Late yesterday in Greensboro, the lighting in the afternoon sky was breathtaking. It had rained earlier in the day and the air was crisp and clean. The sun came out to the delight of all. The Green Valley Grill was filled to capacity. The stars aligned and everything was perfect. At about 6:45, darkness descended on a large chunk of the retail stores around Friendly Center and over to Westover Terrace. Something happened to the power and, poof, all at once, there was almost total darkness. Since there hadn’t been an extreme weather event, this outage came as quite a surprise.

It is so rare for the Green Valley Grill to be without power as they are on the same grid as the Wesley Long/Cone Hospital. The staff at the Green Valley Grill handled the situation with upmost professionalism. Immediately, candles were brought to every table. For a while, diners were hopeful their meals could be prepared as the ovens are wood burning. However, without exhaust fans, it isn’t possible to cook. At the end. the biggest surprise, to those who had been served meals, was that there was no way to accept credit card payment. This was a giant loss of revenue. To those enjoying a night out near Friendly Center, this was an unanticipated, O. Henry ending during the last week in January.