After flood damage, Julienne Tomatoes receives 'overwhelmingly generous' community support
PETOSKEY — On Monday, May 9, Julie Adams got a call informing her that a sewer backup had flooded the basement of her business.
Adams, owner of Julienne Tomatoes restaurant in downtown Petoskey, and manager Cally Plummer jumped into action and began calling employees to let them know not to come to work. Then, with the help of Bay Area Clean Care and some employees who offered their time, they began to clean up the damaged basement.
In hazmat suits and masks, they shoveled and drained sewer water out of the basement and removed anything that had been contaminated, including four of their freezers, their walk-in cooler, dry food storage, catering equipment and supplies, and paper and disposable supplies for carry-out.
“I describe it to people as a restaurant being (upstairs) is our right hand and our left hand is our basement,” Plummer said “(If) someone has a two-story house and they have their kitchen and their living room it's fine, but upstairs they don't have any bedrooms and bathrooms. We can't function without (them).
Adams added that “We don't have a phone, we don't have internet, we don't have our computers, everything (is) all torn out and either destroyed or potentially destroyed as it's still being inspected."
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After being drained, the basement was disinfected so it is now safe to walk through without a hazmat suit. The bottom section of the dry wall was torn out due to sewer damage, exposing the supports within.
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After sharing the damage on social media, members of the community quickly responded.
“(It’s been) absolutely, incredibly supportive. Not surprising, but overwhelmingly generous, supportive,” Plummer said. “I mean, from businesses to people to friends, family reaching out via text. I mean, we've had an offer to do complimentary yoga, to come and eat for free, to go to the Smash Room and let out some angst.”
Both Plummer and Adams said customers have stopped them on the street to check in. People have brought them food, checks and flowers.
The Petoskey Area Chamber of Commerce also started a GoFundMe with a goal of $50,000. As of Tuesday, $33,094 has been donated toward the rebuilding effort.
“I never in a million years would have thought that we would have a GoFundMe page for the restaurant because that's not how we operate,” Plummer said. “We always want to help, we're not on the receiving end.”
Adams added that they are typically “the ones doing the supporting, not the ones being supported."
Coming out of the slowest time of year in Northern Michigan and approaching the summer rush, the sewer damage came at a sensitive time for the business. The Julienne Tomatoes team is now working to restore the business in time for the summer season.
“We don't know the how but we have the will,” Plummer said. “And we don't know all the how’s of how it all comes together, but we have the will of ourselves, our crew and our community as we will all will each other through it. We have to,”
“We have to,” Adams affirmed.
The Julienne Tomatoes Facebook page is being updated everyday on the progress.
Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey's Julienne Tomatoes receives support during flood recovery
