For Paradise Grille in St. Pete Beach, a chance to come back stronger after Milton

As Hurricane Milton moved toward Tampa Bay Wednesday evening, Mike Janecek had a sinking feeling that this would be “the one.”

His iconic St. Pete Beach restaurant and bar — Paradise Grille — had taken damage from Hurricane Helene just 12 days earlier. As Milton stirred in the gulf as a Category 5 hurricane, Janecek feared for his beachfront community of Pass-a-Grille.

But on Friday morning, when the bridges to the barrier islands reopened to the public for the first time since the largest evacuation order in Florida history, Janecek arrived back to a restaurant relatively unscathed.

“We got lucky,” he said. “Thank God we didn’t lose the town. I thought this was going to be the knock-out punch.”

In the hours leading up to Milton, Janecek kept tabs on his restaurant through security cameras until power cut around 8:30 p.m. But when the path of the storm shifted right, sending the brunt of devastating storm surge to Sarasota, Janecek felt sure his restaurant would survive.

Sure enough, when he arrived at daylight on Friday, there it was — coated with sand but still standing.

“It’s like a snow storm,” said Janecek, who grew up in Buffalo, N.Y.

Despite the relief there’s a long road ahead. Surge during Helene breached the restaurant’s concrete walls, damaging stoves and coolers. The restaurant will be closed for the next few months, Janecek said, while they work to gut the place, but the building still fared better than most because of hurricane-grade construction, he said. His smaller restaurant off of St. Pete Beach will reopen in a week, he said.

Though the lost business will hurt — Janecek employs some 50 workers who are without full-time employment while they rebuild — he said they’re staying positive and using this as an opportunity to renovate.

“We’re going to take the opportunity,” said Janecek, who noted that at its busiest season in the spring, the Grille sees about 2,000 customers a day.

Though he’s keeping positive, he said that he feels for other restaurants and bars in the area that took more damage from the past two storms. That includes those to the south.

“We got saved, really,” he said. “I have friends down in Siesta Key that got a double-dose of water. Their restaurants are ruined.”

The damage left by Milton on the Pinellas beaches is a mixed bag, and in some areas it’s hard to tell what destruction was wrought by which storm.

In the meantime, for regulars wondering about the Sunset Bell that stands on the patio of the restaurant and is rung every night by a visitor — a tradition spanning years — Janecek said it will continue even though the business remains closed.

People interested in supporting Paradise Grille can buy gift cards online to be used at the second location or once they reopen early next year.

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