Berkeley restaurant on verge of bankruptcy after persistent power outages cost $100K in losses

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- For the past year, Cash Caris and his partner Anahita Cann, have put countless hours and thousands of dollars into their restaurant, Delirama.

But the Berkeley-based business is now on the verge of financial ruin, after last week's storm caused them to lose power for four straight days.

The result? Thousands of pounds worth of food soiled and lost revenue totaling about $100,000.

"It took us years to get to this point. We went without. We lived in a tiny little apartment. We put all of our money into this business. We literally worked seven days a week to have this space," Caris said.

After the lights went back on Friday, Caris says he was hoping to reopen his shop this coming Thursday.

But then, the unthinkable happened again.

With the latest storm battering the Bay Area, the restaurant lost power again for several hours on Tuesday, forcing Caris to stop his scheduled shipment of food and throwing his reopening plans into disarray.

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"It's not like we go somewhere else and make money. What would happen to our employees? They can't just go find another job during the time we don't have power," Caris said.

"But it's not just Delirama that's been having issues for the past week or so. Businesses up and down Solano Avenue have all been dealing with power outages.

Across the street, Ata Khoja tells ABC7 News his rug shop was also without power for multiple days over the past week.

He says it's caused him to lose thousands of dollars worth of sales.

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Larson Family Winery in Sonoma County has had to close for 25 days since December because of rain and flooding.

Khoja says for all the money he pays, PG&E should be able to keep the lights on even when it storms.

"They have to be prepared. Not responding after service doesn't exist. Extremely bad days," Khoja said.

Back at Delirama, Caris and Cann have started a GoFundMe page to try and keep their place open.

Caris says without the community's support, Delirama would probably already be out of business.

"Thank you so much. Because anything is going to help us, right now, at this point," he said.

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