In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Nor’easter that followed it, restaurants along Hillside Avenue in Williston Park were left with unprecedented financial losses from spoiled food and customers who couldn’t be served during power outages.
Willy Parkers American Bar and Grill was shuttered for 10 days and suffered a total loss of approximately $50,000 in food products and electronic equipment damaged by the power surge when electricity was restored, according to co-owner Louis DiMaria.
“It was a complete loss. We lost power. We lost everything,” DiMaria said.
For the first three days, DiMaria said, he and Rino DiMaria, his brother and partner, attempted to keep their foods frozen and beer cold. After that, they discarded everything in stock, including 70 kegs of “craft” beers the restaurant features.
“The worst part was the beer. We have these craft beers that can be $350 to $500 per keg,” he said.
When power was restored on the Tuesday following the hurricane, the surge blew out three compressors in the restaurant’s refrigerators and also destroyed its computers. And when power was lost again during the Nor’easter, the restocked restaurant lost its produce and beer a second time.
“We got hit double hard. It was terrible,” said DiMaria, who was still tallying up the debit.
He said he’s hoping to recoup some of the loss with holiday parties Willy Parkers is currently booking.
At Madison’s, owner Kevin Madison estimated losses of $20,000 in spoiled food and $30,000 in lost business.
“It crumbled us in a sense, but life’s going to go on for everyone,”
Madison said. “Our business will recoup.”
Hildebrandt’s lost $2,000 in food and $2,000 in the 300 gallons of the ice cream it makes on its premises, according to co-owner Susan Acosta, who estimated the eatery also forfeited approximately $2,000 a day in business.
“Everything was ruined,” she said “And we were closed for such a long time.”
It took seven people working two days at Hildebrandt’s to clean up after the hurricane. Each restaurant on Hillside Avenue went through the same process, with an obligatory inspection by health inspectors before their doors could be reopened for business.
At the Williston Park Diner, manager Spiro Dimas said the post-hurricane clean-up required a crew of eight people working around the clock for two days to get the diner ready to reopen. He said the losses of $15,000 in food spoilage after the hurricane and $3,000 after the Nor’easter knocked out power along Hillside Avenue again were the worst losses the diner had sustained from any natural disaster in the past 15 years.
“You always count on the utilities to get us back up in a reasonable amount of time, especially along here in a business section,” Dimas said.
Steve Frantoni, owner of Frantonis Pizzeria & Ristorante, estimated his losses in the tens of thousands from the Monday the hurricane struck the area until Saturday when the pizzeria’s power was restored.
“You couldn’t salvage anything. It was too long,” Frantoni said, adding that he lost “a lot” of business.
He said he brought a generator to the restaurant after losing power on Wednesday night during the Nor’easter.
Harry’s Hilltop Delicatessen lost about $6,000 or $7,000 to food spoilage during the first day of the hurricane, according to owner Harry Hadjicharalambous, who was taking a philosophical view of the loss.
“Nobody got hurt. Everything’s back to normal,” Hadjicharambous said.
He said he bought three generators in to get things up and running again, and said his customers responded after his power was restored.
“It was very busy,” he said. “Everybody was happy.”
