Eateries Deal with Oct. Snow Storm Aftermath

The rare October snow storm had a mixed impact on eateries in Mount Kisco and New Castle, depending on whether or not they lost power.

Isi Albanese, who owns and whose wife owns , felt that the impact was the same as Tropical Storm Irene's.

"I think it was just as bad this time," he said.

Food at Frannie's and Bellizzi had to be thrown out because it was compromised by the power outage. It took until Monday afternoon for both places to reopen. The loss of normal Halloween businesses, a big occassion for Bellizzi, was also a problem for Albanese. In total, he estimates that the impact to Bellizzi and Frannie's is about $30,000 to $40,000.

Matt Henley, who runs Mount Kisco's M&R Deli, explained that things weren't as bad at his place as with Irene. He was without power from Sunday to Monday, losing one day's worth of business and spoiled food. By Tuesday, his cases were full again, and business was "not too bad." He did not have an estimate for his financial loss.

In Chappaqua, eateries were impacted in very different ways, depending on whether or not their sections of the business area were without power. For upper King Street/Route 117 places, business was very good because power remained on.

"Business has been great," said Old Stone Trattoria employee Hector Cintron. Because the place never lost power, there was no lost food. The same was true across the street at .

On Chappaqua's lower King Street, however, power was initially lost and led to compromised food. For the owners of , preserving inventory included almost non-stop prep work and watching of the place.

"We were here for crazy hours," said Anthony Milazzo, who is part of the owning family.

The process included sending off some inventory to a safer location, throwing out some and preservation with generators and well-insulated refrigeration. Milazzo's uncle, Randy LeRoy, was at the store to check and see when power would come back. The market reopened Tuesday, but not without checking and double checking of the food, according to Milazzo. He did not have an estimate for how the market was economically impacted.

In Millwood, eateries were spared the outages that plagued the other downtowns and avoided spoilage. never closed, keeping alive a streak that has lasted for nearly 20 years.

At Tonino, an employee reported that the pizzeria fared well, and described business as being busy that Sunday, which was when outages peaked.

Mike Competiello, owner of Millwood's AS Fine Foods, said that customers were buying items that they are not going to stock because they are without power, as opposed to food that can be stored.