Marcos Rivera has a fridge full of filet mignon, bone marrow and Blue Point oysters. But no one to serve it to. His Skokie restaurant, Libertad, had to close Friday because of a water main break that forced the entire village to boil water. Libertad has been serving contemporary Latin American cuisine for 13 years. Rivera, originally from Rogers Park, grew up in the restaurant business. His family owns Las Palmas, a local chain of Mexican restaurants. Valentine’s Day is Libertad’s biggest, most profitable night of the year. But on Friday, he and his staff had to call and cancel the 140 reservations made for Friday night’s special menu of roasted Blue Point oysters with bone marrow, ora king salmon alongside scallion rice and shrimp escabeche, and filet mignon with potatoes au gratin and a bordelaise sauce. “We brought in different, higher-cost ingredients than what’s normally on our menu to help those who came out to celebrate and enjoy something different and special,” Rivera said. “Now, we don’t really know what to do with it since those ingredients aren’t on our normal menu.” The restaurant is out $2,000 alone on the specialty ingredients. And Rivera estimates he lost $15,000 in sales Friday night. “It’s not just our restaurant — everybody around here right now is struggling,” he said. “This is our slow season, so everybody looks forward to this bump, especially small businesses, that get us through until the spring. It’s a big blow for everybody to be able to miss out on that.” Skokie residents woke up Friday morning to a major rupture in the village’s main water line. For some in northeast Skokie, their neighborhoods were completely flooded. Water pressure was low or nonexistent in many parts of Skokie and neighboring Evanston. Crews determined that a fitting cap on a major water main had failed and caused the break, Skokie spokesperson Patrick Deigan told the Sun-Times on Sunday. The pipe has been replaced, and the damaged section of the water system has been isolated. The pipe will be back in service and the boil order will be lifted after water-quality tests show the water is safe, Deigan said. The boil order remains in effect for all of Skokie until at least Sunday evening. Water pressure continues to improve throughout the village. Village officials on Friday said they were first alerted to the water main break at East Prairie Road and Emerson Street about 5:15 a.m. The flooding, which began to subside later that morning, affected much of McCormick Boulevard and Prairie Road, and the roads in between, just south of Golf Road and north of Church Street. Down the street from Libertad in downtown Skokie is Kneads & Wants, a family-owned bakery that’s been in business for more than five years. Owner and pastry chef Maria Kozi creates pastries fresh every day starting at 11 p.m. “We were lucky enough to finish production before the water main broke on Friday,” said Madeleine England, Kozi’s wife, who also manages the bakery’s marketing. But they still dealt with plenty of headaches. The espresso maker connects to the water line, so they couldn’t serve any coffee drinks, which make up about 50% of sales, England said. As of Sunday, they had made several trips to Restaurant Depot for gallons of water. They set up a hand-washing station and bought a percolator so they could offer customers drip coffee. “We lost a lot of customers on Friday because most of our regulars come to us for their morning latte,” England said. The staff was sent home Friday, and the cafe stayed open until around 12:30 p.m. until they lost total water pressure and the toilet stopped working, England said. The cafe was closed Saturday because they didn’t get their water pressure back until around 9 p.m. England, who also runs the Downtown Skokie Merchants Collaborative, was frustrated by the lack of communication coming from the village on Friday, especially to its business owners. “I was really wishing they sent out something for restaurants to put on their doors, like, if you’re going to be open, you’re required to put the sign up that lets people know about the boil order, because there are people who don’t live in Skokie who absolutely didn’t know,” England said. Some of her customers had no idea until they came by the bakery. One of them came in complaining about plumbing issues, but he didn’t know about the main break. Other businesses were open and serving food and drinks Friday, unaware of the boil order until the village called and told them to close, England said. England kept in close touch with her fellow business owners on Friday and Saturday, offering guidance and moral support. Rivera at Libertad brought over 10 gallons of water to Kneads & Wants. “The really nice thing about Skokie is that there were lots of people who put out on social media, please go support these businesses,” England said. “So I’ve gotten a lot of customers who are like, ‘I was just told to come here, and I’m here.’” Contributing: David Struett