Marlborough Businesses Assess Losses, Reopen After Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene effectively put Marlborough businesses and restaurants out of commission on Sunday.

The high winds and driving rain caused approximately 20,000 National Grid customers to go dark, and with the darkness came a loss of income and inventory for area businesses.

Several restaurants did not have power restored until late Monday.

"We were closed on Sunday and Monday and we lost all our perishables," said Steve Dembro, owner of inside the Job Lot plaza on East Main St., an area that reportedly did not have service restored until late Monday. "We did a shop this morning to restock and we are starting with zero again. We don't even have salad dressing yet, because we make it ourselves."

Known for their barbecue entrees, Stevie's was unable to provide those dishes by midday Tuesday due time-consuming recipes, but they are open with a limited menu.

"We are only serving five out of 15 menu items right now, but we have a mean steak and cheese sandwich as well as some great chicken," said Dembro. "Come on down and we'll feed you."

Fortunately for the young business, Stevie's losses will be covered by insurance.

At the other end of the spectrum, located adjacent to the front entrance of the was open throughout the ordeal, with locals filling the establishment by mid-afternoon and experiencing a significant wait by dinner time. The rest of the Solomon Pond Mall, owned by Simon Malls, closed shortly after noon on Sunday, though the facility never lost power for any significant amount of time.

on Main Street experienced a complete loss of electricity by mid-morning Sunday, but kept their perishables on ice throughout the day and night in order to preserve them. They were one of the fortunate few to have power restored by start of business Monday morning.

Just across the street, was forced to run on generators much of Monday, though power was restored to the facility and the rest of that portion of Main Street by late afternoon. Employees of the location just off Main Street were sent to work at the on Monday due to the power loss, and their contributions were much-needed as the coffee shop never slipped under a few dozen customers at any given moment.

"I feel like I'm in the twilight zone," said one Starbucks employee, as she surveyed the many residents hunkered over their laptops.

Residents from other powerless towns were also on hand to build up their caffeine reserves and take advantage of the free wi-fi.

The east side of Marlborough was seemingly hardest hit by the storm as dozens of residents were still without power Tuesday afternoon, though much of the area saw their lights return late Monday.

Such was the case with the on Boston Post Road East.

"The storm did not broadly impact sales as the store was open throughout the storm with limited lighting," said Elijah Vandenberg, manager of asset protection. "There was no damage to the building, but the loss of power to the refrigeration system required that all perishables and frozen foods be replaced."

He said that attendance of staff was affected due to the fact that not everyone could brave the roads, though there were no issues due to the limited customer volume.

also stayed open throughout, even offering free wi-fi to customers in a portion of the store.

We'll continue to add to this story as we hear from local businesses.

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