BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV — Since the 1930s, Stella's Bar & Grill has called Bellevue home. It's a place that serves up hamburgers and fries on the daily. But its operation was put on pause due to last Wednesday's storm.
Owner Pamela Francois said her business didn't get power back until Monday morning. Tuesday was the first full day back serving customers.
"No lie, I've gone through a lot of emotions in the last four and a half days because we've never been out of business like that for that long, except for COVID," said Francois.
The power outage was an opportunity for this community of restaurant owners to help one of their own.
Other popular spots including Happy Buddha stepped in to help offering up their own freezers so Stella's food didn't go bad.
"When people need help, you got to help them out," said Owner, John Stevens. "We're a smaller community. We eat their food and they eat our food. So when someone asks for help, you got to help each other."
Because of the help from Stevens, Francois only lost about $3500 worth of food. She's just glad it wasn't more.
"These guys reached out of the bottom of their hearts knowing how they would feel such as we would have done the same thing for them."
Now back to work, Francois is thankful other small businesses had her back.
"It's huge. It's absolutely huge to know that you have a community, and especially because every one of them are local, small, family-owned businesses."
Francois again, back in her beloved restaurant with power, serving her customers one meal at a time.
