Lexington coffee shops talk brewing woes after mass power outages

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Thousands of Kentuckians, are still dealing with the aftermath of last Friday’s storms that caused power outages throughout Kentucky.

“We lost power on Friday around five o’clock, and we actually didn’t have power back on until Sunday evening. So we were without power from Friday to Sunday,” says Natalie Hewlett from Kenwick Table, a coffee shop and wine bar in Lexington.

“We left the refrigerators and everything in and felt like everything would be fine. But of course it was you know, about 72 plus hours. So you know, it got a little more chaotic than what we had planned,” also added Breanna Taulbe, owner of Leestown Coffee House.

The storm especially taking its toll on local businesses, like Kenwick Table and Leestown Coffee House; both were closed for most of the weekend, which they say is their busiest time of the week.

“Sunday rolled around, we really missed our customers and decided, you know what, we might not have power, but we’re going to open anyway. So we were able to open our doors, we did not have lights or heat or a register working, but we just decided that our community needed us. And so we were able to give away cold brew coffee,” said Hewlett.

“I, you know, kept telling people that asked like, we’re closed, typically only three days a year, so to be closed three days in a row for like a random event, was a little bit stressful for sure,” added Taulbe.

In fact, for Leestown, the outages may have cost them money. Taulbe says the shop had to throw out gallons of milk and homemade sauces that had expired.

“We had just enough hot water left to get the dishes done. We also brought a generator in to hook to just the refrigerators to keep, you know, our cold brew safe because that’s kind of our you know, big deal here is our cold brew,” she says.

Although for both it was a similar yet different impact, they both agree on one thing, “it was great to know that we could come together as a group of baristas with our owner and our community and make something work.” also said Hewlett.

Leestown Coffee House was able to open their doors on Tuesday, they had their power restored Monday night.