Castaic Eateries Find Snowfall Is No Windfall : Weather: A closed freeway has travelers ducking into roadside restaurants. Mostly for warmth.

Ed Gallo, owner of the McDonald’s restaurant in Castaic, headed for work in a good mood Thursday morning after getting a phone call from a frantic employee.

The California Highway Patrol had closed the Golden State Freeway just outside his restaurant, the employee told him, and truckers and holiday travelers were packed wall to wall at the McDonald’s.

“I came in to work with dollar signs in my eyes,” he said.

But Gallo’s ray of sunshine turned out to be only a short-lived glimmer.

Like several other restaurant owners in the tiny town of Castaic, Gallo found that the motorists trapped by the Thursday morning snowfall kept a tight grip on their wallets.

“They order coffee and they want free refills until the cows come home,” he said of the customers who crowded his business for two hours before leaving.

Several Castaic businesses failed to benefit at all from the scores of trapped motorists because strong winds knocked out power lines, blacking out several blocks for the entire morning.

Caltrans officials said the freeway was closed near Gorman at 4 a.m., with more than 30 semitrailer trucks stalled or jackknifed on the icy pavement of the steep Grapevine grade. After clearing about an inch of snow and ice from the road, California Department of Transportation workers opened the southbound lanes at 8 a.m. and the northbound lanes at 9.

Forecasters warned travelers that north to northwest winds of 35 to 45 m.p.h. were expected in the mountains and below the Tejon Pass.

Rosa Vargas, owner of Cafe Mike, a Mexican-American restaurant in Castaic popular with truck drivers, said her waitresses were initially bustling with orders. But she said that after a while, she realized her customers were simply interested in keeping warm in her restaurant and filling up on refills of coffee.

“They stay here for hours and hours, the same people,” she complained about 11 a.m. “Mostly they sit and talk and drink our coffee. They have been sitting here since 6 o’clock in the morning.”

The assistant manager of Teddi’s Donuts on Castaic Road said business was about normal Thursday morning even though rows of trucks had double- and triple-parked for blocks outside his shop.

Some restaurant owners said business was slower than usual because once the freeway was cleared, motorists sped past Castaic without stopping for fear of being trapped by another snowfall.

“So, what happens is we open and we do good for two hours, but for eight hours we are dead,” Gallo said. “So, over a 10-hour average, we are doing less than usual.”

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