A power outage left shops on Thayer Street in the dark Friday afternoon, with the lights out at and above Waterman Street. Power was not restored for about 50 minutes. A traffic light at Thayer and Angell streets also lost power, forcing cars to carefully navigate the intersection.
The blackout apparently affected the city's power grid but not the University's - the Brown Bookstore was noticeably lit during the outage. "When there's a short down here, Brown doesn't go down," said Ryan Holmes, a retail clerk at the bookstore.
Though some shops closed their doors during the outage, others remained open. Antonio's and Nice Slice served customers in the dark.
"We were cooking pizzas the whole time," said an employee at Nice Slice at 267 Thayer St. Pizza ovens run on gas, not electricity, he said, which was not affected by the outage.
Buildings on Brook Street also lost power. Jane Urban '07, who lives at 406 Brook St., lost power in her apartment. But she did get free gelato at Roba Dolce at 178 Angell St., which gave out roughly $200 worth of gelato during the outage, according to Assistant Manager Dan Darezzo.
Shops and restaurants on Waterman Street also lost power, according to Dario Pereira, a supervisor at Subway at 114 Waterman St.
An engineer at National Grid, which provides electrical energy in Rhode Island, and representatives of the University's Department of Facilities Management did not return phone calls for comment.
