What happened at Cozza Osteria Enoteca today?

Does anyone know what was going on there today? On my way to work today, there were several people standing outside, and they appeared to be city workers, with trucks with flashing yellow lights, holding umbrellas above the outside steps to the basement. There was a pumper truck there but they weren't using it (although I'm not sure why the city would be there to pump a flooded basement anyhow). On my way home, it was a different truck...this one with a narrow hose leading down the steps, blowing out a lot of some sort of vapor from the top of the truck.

Hope it was nothing serious!

This is purely speculation but from my experience as a Downtown Jeffersonville resident for several years. The storm drains in that area (and also around 10th and Spring) get overwhelmed quickly in any kind of heavy or steady rain like we had yesterday. I would suspect that a back-flow valve failed and sent storm runoff and sewage seeping into the basement floor drains there.
At least they responded quickly to the problem.
A similar incident happened to me while at Cafe Metro.
Unbeknown to us, the Penn Station next door had been dumping grease down the drain which on a very cold, rainy New Years Eve caused the pipes to clog and sewage started bubbling out of our floor drains about 6:45pm. I worked most of that shift standing in a 2"deep puddle of raw sewage.

[quote=" I worked most of that shift standing in a 2"deep puddle of raw sewage. [/quote]

Ok, is it just me, but the very fact you continued to serve food while standing in 2" of raw sewage has got to be one of the most foul and disgusting things I can imagine in a restaurant setting! Yeeew!

The floor on a very busy line can get pretty nasty by the end of a shift.. Little inconveniences like standing sewage water wont shut an establishment down on one of the busiest nights of the year I can assure you. It's not like the food comes in contact with the floor anyway.
Sure, I would have loved to have been able to shut down. Until this year I have never not worked on New Year's Eve, ever.
But it's a tough call. At 7:00 PM what to you tell the patrons who have made reservations and won't be able to get into anywhere else? What to you tell the server who has planned on a big money making night? As a chef what to you do with the perishable extra product you brought in to sell?
You try to make the best of a bad situation and move forward. Every effort was made to sort of "dam" the water coming up out of the floor drains and we mopped up as much as we could but once the ball gets rolling on a very busy night you just have to persevere and do what you have to do.

The floor on a very busy line can get pretty nasty by the end of a shift.. Little inconveniences like standing sewage water wont shut an establishment down on one of the busiest nights of the year I can assure you. It's not like the food comes in contact with the floor anyway.

I hope your joking. I would think the health inspector would have something to say.

I can assure you, if I thought that I was going to be making anyone sick or would have been endangering the public in any way, not one morsel of food would have left that kitchen.
But as I tried to explain, it was more of an inconvenience than anything else. Once the not very happy to be called on New Year's Eve plumber got there about two hours later the problem ceased to exist.

A side note, we did shut down one busy Saturday night while I was there because of a water main break and a boil order was issued for the neighborhood because we thought it was the safe thing to do.

They were cleaning the greasetraps knowing that the place had been vacant for quite a while. Ounce of prevention....
I've heard they are shooting for Feb. 8 as the date that they will start serving dinners. I went there for lunch last week and they are doing really well. Chef Al bakes his own bread! Great food and killer homemade desserts. I had a chocolate lava cake with homemade ice cream that could have definitely fed two or three.