At 3 a.m. Sunday, Chris Wood was waiting for his new restaurant’s first customer — Hurricane Irene.
While sitting in his restaurant and waiting to turn on a generator, he watched flood waters come up to the doorstep of Woody’s Ocean Grille — the newest addition to Sea Bright’s restaurant community — then recede, taking a neighboring restaurant’s tiki bar along with it.
“I was a nervous wreck,” said Wood, who did not lose power to the refrigerators that were storing food and drinks for today’s grand opening.
Wood’s planned two-night soft opening was cut to one, which Wood said was very successful, and Saturday was spent preparing the windows, signage and HVAC equipment for the strong winds.
“We made this place bulletproof,” Wood said.
What also kept the restaurant intact were the renovations Wood has made to the building during the summer. Hoping to open closer to the July 4 holiday, Wood’s takeover of the former Ichabod’s restaurant included a complete gutting of the structure, which required the grand opening to be pushed back to this afternoon.
“We have a sub-basement, and it wasn’t touched. It was completely fine,” Wood said. “Had we not done what we did, construction wise, we would’ve had a lot of flooding in the sub-basement.”
Wood also said leaks found during recent heavy rainstorms were addressed, and “we got lucky there as well, because all of the leaks here were sealed properly, and we didn’t have a drop of water come in the building.”
As a lifelong Jersey Shore resident, Wood said he’s not too concerned with opening at the end of the summer season, calling September and October “fantastic” months to spend time down the sea. And with the power still out in neighboring communities, Wood said he hopes the restaurant’s opening will get a positive kind of “slammed.”
“I think, believe it or not, our timing is pretty good,” Wood said. “I think a lot of people are going to need to get out of their homes.”
