Hurricane Beryl may have already passed through Houston, but in its wake it has left power outages that have sent the city’s residents and restaurants scrambling.
Many of the city’s dining establishments lost power because of the Category 1 storm, which hit Houston on Monday and resulted in at least nine deaths in the United States. Some of those restaurants have since had their power restored, part of the 1 million homes and businesses that have seen their power turned back on, Jason Ryan, the executive vice president of CenterPoint Energy, the city’s largest utility, told the Associated Press on Thursday. But another half a million users will be without power until at least next week.
As of Friday afternoon, restaurants including Jūn, Bludorn, Little’s Oyster Bar, Feges BBQ, and all of the Goodnight Hospitality spots (March, the Marigold Club, etc.) were still without power. Aaron Bludorn, the chef-owner of his eponymous restaurant, told Robb Report in a text message this his other two establishments, Navy Blue and Bar Bludorn, had gotten power back Wednesday. But after trying unsuccessfully to use a generator to get Bludorn back up and running, the restaurant is still closed for service and it’s not clear when they’ll be able to reopen.
“We haven’t really heard anything,” Bludorn said, echoing the frustration other restaurateurs have expressed with the power company in the wake of the storm. “It’s all shrouded in secrecy!”
Inside Bar Bludorn, which got power back on Wednesday
Claudia Casbarian
Thankfully for many restaurants, Beryl came through on a Monday, when many spots are already closed. And because there was advance warning that the storm would hit Houston, restaurants could somewhat plan in ahead and make sure they had fewer perishable goods on hand, a spokesperson for several of the aforementioned restaurants told Robb Report in an email. Jūn, for example, was able to reseal its building to avoid flooding, and most food was put in the walk-in freezer, which hasn’t been opened since the storm rolled in, the chef-owner Evelyn Garcia told Robb Report.
But even then, once power is restored, a restaurant isn’t simply able to go back to business as usual. If power had been turned on Thursday afternoon, the spokesperson said, a restaurant wouldn’t be able to open until Friday night or even Saturday. That’s because once the power issue has been taken care of, a restaurant still has to order and prep food, and get staff back into the space. At a restaurant like Feges BBQ, the wait could be even longer, because items like the signature brisket take hours to prepare.
For some restaurants, the hit from Beryl is being compounded by the fact that a derecho that came through Houston in May also resulted in shutdowns. Feges and Jūn, for example, were both closed for a whole week back then, and now they have to contend with the hurricane’s effects a mere two months later.
“We’re still not recouped from last month,” Garcia said. “We’re clearly learning a lot and trying to game-plan some more, because this is gonna keep happening … So it’s like, how do we turn this around—and quickly?”
While the restaurants—many of them small businesses—will be adversely affected by a week of lost revenue, so will some of the restaurants’ employees. As hourly workers, they can lose about a quarter of their monthly income from a week-long closure, the restaurant spokesperson told Robb Report. Organizations like the Southern Smoke Foundation (which is taking donations) are working to get money to these employees, so that they can pay for things like groceries, gas, bills, and more. After the May derecho, the group was able to provide more than $329,000 to some 370 people in the industry. And it’s already received more than 100 applications for assistance following Beryl.
The kitchen at Jūn, which is still without power
Jia Media
The restaurants are chipping in to help, too. Goodnight Hospitality is cooking off its inventory of ingredients today before the food spoils—with the help of a big smoker rig supplied by Southern Smoke—and serving it to its staff as well as other industry people affected by the storm. And at Navy Blue, Bludorn is serving meals to hospitality workers tonight, with donations from spirits brands that work with the restaurant to cover the dinners.
There’s no easy way forward from a natural disaster—especially at a time when they’re becoming more and more common—but Houston restaurants are simply hoping that they get power back soon, so that they can continue sustaining themselves and their communities.
“As a business, you try to think, ‘Okay, okay, how do we come back?’” Garcia said. “Obviously, once we do come back, it’s just like plead our customers, ‘Please come back. Please go to the smaller restaurants. We’re definitely hurting.’ And we won’t see it until we get back up and running.”
