Restaurants Trying To Recover From Dismal Valentines Day Sales Due to Weather
57 views · Published 17 February 2014 · 2:15 · Indexed 5 October 2026
Channel: Dayton 24/7 Now · 2014 · News & Politics
DAYTON -- Cupid's arrow wasn't the only thing falling through the air Valentines Day.It was a good Valentines Day until the snow started coming down and then we had to cancel plans, said Marty and Molly Meratla.Valentines Day was Molly's birthday.Who wants to cook on their birthday, she said.At Barnsider Restaurant 42 people cancelled their Valentines Night reservation and several more just didn't show up.It's been the worst winter of my adult life, said General Manager Jamie Mitchell. It's been a tough one for Barnsider. We had pipes break at the beginning of January. We are still recovering from that. They were looking forward to Valentines day business, but because of the snow they ended up losing a fourth of their customers, totaling thousands of dollars.The weather's has really affected our business, said Mitchell. Every time we have something good planned the weather comes in and knocks us back.Across town at Coco's Bistro, they only lost about 10 percent of their business because of the weather.It could be downtown, it could be location, said Co owner of Coco's Bistro Karen Gagnet. Typically statistics say 90% of business comes within a five mile radius so I think it's just where people make their reservations.And things haven't slowed down. Tonight's just as busy.I think with Valentines Day falling on a Friday night that people were maybe going to extend it into Saturday as well. I think those folks that didn't go out last night in addition to the folks who were already coming out tonight makes for a super busy night.The manager at Barnsider felt a little better when some of those cancellations decided to call in and make reservations for Saturday. Not everyone decided to come in, but he says about a third rescheduled right away.Connect with ABC 22/FOX 45 Reporter Wale Aliyu on Facebook and Twitter.
