MONMOUTH BEACH — While Sallee Tee’s Grille had a tough time of it in the aftermath of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene this summer, the restaurant will be back in business just in time for the holidays.
Joe Amiel said this week his waterfront restaurant, 33 West Street, is scheduled to reopen next Thursday after months of repairs and renovations.
“Everything is fresh and new,” Amiel said of the eatery, which had undergone extensive work following the damage caused by the August storm.
Amiel, Sallee Tee’s managing partner, said in August his restaurant, which overlooks the a marina, had experienced flooding of about 18 inches in the restaurant’s interior, causing considerable damage to kitchen equipment as well as to rugs, the electrical infrastructure, plumbing, and wood- and millwork, and causing it to close for business.
“Of course, when you have the kind of repairs that we had you have to bring in a architect, you have to get the permits; you have a lot of things to do,” he said of the process. “And these things take time.”
While he and his partners were undertaking the work they decided to do some additional renovations, “that maybe you wouldn’t have done until some time later,” such as redoing the restrooms, he said.
“We took the opportunity to upgrade a lot of it,” he said.
“It was quite an extensive renovation,” which, Amiel said, cost an estimated $500,000.
“The hardest part has been settling the insurance claims,” he said, explaining the insurance companies had been overwhelmed with claims from the large area hit by Irene. “We were trying to get the claims settled, which delayed not only in finding builders and getting the adjusters down here and all those things,” he said. “That held us up quite a while.”
But now the restaurant is scheduled to reopen, with about 70-80 percent of its original employees returning. After the storm, when it became apparent Sallee Tee’s would be
