Bradenton Beach waterfront restaurant reopens 6 weeks after hurricanes: 'Many hands make light work'

Beach House restaurant reopens after storms

FOX 13's Kim Kuizon reports on Beach House restaurant in Bradenton Beach reopening six weeks after Hurricanes Helene and Milton forced them to close.

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. - One of Bradenton Beach’s many beachfront restaurants saw friends toast the day it finally reopened six weeks after Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Beach House Water has reopened its doors after dealing with flooding and land damage caused by the storms.

Outside of Bradenton Beaches Beach House restaurant.

"We are very relieved, very happy, and we are here to help support these businesses down here," said Manatee County resident Victor Becks.

It’s a beacon of hope as Bradenton Beach continues to build back from hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Helene’s storm surge brought nearly four feet of sand across the property and a few inches of water inside.

"In such a short period of time, they’ve made some serious miracles happen," said Becks.

Jon O’Driscoll, the restaurant’s General Manager, said teams of Beach House employees showed up every day to clean and shovel sand left from the storms.

"It’s the old; many hands make light work. It’s incredible how many things you can get done with just whatever people you can put together," said O’Driscoll. "We’d bring in teams of ten, and they would do so much work I’d come in surprised the next day."

According to O’Driscoll, the teams were so efficient that he asked, "How did we move that much sand and clear that driveway?"

One of the teams cleaning hurricane damage from Beach House restaurant.

That work helped Daniel Sullivan, the Director of Southwest Operations for Beachside Hospitality Group, make sure employees didn’t miss out on a paycheck.

"We just took over these restaurants a few short months ago, so we looked at this as an optimistic opportunity to really get boots on the ground and really be elbow to elbow with our staff and meet people in a much closer basis," said Sullivan.

According to Sullivan, the water looks just as picturesque as ever, and Beach House is ready for much better times ahead.

"We are ready with open arms to welcome everybody back to the beaches," said Sullivan.

A view inside of the Beach House restaurant.

Beachside Hospitality Group also owns the Sandbar on Anna Maria Island. They’ve been able to host weddings and said they will be reopening the Sandbar, later his week.

The Mar Vista on Longboat Key will hopefully be able to reopen sometime next week.

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