Valley Reporter letter 01/12/2012

People of Vermont: Thank you!

State of Vermont: Thank you!
Our saga with re-opening MINT restaurant in Waitsfield has now come to a new stage. After all the ups and downs, can we’s or can we not’s, how’s and when’s, with the help of a lot of private people and help from the state of Vermont, we re-opened the restaurant on Friday, December 30, 2011.
A flood insurance claim denial letter from FEMA via national flood insurance processing center also arrived, dated December 19. We are very saddened by the way our insurance has been handled. Denial of coverage based on location should have happened when we took out a policy. Every entity we are, insurance-wise, involved with seems to have and hold on to their own truth and this yields no resolution. No one to blame, no one to take responsibility for misleading us with a worthless insurance policy.
We didn’t hide it from Denis, Ricker and Brown, our insurance broker, that we were insuring contents of a restaurant when we took out a flood insurance policy . Yet we are getting the impression that no one gets it. All we hear is talk about a “building policy.” In the flood, we lost all restaurant equipment, electronics, furnishings, food, inventory—stuff that restaurants have.
It was no secret that we weren’t insuring a furnace or walls, floors or electric cables, which are part of building insurance, not content insurance. Yet, these are the only items insurance covers in our specific location. So, nothing we, as a restaurant, lost is covered? No!
At the same time the renewal for flood insurance also arrived. Wouldn’t you be puzzled? We thought that selling ethereal products were the business of New Age bookstores.
Now that the restaurant is open we have to focus our minds and mind our own business which is the business of cooking the healthy food at MINT restaurant. That’s what we love to do.
Open for lunch: Wednesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Open for dinner: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Thank you, everybody! We don’t know all your names, but we’ll personally thank you when we see you.

Savitri Deskov, MINT
Waitsfield

MINT is OPEN now! No thanks to insurance companies>

MINT is OPEN now! No thanks to insurance companies.

For the 3^rd time we put our business together. Starting in 2008 with the TEA STORE next door to our current location. Then we opened MINT in 2009 November here.

Then the flood came in 2011 August….

Now 4 months later we are back again. Better than ever. 

Thank you for all your support and hard work. We thank everyone and we thank ourselves. I thank my husband Iliyan for being so positive all throughout the emotional battles. I couldn't do it without him.

Savitri

No thanks to insurance companies but thanks to the State and people of Vermont!

Valley Reporter editorial 12/1/2011

Compounding the tragedy

Written by LAL

Dec 01, 2011 at 12:00 AM

The owners of MINT Restaurant in Waitsfield received word this week that their insurance company, Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company, had denied their flood insurance claim. Prior to Hurricane Irene’s floodwaters, MINT was on the ground floor of the Waitsfield Hotel building in the Bridge Street Marketplace. The furnishings were severely damaged by the flooding and the building was structurally damaged. The owners of the restaurant spent the three months after the flood helping clean the space, cooking and serving lunch from the basement of the Waitsfield United Church of Christ and working their way through bureaucratic red tape. To be told now that their claim was denied because their business was located in a basement is wrong and immoral. Keep in mind that the owners of the business specifically bought flood insurance for their restaurant. Last May when spring runoff raised the level of the Mad River, they upped their coverage to be on the safe side. When Irene struck they were devastated that the restaurant they had painstakingly built had been devastated but took comfort from the fact that they were well insured. They’ve been waiting to get back to their space for three months and could be back in there in three to four weeks had their claim not been denied. Here’s what’s wrong with the denial from their insurance company. First, the company took their premiums and then let them raise their “flood insurance” coverage without ever notifying them of their status as basement dwellers unqualified for a flood insurance claim. That’s insurance fraud at a minimum. If the insurance company took their money for flood insurance and would now disqualify them, their premiums need to be refunded with interest. Second, it’s arguable whether that space is in a basement. It’s on the ground level as is the Artisans’ Gallery. To enter or leave their restaurant, one walked in from the ground, not down some stairs. Waitsfield’s zoning defines a basement as any area of a building that has the lesser of three sides or 60 percent of its walls below grade. The building that housed MINT did not meet those criteria. This denial is a flagrant attempt by an insurance company to deny a claim based on a loophole that is absurd on its face and nothing more than an attempted sleight of hand.

http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4421&Itemid=39

Update to Valley Reporter-Waitsfield, 11/28/2011

Letter to a local newspaper:

Hi Lizzy,

Sorry we didn't get your message until today, hopefully we are still in time:
We do have some news. We actually would like to publish something in one of the sections of your news paper.

