Dorfler's Experiences Fifth Day In The Dark

All week, Keith Walger has watched Buffalo Grove buzz back to life, as ComEd crews work around the clock to restore power to the 6,800 customers in the village whose service was disrupted by Monday’s storm.

Power, it seems, has been restored nearly everywhere except his own business, .

“We had power Tuesday for three hours, and they shut us back down,” said Walger, who has worked at Dorfler’s since high school and owned the store for more than 11 years.

“We have 1,500 customers a week,” he said. “Everybody’s coming by, saying, ‘We need skirt steaks for the weekend.’”

“We had a wedding to cater this weekend. We had to call them Wednesday and tell them to find someone else. It’s devastating. We’ve been here 31 years and we’ve never experienced anything like this,” Walger said.

Long Grove resident Josh Hayes was among the customers who stopped by Friday afternoon in hopes of purchasing meat.

“I come here every day for my fresh meat,” he said, expressing disbelief that Dorfler’s, like his own home, remained without power five days after the storm. “It sucks. I can’t believe it,” he said.

Walger said he was told that ComEd crews would arrive Thursday, but they were reassigned elsewhere. As he stood outside of his store Friday afternoon, he watched as a ComEd truck crossed the intersection of McHenry and Arlington Heights roads, within sight of his front door. Earlier Friday, he had been told only that power should be restored by midnight. So far, crews have yet to show up.

A ComEd representative said Friday afternoon that 300 customers in Buffalo Grove remained without power, and that complete restoration is expected by midnight.

Dorfler's store manager Dale Badgerow and other members of the staff have spent much of the week keeping Walger company on the sidewalk in front of Dorfler’s, where they have hung “SOS” signs in the windows and erected a poster along McHenry Road begging for ComEd workers’ assistance.

Badgerow said earlier in the week, the staff took advantage of the power outage by cleaning the store and defrosting its walk-in freezer, which by Friday afternoon had reached a toasty 78 degrees.

“There’s nothing else we can clean,” he said.

Walking through the darkened store, Badgerow nodded toward the empty meat cases, noting, "this is usually teeming with customers and butchers."

Meat vendors have loaned the store three refrigerated trucks, which are running on diesel fuel behind the store. Although the meat market’s staff of 15 emptied the meat into the trucks shortly after the power went out Monday, Walger said only uncut meat will be saleable once the store reopens.

“We’re still going to lose poultry, pork and fish,” said Walger, who has remained in steady contact with his insurance company as well as with ComEd and his own staff, which he said is ready to report to work day or night to restock the store so that it can reopen for business.

Perhaps most frustrating is that full or partial power was restored days ago to the neighboring businesses in the Strathmore Plaza shopping center, where Dorfler’s has operated for the past five years.

Brandon Keiser, who works a couple doors down at , said that while the restaurant’s freezer was destroyed in the power surge, electricity was restored there Tuesday night and pizzas were being served by Wednesday.

“It’s the luck of the draw,” he said, acknowledging that Dorfler’s was not so fortunate. “That’s ComEd for you.”

Update: Power was restored at Dorfler's at 11 a.m. Saturday. The store reopened at 2 p.m.; a limited selection of meat will be available until Monday.