’s in Geyserville. With just hours to go before what’s expected to be a significant outage throughout the county, she was scrambling to find some extra refrigerated space and canceling food orders.
“We’re reaching out to everyone we know,” said Catelli. “We’re looking at refrigerated trucks and downsizing what we have,” she said. Throughout the county, the race is on to prepare for what could be several days without power.
The timing, for many, couldn’t be worse. A lack of trained workers, still-slumping tourist revenue and the loss of entire neighborhoods that are still not-yet-rebuilt has taken a serious toll on the restaurant industry.
“This is really what everyone needs right now?” said restaurateur Terri Stark of Stark Reality Restaurants of the continued stress the industry has seen in the last 24 months.
“The timing of it is so eerie and I’m on edge,” she said.
All but one of the six restaurants Stark owns with her husband, Chef Mark Stark, are in proposed outage areas from Healdsburg to Santa Rosa. Her own home is also in one of the zones and Willi’s Wine Bar was among a handful of restaurants that burned in the 2017 wildfires two years ago.
Stark said they’re currently packing their walk-ins with dry ice. Walk-ins are large refrigerated rooms, that range from closet-sized to hundreds of square feet and are imperative for keeping perishable food at safe temperatures.
Stark’s Steakhouse near Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square will be their base of operations if the power goes out. “The Steakhouse will be open and we think we may be pretty busy because people need a place to eat if there’s no power. But we’re just gonna take this one step at a time. We have a huge walk-in there and we can move whatever food to use at that location,” she said.
Stark, along with other restaurateurs say the large refrigeration units typical in restaurants will hold the temperature for up to a day or longer if they remain unopened. But once the refrigeration temperature hits 40 degrees most perishable food like meat or produce, have to be discarded.
“It could be a total loss. If the power is down, we’ll cancel all our orders for the morning, but it’s gonna be touch and go,” she said.
“I’m making sure I’ve got gas in my generator,” said John Franchetti, of Franchetti’s Gasthaus. Though his Dutton Ave. location isn’t currently on a map of planned outage areas, he’s planning for the worst. In 2017, his restaurant was closed for 15 days while wildfires raged.
“If we have power, I’m going to be open,” said Franchetti.
In Glen Ellen, Ari Weisswasser said his restaurant, Glen Ellen Star, has a busy weekend planned, and he’s not planning to close if he can help it. “Look, I’ve done this before,” said Weisswasser, whose restaurant was perilously close to fires that devastated the surrounding area in 2017. “It would take an earthquake to shut us down. I’m staying open. I’ve done this before and I can do it again,” he said.
In Healdsburg, Dustin Valette said he supports the preventative measures being taken by PGE, though it could seriously affect his businesses. Valette’s father, Bob, is an active duty Cal Fire tanker pilot so the potential for wildfires hits close to home.
“We fully support preventative measures to help save the lives and homes throughout Sonoma County,” he said. “We feel that taking a preventative approach far outweighs the negative effects. If there is a power outage, we will have to close for regular service, although we will be taking this on a case by case basis and plan on having regular service throughout the week,” he said.
Catelli said that despite the worries, the Sonoma County restaurant community is tight-knit and will stick together.
“What I know from what we’ve all been through the last two years is that we’ve gone through a lot and our community is strong,” she said.
Does business interruption insurance and loss insurance cover losses caused by an outage under these circumstances?
filling the walk in with dry ice will surly help preserve the food but I would be cautious about entering the walk in as when the dry ice melts it changes back to c02. I would want the walk in to be properly vented before entering.
Not only may I lose power here in El Dorado County, our lame EID water provider told everyone to stop using water because they haven’t got enough generators to run the pumps.
I asked them whether they’d be buying more or giving me a refund for poor planning.
Not sure which is more inept…PG&E or my overpriced water company.
This has been in the PD for weeks, so any commercial business that absolutely needs power should have purchased a back-up generator already and/or have real contingency plans. Sorry for your inconvenience, but everyone is being inconvenienced. So you won’t make money but all of us are safer, and your hourly employees won’t be earning either, unless you opt to pay them, which would be really nice.
The other problems they may have is lack of water (el dorado county’s water company hasn’t got any generators to run the system without power, which is now out in their area. Internet and cell phone disruptions are also possible. Last time my town lost power, no cell towers were on. I thought those had battery backup, but not here.
So in some areas, no power, limited water usage and no tech/connectivity really hamstrings businesses like restaurants.
Yes power being out usually means no water, especially if you have a well, and possibly no internet, even if you have a generator. Personally I would rather PG&E err on the side of caution for safety sake.
Will it be expensive? Yep, but the alternative we saw in Oct 2017 and a few times after, so no injuries / deaths….it’s a good day.
SMUD around sacramento and Roseville who runs their own utilities have full backup generator capabilities and are delivering power and water. SMUD makes some of their own power and can draw some from other locations not shut down.
El Dorado County has morons running its water district.
So far my internet went down (thank you wifi cell hotspot), but still have water and power.
Wow! And I was worried about Mom’s fridge and freezer… good luck, my friends, Starks, Catellis et al… You have an incredible challenge before you if this goes past Thursday morning. Customers are keeping you in our prayers!
One good idea is to fill the fridge completely while the power is on. Any canned item, especially drinks. The more the fridge is packed, the longer it’ll hold the cold. I also keep two empty clean gallon milk jugs full of water in the freezer. If my power goes out (an iffy maybe) I move those into the fridge. Bottom bin in my freezer is also loaded with freeze packs. I managed two days of limited door opening without a problem.
And didn’t I just sell a generator last year…