Winter weather photos
SI cover features area model
Madison vs. Waynesville
Storm fare: Pizza, subs, but no foie gras
Restaurants that had power were so busy that customers were waiting more than an hour.
Related:
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Dewey's Pizza pie tosser Sean Heid watches customers enjoy the fruits of his labor at noon Friday, Sept. 19. Staff photo by Jim NoelkerThe Windstorm of 2008 brought feast or famine to Dayton-area restaurants.
Those restaurants that didn't lose power — or lost power for only a few hours on Sunday, Sept. 14 — enjoyed "banner days" early in the week, courtesy of the outages that affected thousands of homes and competing restaurants, said Lisa Grigsby, executive director of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association. "The only frustration I heard from those restaurants is that they couldn't seat people and serve them quickly enough."
Pizza restaurants in particular seemed to benefit. "There was a line out the door all day Monday and Tuesday," said Nick Reiter, general manager of the Donato's Pizza restaurant at 3959 Far Hills Ave. in Kettering. "We probably did three to four times the business we usually do on a regular Monday and Tuesday. It was organized chaos."
Reiter had one advantage over stand-alone restaurants: He was able to bring in delivery drivers, pizza makers and managers from other Dayton-area Donato's stores that did not have power to help accommodate the crush of customers.
Across the street, business at the Marion's Piazza at 50 E. Stroop Road in the Town & Country shopping center "was just unbelievable," said Roger Glass, Marion's president and CEO. The wait for a pizza was an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes, Glass said, but customers seemed understanding of the circumstances, Glass said.
At Dewey's Pizza at 131 Jasper St. near the University of Dayton, general manager Keith Garber had to accelerate deliveries of pizza dough and other items to keep up with demand that doubled sales Sunday through Wednesday.
At the other end of the luck spectrum, l'Auberge at 4120 Far Hills Ave. in Kettering lost power immediately after the windstorm — and didn't get it back until Wednesday night, Sept. 17. The restaurant is located only a few hundred feet from the Marion's that didn't lose power at all.
L'Auberge owner Josef Reif said the restaurant had to throw away food ranging from caviar to foie gras as well as meat, seafood and produce. Combined with wind damage to the restaurant's roof and outdoor café, Reif estimated the storm-related loss could reach $50,000. L'Auberge reopened Thursday, Sept. 18.
