Despite bracing for the worst during Hurricane Francine, Julie Anne Pieri was able to open her uptown cafe, Petite Rouge, as usual Thursday morning. The Calhoun Street cafe quickly took on the usual role of a post-storm cafe: backup office and neighborhood assistance center.

Customers who had no power at home flocked to homes early to grab coffee, charge their phones and enjoy the soothing effects of air conditioning while working on their laptops.

It was a scene that played out across the area as people began to assess the storm’s impact. For most local restaurants, it was a day to take stock, restock and, if possible, reopen on Friday or arrange to do so. Some also incorporated community support and outreach into their schedules.

At Mister Mao restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street Thursday morning, chef Sophina Uong and her husband, William Greenwell, checked the status of reservations made before the storm, oversaw prep work in the kitchen, tracked down a stubborn leaky roof and assembled meals to distribute to those in need across the city after the storm.

Just down the street, Francolini’s Deli had power but wasn’t open Thursday morning as Tara Francolini and her team prepared to restart on Friday. But they also cleared space in cold storage so other restaurants without power could store their perishable goods and opened their doors to neighbors so they could charge their phones and use the Wi-Fi.

The impact of Francine varied widely across the city. In downtown and the French Quarter, where power lines run underground, restaurant operators who never experienced a power outage were able to focus on reorganizing their staffs and reopening. The sprawling, historic restaurants Antoine’s and Arnaud’s each prepared to reopen for dinner, while Galatoire’s opened for lunch and served only a handful of tables as the city came back to life.

In other parts of the city, restaurants that were without power or affected by the floods were working to reopen on Friday or improvising.

Restaurants are notoriously operating on thin margins, and losing even one day of business can have a big impact on the bottom line, especially at the end of a quiet summer.

In Mid-City, an area that was largely without power early Thursday, Blue Oak BBQ reopened with generator power. At lunchtime, patrons ate outside under a canopy while co-owner Phil Mosley and a crew worked to rebuild another one.

Several blocks of Freret Street’s restaurant strip had power Thursday, but not Chi Chi’s, a small Korean chicken specialty that had opened just a few days earlier. To get business going, chef Adolfo Garcia set up a charcoal grill on the sidewalk for an impromptu steak night and crossed his fingers that power would be restored by Friday.

Also in Metairie, Southerns chicken sandwich restaurant opened just a few weeks ago. Owners Anthony Cruz and Gene Colley started the business as a pop-up food truck and know how to deal with the aftermath of a storm. They were open again Thursday, while also using their trucks to supply electricians working in the area to restore power. They also made plans to send those trucks to the hardest-hit communities in the bayou area.

In Treme, Dooky Chase’s restaurant escaped major damage but remained closed Thursday as employees tended to their homes and operators restocked the kitchen.

“We crossed our fingers, prayed and got through it OK,” said Edgar “Dook” Chase IV.

He planned to reopen his family’s original restaurant on Orleans Avenue and his own downtown restaurant, Chapter IV, on Friday.

Nearby, Li’l Dizzy’s Cafe will also reopen on Friday and will have an extra day open on Sunday, when it is normally closed. This will be “Seafood Sunday,” a regular special the restaurant offers with an expanded menu of seafood from its Creole repertoire. This is essentially a catch-up day for lost business and shifts for the staff, explained co-owner Arkesha Baquet.

Further out, some restaurants in places particularly vulnerable to hurricanes have weathered this storm well. Middendorf’s, the waterfront seafood restaurant in Manchac, has its own homemade system of levees and pumps and has weathered Francine. As my colleague James Finn According to firsthand reports, the reopening is scheduled for Friday along with the newer second location in Slidell.

And in Crown Point, near Lafitte and outside the levees, the bayou-front Restaurant de Familles was also preparing to reopen Friday. Co-owner Brooke Zar said many of her employees live nearby and were evacuated before the storm, allowing them to return Thursday before the restaurant reopened.

“We are just very lucky today and will be back tomorrow,” she said.