Bruce Park Liquor, Package Stores Weather Irene Fine

Tropical Storm Irene — freeing them from malady of the quotidian — but according to area liquor merchants, not breaking all of their habits.

Liquor stores across the county — — were all differently impacted by the storm. Some lost power, some did not.

Patrick Monteleone, general manager of in Fairfield, said his store was one of the fortunate businesses.

“We were actually one of the few that did not lose power — we were very lucky in that respect,” he said. The store’s ice refrigerator remained functional throughout the storm, and Monteleone said the store “sort of became Ice Central for the town.”

“We’re fortunate to have a good relationship with the distributor of ice in the area. Because we still had electricity and a working ice refrigerator, they were making deleveries for us each day,” he said. “We were able to help our community by supplying many people with ice. It was a nice feeling that we were sort of able to help as many people as we did.”

Monteleone, who lives in Fairfield and got electricity back at his house on Monday, said he's reluctant to tell others he has his power back — "I feel sort of guilty" — but says he appreciates what other people are going through and wants to do his best to help.

“We’ve been rationing our ice — three bags per customer,” Monteleone said. “A woman came in, and when we told her this, she welled up — tears in her eyes. It was really the straw that broke the camel’s back. Of course we let her buy as much ice as she wanted. She was really appreciative. It’s an interesting dynamic you’re seeing out there — camaraderie.”

Monteleone said he’s been impressed by his customers’ resiliency.

“People are still planning their Labor Day parties,” he said. “That’s been really good to see.”

As for a business trend, Monteleone said people’s buying habits have been slightly skewed by the storm. He’s noticed more sales of prechilled wine and prechilled beers.

Electricity was restored by Monday morning at , so it was business as usual, according to the store’s owner Larry Vavrek.

“It’s been quite busy—we were lucky enough not to miss a beat,” Larry Vavrek told Patch Thursday.

Vavrek said his business has seen a bump because of Irene.

“It is helping our business a lot,” Vavrek said. “People go home, light a candle and open up a bottle of wine. I wish I sold ice. We could have made a lot more money.”

Over in Darien, the fate of wasn’t as pleasant. Michael Interlandi, the store’s owner, said he just got power restored Thursday afternoon.

“It’s been horrible,” he said. “I couldn’t run all my refrigerators, so I haven’t been able to sell cold beer or cold wine.”

Interlandi said most of his customers who live within a couple of miles of his store were mostly without power as well.

“There’s not a whole lot of entertaining going on in the dark,” he said. “People just went out to dinner because they couldn’t cook.”

But Interlandi, who lives in Ridgefield and was still without power as his home as of Thursday afternoon, remained optimistic that things would return to normal.

“I’ll have cold beer and wine in an hour or so, and now all my customers have power too,” he said. “Things should start picking up.”

Interlandi weighed in on the state of Ridgefield — 60 percent of customers were powerless as of Thursday afternoon — and the progress of Connecticut Light & Power’s restoration efforts.

“There’s not much opinion you could give on that. There’s nothing to compare it to,” he said. “I’m sure there are bigger grids and more areas to cover. If I knew they were treating one area over the other differently, then I wouldn’t be satisfied. But I assume they will get to me as soon as they can.”

Sales at in Greenwich were “through the roof” right before Irene hit, according to Justin Hubbard, a store manager.

“It was the same volume of sales as if it were Thanksgiving or Christmastime,” he said. “It was crazy.”

Hubbard said his customers seemed to desire a storm-themed beverage.

“One thing everyone was looking for was ginger beer — everyone wanted a dark and stormy,” he said. “We sold out of that the first day before Irene even hit.”

Irene helped sales at , according to employee Matt Vitti.

“The Friday and Saturday before the hurricane hit were incredibly busy,” he said. “People were just kind of stocking up. The biggest day of the month was Friday.”

But after the storm hit, power was knocked out until Thursday.

“We stayed open, made some cash sales and wrote down some credit card numbers,” Vitti said, adding sales were lower than usual.