Reading Terminal Market vendors reopen after outage

»Update: Reading Terminal Market vendors were open by 8 a.m. Friday.

More than 20 Reading Terminal Market stands remain closed for a second day as the food hall works to resolve a power outage.

The outage happened a little after 3 p.m. on Wednesday, impacting vendors in the southwest corner of Reading Terminal near 12th and Filbert Streets, according to Billy Penn.

In all, 22 businesses were impacted, confirmed spokesperson Theresa Spencer, including banana pudding purveyor Sweet Nina’s, DiNic’s, Termini Brothers Bakery, Kismet Bialys, Pearl’s Oyster Bar, and beloved Black-owned grocery store O.K. Produce.

Some of the impacted merchants have moved to stands in other parts of the market to operate Thursday, said Spencer. Reading Terminal staff is also hauling in ice to try to save perishable inventory.

The outage was caused by an internal electrical transmission problem, which Spencer hoped would be fixed by Friday morning. The rest of the market — nearly other 60 vendors — will open and operate as usual.

» READ MORE: Complete guide to every vendor in Reading Terminal Market

Spencer couldn’t speak to which affected merchants will open in a different part of Reading Terminal Thursday, or if those who lost inventory due to the outage will be reimbursed.

Dave Braunstein, who owns Pearl’s Oyster Bar, said the stand hasn’t lost too much inventory, but that would change if the outage persists. Thursday’s closure also means Pearl’s will see a 10% drop in weekly sales, said Braunstein, but he isn’t looking for any sort of reimbursement from Reading Terminal.

“It’s just a cost of doing business,” Braunstein said.

Jacob Cohen, the cofounder of Kismet Bagels, agrees, saying the staff at Reading Terminal have been helpful and communicative.

Cohen and his wife, Alexandra, opened Kismet Bialys at Reading Terminal in late January, where the offshoot of the popular Fishtown bagel shop sells bread rolls dipped in za’atar, stuffed with marshmallows, or schmeared with cream cheese.

Cohen said the bialy stand was able to salvage all of its inventory on Wednesday afternoon. Kismet will be offering sick pay to the employees at the Reading Terminal location scheduled to work Thursday. Still, he is worried about how the outage could impact business overall.

“Every day counts over there,” Cohen said. “Every new business needs as much money as possible.”