We find ourselves in a situation that we might not be alone fighting.
We have built MINT from scratch into an amenity to the area, the community. A fairly successful restaurant by our standards. We could do this because we believed we were standing an a firm physical and administrative ground. That has all changed with the recent flood. The physical space became not so sound anymore but we still believed that the administrative ground still stood firm. Today that has changed also. Our flood insurance claim has been denied based on the claim from Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company that our business is located in a basement. We are outraged! We feel cheated on several levels.

This is what I am thinking: If we are allowed to rent a space in a building, if the town allows the building to rent this space to operate as a restaurant, if we got septic, water, if we can get a permit from the department of health, a liquor license from the state and if we can buy insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, i think because the town of Waitsfield elected flood plain zoning then all this should suggest that we are putting our business in a space that is suitable for a business. Key word here is THE SPACE. We believed that the decisions made above us are keeping us and the community safe. These decisions should take care of potential disaster situations where a lot is lost and wasted. Mostly hope in the grand sense of the word…

So we bought insurance, raised the coverage in May when waters were rising and were congratulating ourselves on our foresight when Irene came around.
When it did, we were of course in shock, first because of the destruction of the Beauty we worked tirelessly and full heartedly to create and share with our neighbors and visitors. Then because we had no idea where to start the clean up but there were so many who did.
Then our 2 months long experience at the Waitsfield UCC. They took us in and made us forget a little, kept us sane, kept us in touch with what we love to do.

We have been waiting to go back to our space for 3 months now. The owners of our building have been getting the space ready to be rentable again.
It's a long time to keep one's spirits up.  But now as that work is coming to an end we can start to recreate MINT again. In 3-4 weeks we could be ready to open. But now it's a disaster all over again. As we contemplate our course of action with the insurance company and FEMA this is our update...

Construction update

All the major stuff is almost done. A few things still remaining and then ... we can go in and set up the restaurant.

M I N T under construction

New entrance

Looking through the kitchen wall

Future kitchen entrance

Bathroom

Dining room with plenty of natural light (and positive emotions)

Other part of dining room

MINT

Was...

Is...

Is...

Is...

Is...

Was...

Was...

MINT is a vegetarian restaurant and tea lounge in the heart of historic Waitsfield located on the corner of Bridge and Main streets. We opened the restaurant in November 2009 and have been received with great enthusiasm both by the local community and visitors to the area.

In the two years we have been in business we have turned this 24 seat restaurant into a quaint, elegant and romantic establishment. We have many regulars who have been supporting us since the start and more and more are discovering us. Ever since we opened the restaurant in 2009, the surrounding business owners have testified that they noticed an increase in their revenues created by the additional attraction of diners and shoppers. The Green Cup café and MINT are the only two restaurants in the downtown area and both have been badly damaged by the flood of the Mad River on August 28^th.

Our philosophy behind opening a vegetarian restaurant and tea lounge is that food is not only a source of pleasure but also a source of medicine and healing. We strive to provide clean, balanced healthy, uncomplicated and tasty food to our guests. Food that is prepared with respect and reverence, served with humility and eaten in peace and comfort is vital to our well being and to the wellbeing of our communities and planet.

We want to continue to operate and develop our restaurant thus serving our community and visitors. We are a team of two and we do everything, from mopping floors and sweeping patios, to beautifying, painting and researching recipes all the way to bookkeeping and financial planning.

At this time our whole business (and the heart of the village) has been wiped out by the floodwaters and we are in need of financial assistance to start the rebuilding of walls, counters, plumbing, fixtures, floors and so on. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Savitri Bhagavati and Iliyan Deskov from MINT restaurant and tea lounge.

Flood

We are under water, MINT is under water. We don't know the future at the moment. Heavy rain is still coming down, the restaurant is completely flooded. We will keep you updated as the rain stops and we will be able to go into our space again. We hope that all surrounding businesses will be able to rebuild after all this...Let's hope for the best, renewal and for the design of smarter spaces.



Savitri and Iliyan

FOR SOME BEAUTIFUL PICTURES

http://hendricksonphotographyweddings.com/blog/2011/05/18/mint-waitsfield-vt/