Making the best of it

SNEADS FERRY – They were out of power — but not ingenuity.

A three hour planned power outage Wednesday afternoon for Sneads Ferry and North Topsail Beach closed most area business — but not the Lo-re-lei Pub and Grill and Sneads Beans. Both decided to stay open and advertise specials for those who stopped by.

Bill Haack, who has owned Sneads Beans for more than a year with his wife Sara, said he installed a generator in the business as soon as he realized he had enough room for one.

“When I lived in Florida during the year we had all the hurricanes I had a small deli,” he said. “I learned a lot then about hooking up a generator properly and I kept my store open for five days before the power was restored. I saw the power outage as a great opportunity and, to be honest, kind of fun – so I was going to do all I could to stay open.”

He sent out an e-mail to all his customers letting people know Sneads Beans would be open and would even have a power outage sale — 10 percent off orders to anyone who came in with the ad or mentioned the ad.

“I have done a lot of things to survive in this economy. I’ve expanded the operation ... and consolidated my businesses, Surf City Ice Cream with Sneads Beans,” said Haack, who also added a drive up window specifically with the military in mind, so they wouldn’t have to get out of their cars while in uniform.

“You do what you have to do to survive in this economy,” Haack said.

Charles Jackson, who lives in Sneads Ferry and is a day trader, said he was driving around trying to find some place to go during the outage when he saw Sneads Beans’ “open” sign. Laptop in tow, he was even happier when he found out the wireless Internet worked through the outage.

Jackson met his friend Brad Lee, also of Sneads Ferry and a regular at the coffee shop. They spent the power outage on their laptops working over coffee.

“I knew they were going to be open – Bill’s not closing for anything,” Lee said.

Terry and Patty Whaley, the owners of Lo-re-lei, also hunkered in and stayed open.

The Whaleys, who took over the business in January, also sent out an e-mail notifying customers they’d be open.

Without a generator, Terry Whaley used his emergency lights and served sandwiches to those who wanted food.

“I figure make the best of a bad situation,” he said. “With businesses all around closing … we’re just trying to do everything we can to make it in this time.”

The restaurant-pub-grill now opens at 6 a.m. to serve breakfast.

“We’re trying to do different things all the time … we opened for breakfast the end of August … and it has begun to pick up,” Terry said.

“On weekends — Friday and Saturday — we’re pretty much open 24 hours. We also try to do different promotions … we added six big screen (televisions). We have invested in things to make it better for the customers.”

Joy Blankenship of Sneads Ferry got off work early and decided to stop in to Lo-re-lei and wait for her husband to get off work instead of going home to a dark house.

“I know they’re usually open all the time,” she said.

The estimated three-hour outage, planned by Jones Onslow Electric Membership Corporation to tie in a new transmission line, lasted five minutes shy of one hour, from 2 to 2:55 p.m.

“Only in Sneads Ferry is three hours only one,” said Sara Haack. “That’s OK. We were in it for the long haul.”

Contact Suzanne Ulbrich at 910-219-8454 or sulbrich@freedomenc.com.