One Kelowna restaurant didn’t stop serving customers during Tuesday’s power outage. In fact, they made the best of it.

Nick Gowing, owner and operator of Nourish Kelowna, said a power outage that affected 10,000 customers came at a very "inopportune time" for the Leon Avenue establishment.

When lights went out at 11:45 a.m., they were just starting to serve the lunch-hour rush.

"We didn't have any power and people kept coming in. It was a little stressful but we persevered through it,” he said.

Photo Credit: Nourish Kelowna on Facebook.Nourish Kelowna was one of 10,000 customers to lose power on Tuesday, but they didn't let it get them down.

Because they couldn't access their cash register, they wrote out everything that was sold and customers gave verbal IOUs if they didn’t have cash. By Wednesday morning, almost every one of those customers had returned and paid.

The outage, which occurred again closer to three, didn't affect the restaurant’s food service, besides keeping them from making coffee.

Gowing said in the two years they’ve been open, there’s only been one other power outage, so they aren’t complaining.

"Everything worked out,” Gowing said.

Nicole Bogdanovich, a communications advisor for FortisBC, said they are still investigating why the power went out.

Although there have been three outages in Kelowna this week, she said they are not related. On Sunday, a tree fell on a line, whereas Tuesday's event was tied to a substation in downtown Kelowna.

Bogdanovich said priority one was to restore power and then find out what was wrong.

"When the system went out again we hadn't quite determined the cause yet,” she explained.  

Some businesses get power from other substations, so some might not have experienced interruptions.

There is one long-term solution to mitigate power outages, but Bogdanovich said it comes at a cost. Right now, they are working on the Highway 97 widening project, which is their largest line burying project ever.

Burying lines is expensive, but it protects lines from car crashes and weather-related events.