Marcos Rivera has a fridge filled with filet mignon, bone marrow and Blue Level oysters. However nobody to serve it to.
His Skokie restaurant, Libertad, needed to shut Friday due to a water essential break that pressured your entire village to boil water.
Libertad has been serving modern Latin American delicacies for 13 years. Rivera, initially from Rogers Park, grew up within the restaurant enterprise. His household owns Las Palmas, an area chain of Mexican eating places.
Valentine’s Day is Libertad’s greatest, most worthwhile night time of the yr. However on Friday, he and his workers needed to name and cancel the 140 reservations made for Friday night time’s particular menu of roasted Blue Level oysters with bone marrow, ora king salmon alongside scallion rice and shrimp escabeche, and filet mignon with potatoes au gratin and a bordelaise sauce.
“We introduced in numerous, higher-cost components than what’s usually on our menu to assist those that got here out to rejoice and revel in one thing totally different and particular,” Rivera mentioned. “Now, we don’t actually know what to do with it since these components aren’t on our regular menu.”
The restaurant is out $2,000 alone on the specialty components. And Rivera estimates he misplaced $15,000 in gross sales Friday night time.
“It’s not simply our restaurant — all people round right here proper now could be struggling,” he mentioned. “That is our sluggish season, so all people seems ahead to this bump, particularly small companies, that get us by way of till the spring. It’s a giant blow for everyone to have the ability to miss out on that.”
Skokie residents awakened Friday morning to a serious rupture within the village’s essential water line. For some in northeast Skokie, their neighborhoods have been fully flooded. Water strain was low or nonexistent in lots of components of Skokie and neighboring Evanston.
Crews decided {that a} becoming cap on a serious water essential had failed and induced the break, Skokie spokesperson Patrick Deigan informed the Solar-Instances on Sunday. The pipe has been changed, and the broken part of the water system has been remoted.
The pipe can be again in service and the boil order can be lifted after water-quality assessments present the water is protected, Deigan mentioned.
The boil order remains in impact for all of Skokie till no less than Sunday night. Water strain continues to enhance all through the village.
Village officers on Friday mentioned they have been first alerted to the water essential break at East Prairie Street and Emerson Road about 5:15 a.m. The flooding, which started to subside later that morning, affected a lot of McCormick Boulevard and Prairie Street, and the roads in between, simply south of Golf Street and north of Church Road.
Down the road from Libertad in downtown Skokie is Kneads & Needs, a family-owned bakery that’s been in enterprise for greater than 5 years. Proprietor and pastry chef Maria Kozi creates pastries contemporary every single day beginning at 11 p.m.
“We have been fortunate sufficient to complete manufacturing earlier than the water essential broke on Friday,” mentioned Madeleine England, Kozi’s spouse, who additionally manages the bakery’s advertising.
However they nonetheless handled loads of complications. The espresso maker connects to the water line, in order that they couldn’t serve any espresso drinks, which make up about 50% of gross sales, England mentioned. As of Sunday, they’d made a number of journeys to Restaurant Depot for gallons of water. They arrange a hand-washing station and purchased a percolator so they might supply clients drip espresso.
“We misplaced numerous clients on Friday as a result of most of our regulars come to us for his or her morning latte,” England mentioned.
The workers was despatched house Friday, and the cafe stayed open till round 12:30 p.m. till they misplaced whole water strain and the bathroom stopped working, England mentioned. The cafe was closed Saturday as a result of they didn’t get their water strain again till round 9 p.m.
England, who additionally runs the Downtown Skokie Retailers Collaborative, was pissed off by the shortage of communication coming from the village on Friday, particularly to its enterprise house owners.
“I used to be actually wishing they despatched out one thing for eating places to placed on their doorways, like, in case you’re going to be open, you’re required to place the join that lets individuals know in regards to the boil order, as a result of there are individuals who don’t reside in Skokie who completely didn’t know,” England mentioned.
A few of her clients had no concept till they got here by the bakery. One among them got here in complaining about plumbing points, however he didn’t find out about the primary break. Different companies have been open and serving meals and drinks Friday, unaware of the boil order till the village known as and informed them to shut, England mentioned.
England saved in shut contact along with her fellow enterprise house owners on Friday and Saturday, providing steering and ethical help. Rivera at Libertad introduced over 10 gallons of water to Kneads & Needs.
“The very nice factor about Skokie is that there have been tons of people that put out on social media, please go help these companies,” England mentioned. “So I’ve gotten numerous clients who’re like, ‘I used to be simply informed to return right here, and I’m right here.’”
Contributing: David Struett
