Mother Nature has forced one Conroe restaurant to shut its doors. Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila Bar announced that severe storms and high winds caused thousands of dollars in damage, leaving the restaurant unable to serve customers.
The restaurant’s power was not completely knocked out, but the fridges that store food failed, requiring all perishable items to be discarded. Additionally, a significant water leak and damage to the roof have compounded the restaurant’s challenges.
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Manager Nelson Sanchez noted that the biggest blow to business is the lack of power. “The freezers should be at zero, below zero degrees. Now it’s showing almost 40,” he explained. “We have to throw all the food away and wait for the new one to come in to serve fresh food to the customer.”
The restaurant also had to cancel a birthday party reservation for 30 people due to the situation. “That’s a huge loss,” Sanchez said.
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Sanchez has reached out to Entergy multiple times, stating that the restaurant’s reopening depends on when power can be restored. “They were saying it’s going to take maybe two to four hours to come and take a look at it,” he said.
An Entergy spokesperson shared the following statement via email:
“We understand the frustration Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila Bar experienced during the May 27 outage. Severe weather caused structural damage to the building and blew out one of its transformers, limiting power throughout the property. Our crews were notified and quickly made the necessary repairs. We’ve been in communications with the owner of Pedro’s Taco and Tequila Bar apologizing for the inconvenience and are taking steps to address outage concerns in the area. This includes installing more resilient poles and crossarms and inspecting equipment to identify areas for performance upgrades. Entergy Texas remains committed to strengthening the grid and keeping the lights on for our communities. Our customers can learn more about our reliability efforts at entergytexasstepahead.com.”
As of now, Sanchez estimates the restaurant is already out thousands of dollars, and that number could climb if power is not restored soon.
However, he expressed gratitude for the support from the community, noting that some customers have come by and others have called to check on them.