Saltillo restaurant learned to cope during natural gas outage
Restaurant owners and staff were forced to think outside the box to keep doors opened
SALTILLO, MISS. (WCBI) – While The Local House Restaurant is closed on Mondays, co-owner Jessica Brazil and head cook Brittany Johnson were in the kitchen, getting everything organized after a busy weekend.
The Local House lost natural gas service Wednesday afternoon, March 12, and had to shut down early that day, and all day Thursday, March 13, as owners and staff figured out a way to open, with a limited menu.
“You have to pull together to figure out what you can serve, what you can cook, and can’t cook, with a few items that run off electricity,” said Sonya Hill Witcher, who opened The Local House about a year ago, and said keeping the doors closed wasn’t an option.
“It impacts us as owners, you don’t have the deep pockets your franchise restaurants do, you have to pick up and make up the slack yourself,” Witcher said.
Co-owner Jessica Brazil said it was a matter of thinking outside the box.
“Checked our inventory to see what we could and couldn’t do, what we could offer, no frying, so we brought grills in, had a shrimp boil, we did that Friday night as well,” Brazil said.
The limited menu brought diners in on Saturday, March 15, and Sunday morning, March 17, as the restaurant was about to open, an Atmos worker arrived, to reconnect the natural gas.
Head Cook Brittany Johnson said it has been a learning experience.
“Expect the unexpected, chaos is going to happen and you just got to pull through it,” Johnson said.
Staff and owners at The Local House said they have also learned that unexpected obstacles can be overcome, through hard work, teamwork, and community support.
