The sound of joy filled the air up and down Main Street Friday evening when the lights popped back on at about 7:30 p.m.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” exclaimed Claudio Sciara of Uncle Joe’s Pizzeria, who walked out onto the sidewalk outside his restaurant to look around — and push closed the two vent windows that were keeping the air flowing inside his place the absence of air conditioning.
“Dinner was delicious! Thank you for staying open,” a young woman told Sciara as she exited the pizzeria with her husband and headed to the Suffolk Theater for a concert by members of the Billy Joel band.
PSEG brought out a large generator to keep the theater’s lights on for tonight’s show, according to police. But other Main Street business owners were not so lucky.
Customers from Osborn Avenue to East Avenue were without electricity Friday, beginning at about 11:30 a.m., when a transformer blew out in an underground vault, plunging much of the downtown business district into darkness. The consequences were significant for local businesses.
Fridays are a big day for local restaurants in particular.
“We usually do $7,000 or $7,500 on a Friday night. That’s half my payroll,” said Diggers’ owner Steve Wirth. “And this being the weekend after Memorial Day, when sales are traditionally very slow for restaurants — well it really hurts.”
Wirth said he went out and bought a couple of generators today to make sure he could preserve his restaurant’s food. Though he had that covered, the loss of business is a killer.
After the power was restored, Wirth and his staff scrambled to to open for business — albeit with a limited bar menu.
“We’d like to try to salvage something out of this day,” he said.
Dee Muma, proprietor of Dark Horse Restaurant said she closed her restaurant for both lunch and dinner today.
Muma questioned why PSEG transformers keep failing. She said this was the third such failure in as many years. The underground vaults on Main Street were found by PSEG today to be flooded. The utility was still pumping out water tonight, even after power was restored.
“I believe this is all the result of deferred maintenance,” Muma said.
A spokesperson for PSEG today was unable to pinpoint the cause of the outage, which affected 119 customers. A crew foreman on scene tonight said it turned out the failed transformer was actually down the block, in front of Vines and Hops.
Customers settled in around the bar at Diggers, ready to watch the Rangers take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“This was a big hit today,” Wirth said, watching as computers came whirring back to life inside his restaurant. “Hopefully we’ll be able to salvage some of it.”
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.