Coffeehouse Serves Up Free Coffee, Morale Boost Following Friday Storm

was in the dark with much of the rest of Vienna on Saturday morning, but that didn't stop owner Michael Amouri from serving up free coffee to nearly 100 locals.

Using a camp stove, Amouri and his staff hand-ground the coffee beans and then started carting clean, boiled water from his house nearby.

Instead of dwelling on a day of lost revenue, Amouri decided to turn the power outage into an opportunity to help boost morale among his neighbors.

"I was sitting around and moaning to myself and then I saw people coming up," he said. "I thought, 'We’re a coffeehouse and we’re a community.'"

And, boy, was the community ever grateful.

Bonnie Salzberg wrote to Patch, "There should be an award given to Michael Amouri who gave out free coffee yesterday!"

On Facebook, Steve Reed said, "This was INCREDIBLE for Michael and the staff to do this during the power outage. Just cementing the fact they provide the best coffee+customer service in the area."

Also posting on the coffeehouse's Facebook page, Corey Leighton wrote, "You did an awesome service for us this morning, THANKS!!"

On Twitter, Kate Kress (@jkrate) wrote, "@caffeamouri you guys are amazing. Just sayin'. Free French press when your power is out... I <3 you guys."

"It did become a community gathering post. And that was pretty neat," Amouri said.

Power was restored at Caffe Amouri at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Business has been booming since then, Amouri said. People are stopping by for iced mochas, all-natural smoothies and, of course, taking advantage of the cool air conditioning.

Want to give a shoutout to a friend or neighbor who came through following Friday's storm? Leave a note in the comments