Chinese restaurant in Westlake still dealing with aftermath of burst pipe
WEST LAKE HILLS, Texas - A Chinese restaurant in Westlake is still dealing with the aftermath of last month’s winter freeze. They had a pipe burst and repairs are still ongoing.
Lotus Hunan Chinese Restaurant has been open for 22 years and the owner said this is the longest they’ve been closed.
"This is nothing that we were prepared for," Lotus Hunan Chinese Restaurant Lori Vo said.
Vo said on December 23rd, after the freeze, they smelled gas in the kitchen.
"When the plumber came out, he had discovered that there was a leak in the pipe outside, so probably the freeze had cracked the pipe, the gas pipe," Vo said.
The gas company had to turn off the gas. No gas meant no food and no customers.
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"We’re still paying our employees, so we still have all of our expenses, we just don’t have any income coming in," Vo said.
Vo said they needed to find a plumber quickly if they wanted to open their doors soon.
"Me and my brother just got online and called A through Z whoever would pick up and luckily AAA Auger, they came out on Christmas Eve actually and started the work," Vo said.
"We understand you’ve got employees working here as well. We do everything we can to get all of our customers taken care of," the AAA Auger plumber working on the leak said.
It’s been a week and half with closed doors.
"Whenever it started, it just snowballed, we thought it was something minor, just fix this pipe, then the guy goes no there’s other pipes, then fix those pipes and now we have to wait for the city, so it’s just nerve wracking not knowing when we can reopen and when we will actually have some business coming in and some funds coming in," Vo said.
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The plumber said the repairs should be fixed on Wednesday and then they have a city inspector ready to check the restaurant so gas can be turned back on.
Vo said she is ready to see her customers again.
"We know them by name and our clients come in and I usually just say, do you want your usual and that’s the most common and it’s just like family, they’re family," Vo said.
Vo hopes to be back open serving food on Friday.