Shakes for the people, buckets for the horses

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Poway:

One of the only businesses in Poway to remain open, besides Stater Bros., where people were stocking on bottled water, was the local Baskin Robbins ice cream franchise owned by Mitch Hirota, 49.

Hirota said he came to the store in the morning in a rush to save his inventory, then got stuck there. ‘I was sure the refrigerators would be out from no electricity, but they weren’t, so I stayed open,’ he said.

His family meanwhile had evacuated from Fallbrook, so he had no place to go back to, and was busy serving ice cream well after dark. To his surprise, business was brisk: Shakes, ice cream and the occasional bucket of water for free for the horses standing around in his parking lot.

-- Jill Leovy