Eateries hunger for holiday diners

BY MATT MANOCHIO
DAILY RECORD
Thursday, February 15, 2007

Gino Pesci was all set for a typically busy Valentine's Day crowd at Attilio's Kitchen in Denville, but was forced to make a decision that every restaurant owner dreads. "I closed for lunch," Pesci said on Wednesday afternoon. "We just made the decision about five minutes ago to close for dinner. I don't want to have my staff driving in (this)."

  While no owner wants to lose any customers, Pesci said he's confident that people who canceled their plans on Wednesday will return. "Sometimes, common sense prevails," Pesci said of closing as a nasty brew of ice and snow coated the county. "I think the smart thing to do is to let the plows do what they do on the roads."

  Wednesday started out with less than an inch of snow in some places, but as the day unfolded, sleet turned to snowfall in time for the rush-hour ride home. Deborah Dowdell, president of the Trenton-based New Jersey Restaurant Association, said eatery owners can never really make up the loss of Valentine's Day sales. She said Valentine's Day is the second most-popular holiday to dine out, following Mother's Day. "This type of weather results in cancellations and no-shows and truly will have a devastating impact on the entire day," she said. Dowdell said that while people might decide to reschedule their Valentine's Day dinners, weekends are busy anyway, and restaurants can't make up for the holiday on weekdays. "The reality is you really cannot recoup the momentum building to this day," she said.

  Steve Friedman, owner of the Boonton Avenue Grille in Boonton, said his restaurant was open on Wednesday afternoon, but as of then he hadn't decided to close or remain open for dinner. "It's like a ghost town," he said during a phone interview. "It's just a terrible feeling when you have to close your restaurant because of the weather," said Friedman, who has been in the business for 30 years. However, Friedman, agreed that lost Valentine's Day customers will be back. "I think people will probably go out more (today), Friday or Saturday," he said.

  Owners of other restaurants, including the Banzai Steak House in Denville and The Publick House in Chester , opted to brave the storm. "We're going to be open, but it seems like we have a lot of cancellations," said Publick House manager Abraham Ghebreal. "It will come back (Thursday) or the weekend."

Matt Manochio can be reached at (973) 989-0652 or mmanochi@gannett.com.