This Nor’easter Just Crashed the Shore’s Best Weekend and Restaurants Are Paying for It
September is the locals' secret at the Jersey Shore. The crowds go home, the water is still warm, and the restaurants finally breathe again. Everyone calls it Shore Summer. This year, the weather had other plans.
A slow moving nor'easter parked itself off the coast this weekend and refused to leave, slamming the Shore with two straight days of wind, rain, and flooding. The National Weather Service kept a high wind warning up for coastal Monmouth and Ocean counties through Sunday morning, with gusts hitting 60 mph. By Sunday, nearly 15,000 Monmouth County customers were without power, along with another 17,800 in Ocean County, including almost a third of Brick.
For the restaurants, this was supposed to be a victory lap weekend. Instead, it turned into a cleanup operation.
Anjelica's in Sea Bright
Anjelica's did everything right. The staff grabbed sand bags and pulled the entire outdoor dining area before the water came. It came anyway. Owner Anjelica Lena told the Asbury Park Press the dining room still had about two inches of water on Saturday.
As of Sunday afternoon, she hadn't even been allowed back to check on the place, and she suspected Sunday's flooding was worse. The side streets and alleyways around the restaurant were completely underwater.
The timing could not be more brutal. Sunday was the first day of the restaurant's fall vacation, which means the break just became a cleanup project. "We're going to have a couple days of clean up on our hands," Lena said.
The Beach House in Long Beach Island
The Beach House posted video on Instagram showing about five inches of water sloshing through its dining room. That's the most flooding the place has seen since superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Their update to followers was short and honest: "Looking like takeout only next week!" Dining room service is off the table while they dry out.
Offshore Coffee Co.
Offshore Coffee Co., with shops in Belmar, Long Branch, and Asbury Park, made the call to close on Sunday. Their announcement said it better than anyone could: "Hard to make great coffee when the building keeps deciding whether it wants electricity."
Power has been flickering all along the coast, and with no firm restoration estimate from the utility, staying open was not a gamble worth taking.
Highlands: Porcini and Chilango's
Highlands got hit too. Porcini posted that the restaurant had taken on water and closed for the day on Sunday.
Down the road, Chilango's Mexican Restaurant on Bay Avenue caught a break. The water stopped about two inches shy of the door on Saturday, and owner Leo Cervantes, who also serves as a councilman, decided to open for about three hours anyway. He served six or seven tables.
"We were able to make a little bit of money and make a couple people happy and forget about this for a while," Cervantes said.
That's the Shore in one sentence, honestly. Open the doors if you can, feed the people who show up, and worry about the rest later.
Why this one hurts
The cruel part of the timing is what September means down here. The people who know, know. September is when Shore people take their own vacations at the Shore. The beaches are empty, the weather is still good, and you can actually get a table. Julie Mastropietro drove down from Fair Lawn to vacation in Point Pleasant Beach this weekend anyway and spent Sunday morning hunting for sea glass in the wind and rain, getting pelted with sand until she felt like, in her words, "a shredded pork chop."
"Rain or shine, here I am," she said.
That's the spirit, but restaurants can't run on spirit alone. The storm hit Friday night with winds up to 70 mph recorded on Long Beach Island. In Sea Bright, fire crews pulled more than 40 people from their cars after they tried to drive through floodwater on Ocean Avenue, and another 30 people asked to be evacuated from their homes.
The flood advisory runs through Monday at 2 p.m., covering two more high tides. The wind should ease Sunday night into Monday. For the restaurants still drying out, the real work starts when the water leaves.
If you're heading to the Shore this week, check before you go. Some of your favorite spots are mopping up instead of cooking. And when they reopen, go. They'll need it.