Company helps employees relocate to Pinellas County after Hurricane Ian destroys Fort Myers restaurant

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Employees of the Salty Crab Bar and Grill watched through their security cameras as their beloved Fort Myers Beach restaurant filled with water.

"It was absolutely devastating," said Julia Cassino, Director of Marketing for Beachside Hospitality Group, the company that owns the restaurant.

Hurricane Ian flooded the restaurant and forced employees to find somewhere else to work. Courtesy: Beachside Hospitality Group

They watched as Hurricane Ian flooded four to five feet of water into the building and then knocked out the cameras, leaving the staff with no idea what they were in for until a couple of days later.

"I thought we were going to have to go back and make some repairs and probably do a lot of work," GM Bruce McElhone said. "But I never thought that it would just be gone and that I'd be going somewhere else to work," he said.

Ian destroyed most of the restaurant. What was left had to be torn down. The owners turned to the community for help. They found a lot of support in Pinellas County, where the company owns six other restaurants.

Salty Crab Bar and Grill was unrecognizable after Hurricane Ian. Courtesy: Beachside Hospitality Group

"In the exact and in immediate aftermath, there was a need for clothes and sheets and flashlights and just anything you can think of, and the Pinellas County community came through in such a big way," Cassino recalled. 

"We were able to fill a 26-foot box truck up twice to the rim, and so that was just…the amount of outpouring support that we received from the Pinellas County community was far greater than anything I could have ever imagined," she said.

The company also started a GoFundMe that raised about $54,000 for employees who lost everything. Beachside Hospitality Group has 13 restaurants in Florida including the Fort Myers Beach location. Six are in Pinellas. The company offered to relocate employees to other restaurants across the state, and help them get there. 

Fourteen took them up on the offer, including Samantha Lorette, who’s now a bartender at Crabby’s Dockside in Clearwater Beach.

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"I'm very thankful just to be here and for the opportunities that I've been given," Lorette said. "I'm very blessed to be able to share my story with everyone and also blessed to be able to stay with this company and for them to be so supportive. I really can't explain the type of love that I was given when I first came to the Clearwater location," she said.

The Fort Myers Beach location’s GM moved as well. He now works at Crabby’s Beachside in St. Augustine.

"The company had gone out of their way to do what they did and relocate people, making sure, you know, everybody still had a job that wanted to stay with the company and that so many people got taken care of was," McElhone said. "It was really big. It means a lot to work for a company like that," he added.

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Cassino said family comes first and employees are part of the family.

"We want to make sure that regardless of any natural disaster that they're taken care of. If they need the assistance, we will always be there for them," Cassino explained.

She said they’re hoping to rebuild the Fort Myers Beach location, but are currently working with the city’s planning and development department because there are new requirements for buildings there.