Winnipeggers are back to drinking from the tap after a boil water advisory was lifted Thursday afternoon, but the question of whether local businesses will be compensated for the inconvenience hasn't been answered.

At Fusion Grill, a restaurant in River Heights, the boil water advisory meant patrons weren’t able to be served drinking water or cocktails that would’ve normally contained tap water or ice. Keeping water on a constant boil in the kitchen also presented some challenges.

"The biggest challenge was in the kitchen, really, where you've got to boil water to wash vegetables and try and make sure you're keeping your patrons safe," said Scot McTaggart, the owner of Fusion Grill.

"I had some guys [Wednesday] night that, you know, struggled to have their martinis not shaken or stirred, but I threw some martini glasses into the freezer so they were still nice and cold.”

But it wasn’t all bad business for the restaurant. McTaggart said a spike in beer and wine sales helped balance off cocktail sale losses.

McTaggart also said he overheard a number of patrons having conversations about Winnipeg’s water system.

"People were really thinking about where their water came from and it was almost nice to a certain degree, because we do take things for granted quite a bit. Maybe that's the shining light of this whole experience."

At the 3:30 p.m. announcement, Mayor Brian Bowman reiterated that the problematic water samples were false positives. But he remained tight-lipped when asked questions about whether the city would be compensating businesses.

"I can't really answer this," said Bowman.

McTaggart said he didn’t think sales at Fusion Grill were really affected by the advisory. He said in his mind, if shops chose to close they shouldn’t look forward to any kind of reimbursement from the city.

"I also think there's no way in hell that any of my peers are going to get any money from the city," said McTaggart.

McTaggard said if the city or province is considering whether to give money to store and restaurant owners, he’d prefer to see the money go to the homeless.

"I right here and right now would like to say, ‘please give the small amount of money I am out to the homeless,’” he said.

What McTaggart said he wants from the city most are answers as to how the false positive samples came to be in the first place.