Lexington restaurants return to normal operations after wind storm

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Lexington restaurants are returning to normal operations after Friday’s high winds. While some were shut down, others were overwhelmed, with many turning to them for warm meals.

At Leestown Coffee House, owner Thomas Ward is hoping to make up for lost time and product. His shop on Leestown Road lost power through the weekend after Friday’s winds, losing days of business.

“When you have a loss of income that’s already been planned to be spent, it’s really difficult to recover,” Ward said. “Honestly, that’s why the past few days have been really great. It’s been extremely busy.”

Ward says the shop will be financially strapped for a bit while they catch up, but they don’t anticipate major shortfalls.

Across town at Big Kahuna, they saw reverse impacts. They never lost power, and families turned to them for hot meals.

“We had a different problem there where we had more business than we could almost handle, and there were longer wait times,” said Trevor Cutts of Big Kahuna. “But everyone seemed to be patient and happy to be eating anything at all.”

The local restaurant industry is a tight community. And places that were open understand the losses the others felt.

“It can be really devastating where, like, across the street at Charlie’s, they were down for multiple days,” Cutts said. “When your refrigeration is compromised like that, you can really suffer a number of setbacks.”

Setbacks places like Leestown Coffee say they will overcome.

“We’re very happy for the response and the help that community has given us,” said Ward.

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