Taste Of Chicago Reopens One Day After Rains Forced Closure
(CBS) -- Taste of Chicago is open again after a one-day cancellation Saturday because of stormy weather and now restaurants are reflecting on the business that might have been.
Taste Of Chicago Reopens One Day After Rains Forced Closure
"It was rough. It was a lot of water all over the place. No power," said Jaime Solis, who works kitchen operations at Lou Malnati's.
He says they lost a lot of dough - literally.
"We lost, really, dough... We were preparing for the day, which was about three packets of dough. I want to say 300 pizzas. But we didn't lose the cheese or the sauces. Just the dough."
And because there was no Taste, there were no paying customers.
"We were hoping to make close to $20,000 for the whole day, thinking that Saturday was supposed to be busier than Friday. So we were looking to make about $20,000."
Dan Griffin is manager of Lawrence's Fisheries.
"This is our first year. We heard that Saturday is a good day so yeah, we're disappointed we didn't get to see what that was like."
At Manny's Deli, home of the mammoth barbecue turkey leg, Saturday's washout means taking a bath for the fest.
"It's going to be a losing proposition this year," said Ken Raskin of Manny's.
The reason? Lots leftover turkey legs.
"We'll probably have 30 or 40,000 pounds leftover," said Raskin. "And they should have been gone."
But Connie's took the optimistic view, doubling their staff Sunday anticipating a last day rush.
"We staffed up today to expect larger crowds being that people didn't get to enjoy the fest yesterday," said Russ di Vicenzo.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports crowds seemed anxious to enjoy the final day of the Taste after the rainout Saturday.
"Friday, I had my leftover tickets and I wanted to come back and use my leftover tickets," said Sheila Clay.
The city says no chance it'll be extended to help restaurants make up their losses.
