Considered an extremely lucrative holiday, the Easter weekend was instead synonymous with financial losses of tens of thousands of dollars for restaurants without electricity due to the ice storm.
“We’ve lost everything,” says Nathalie Côté, co-owner of La Brasserie Bernard. Flank steak, salmon, shrimp, oysters: the Outremont restaurant’s fridges were full and a lot of preparation had been done in the kitchen in anticipation of the long Easter holiday. But the power outage that hit the establishment from Wednesday to Sunday ultimately led to food losses estimated at $15,000. The foodstuffs that were supposed to end up on the customers’ plates finally ended up in the trash.
In addition to food, Mme Côté, who was expecting a busy weekend, recorded further losses. “These are also sales that we did not make and I have employees who have lost their salaries. »
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Like many restaurants on the island of Montreal, La Brasserie Bernard, in the Outremont district, was hard hit by the power outage caused last week by the ice storm.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The fridges were full and a lot of preparation had been done in anticipation of the long Easter break.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Chef Maxime Gauthier (our photo) and the owners estimate the losses related to the food that had to be thrown away at around $15,000.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
When passing from The Pressthe restaurant had still not reopened its doors to customers, due to lack of adequate preparation.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
In principle, La Brasserie Bernard was to reopen on Monday, but plans had to be revised. “We had to replenish stocks,” we were told.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Tuesday noon, Maxime Gauthier and his team were busy behind the stoves to replenish stocks in order to restart indoor services.
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In principle, La Brasserie Bernard was to reopen on Monday, but Nathalie Côté and her chef, Maxime Gauthier, had to resign themselves: they were not ready. Same scenario for the Tuesday noon service. The fridges were empty. “We had to replenish stocks. »
Mme Côté will make a claim with his insurance to try to be reimbursed for part of his losses. However, she has little faith in her chances of receiving compensation.
Further north, in the Villeray district, Victor Afonso, co-owner of the Tapeo and Mesón restaurants, also experienced the inconvenience of the breakdown. “You always live in the hope that the electricity will come back,” he says. But the restaurateur’s wish was unfortunately not granted. Thus, he calculates having thrown away between $5,000 and $10,000 worth of food.
For the food, it was disastrous. We tried to save a little by giving food to our employees.
Victor Afonso, co-owner of Tapeo and Mesón restaurants
And since he was unable to welcome customers to his establishments on Thursday and Friday evening, Mr. Afonso estimates that he was deprived of around $50,000 in sales. According to him, the insurance companies will refuse to reimburse him since these losses are linked to a “natural cause”.
On the side of the St-Hubert Group, regarding thirty restaurants had to close, confirms the director of communications, Josée Vaillancourt. “We had to resort to generators and refrigerated trucks in order not to lose food. Some franchisees had record sales while others were closed and supplied their co-workers with their groceries. »
At the Boisbriand plant, where pâtés, salads and ribs are prepared, the company recorded $175,000 in losses.
“This freezing rain storm came at a very bad time, recognizes Martin Vézina, vice-president of public and governmental affairs for the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ). It’s a weekend where people go to the restaurant. For the moment, the ARQ has no data on the number of establishments affected by the outage.
Back to normal at the grocery store
Moreover, while the large supermarkets – some of which exceptionally opened on Easter Sunday – have managed to limit losses, in particular thanks to generators, smaller businesses have not had the same luck.
After getting rid of the contents of his meat counter, fridges and freezers, the co-owner of Intermarché Boyer on Mont-Royal Avenue, Franck Henot, claims to have suffered losses of $100,000. “The store was overflowing with food in anticipation of the long weekend,” he says.
His generator, however, allowed him to have lighting in the grocery store and to operate his checkouts. His business therefore remained open and customers might come and stock up on fruits, vegetables and dry ingredients such as cans, pasta, cookies or flour.
Thus, most grocery stores were stormed over the weekend.
Consumers whose fridge was empty needed to stock up. Results: some aisles as well as fridges and refrigerators were quickly cleared, leaving empty shelves everywhere. For Michel Rochette, president for Quebec of the Retail Council of Canada (RCCD), this is an “exceptional situation”.
“We had fewer staff and more traffic with people who had more needs,” he recalls. According to him, the shelves will be replenished quickly. From this Wednesday, the situation should return to normal, he assures.
