New Port Richey restaurant's roof blown off by strong winds

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Right before Zen Kitchen and Bar was supposed to open Tuesday, Mother Nature had other plans.

Around 11:10 a.m., the wind ripped the roof off of the restaurant in downtown New Port Richey on Grand Boulevard. No one was hurt.

"The staff was running around just trying to catch water wherever was coming in," Victor Wang, a chef and partner at the restaurant, said. "So, [there was] a lot of anxiety and panic."

FOX 13 Chief Meteorologist Paul Dellegatto said there were reports of wind gusts around 60 mph around the time the roof came off.

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Pieces of that roof now lay in the street and along the sidewalk. Wang said other than the roof damage, they also have water damage that’s mostly isolated to the dining room.

"So that’s a silver lining," he said.

Wang said they just moved into the 100-year-old building six months ago from a location about 10 minutes away.

"We're very, very young. So, this kind of, you know, sucks," Wang said.

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"Everyone was excited about the new location, and we did a lot of work. It took us almost two years to get everything completely stripped and rebuilt in there and beautiful…and people were starting to come and learn about us. And now we have a little hiccup. We'll have to try to get everyone back as soon as we're up and running," Wang said.

The restaurant posted to Facebook on Tuesday evening saying the damage isn’t as bad as they initially thought. They said they’re optimistic they’ll be able to open as early as Thursday.  

City staff said it did an inspection of the building and found there’s no structural damage.

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