Lindsey Gottschling and her husband Peter had their eyes glued to the monitor, watching the live camera footage of water flooding their specialty coffee bar and retail shop Grove Surf + Coffee on St. Pete Beach.

“It was like watching a car accident in slow motion. You can't pull yourself away from looking - and then the camera feed cut off,” Lindsey said to St. Pete Rising, reliving the moment Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on the west coast of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane in late September.

The popular St. Pete Beach business opened in 2020 at 7370 Gulf Boulevard.

The couple also recently opened Grove Surf Cafe, a sister shop in Indian Rocks Beach, which sustained minimal damage and will reopen to customers in the coming week.

“There wasn't access to the barrier islands yet so our friend from Edge Marine took us to the St. Pete Beach cafe on their barge. The shop took on three-and-a-half feet of water,” Lindsey said about the damage from Helene.

“What's crazy to me is how fast everything rusted in just a couple of days,” she continued. “The saltwater just ate away at it. This shop is going to need to be completely rebuilt.”

The shelves lined with shirts, tumblers, suntan lotions, and other retail items now sit empty caked with dirt.

The plants and previously stacked surfboards were littered across the floor.

“Insurance doesn't cover the coffee bar, the drywall, and other things that we will have to pay out of pocket for,” Lindsey said, expressing great gratitude for friends and family who have stepped in to help clear out the damage at the shop.

“We're very fortunate that we at least have some coverage. I know of other businesses that didn't have anything. It will help us restock the store once we reopen.”

A close friend of the couple has set up a GoFundMe page, hoping to raise $50,000 to aid in the extensive restoration process.

The couple has retained a restoration company and hopes to reopen the shop by Christmas or early next year.

“With Hurricane Helene, it mostly affected coastal cities and not as much damage inland. Helene brought six inches of storm surge flooding into our Indian Rocks Beach cafe, but most everything was salvageable,” she recalled.

Thirteen days after Hurricane Helene made landfall, Hurricane Milton inflicted additional damage on the Indian Rocks Beach cafe, causing the front window panels to pop out of the walls and shatter. However, Milton didn’t bring additional storm surge flooding to either store.

Three managers from the St. Pete Beach shop will relocate to the Indian Rocks Beach sister cafe. The remaining employees will likely have to find work elsewhere for the time being, Lindsey said.

“We're still trying to get in contact with a lot of our kitchen and baking staff. A lot of people evacuated and still don't have power.”

As the team awaits to hear from suppliers, Grove Surf Cafe on Indian Rocks Beach is expected to reopen as the same full-service coffee bar with a limited menu within the week.

The couple is exploring adding a new “sunset menu” during the evenings at Grove Surf Cafe on Indian Rocks Beach.

“We are thinking of offering appetizers, beer, and wine because we currently close after lunch. It might be a good way to give the staff a few more hours and give the community a little place to have a drink at the end of the day and relax,” Lindsey said. 

Follow Grove Surf Cafe on Indian Rocks Beach on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

Grove Surf + Coffee on St. Pete Beach, which you can also follow on Facebook and Instagram, will hopefully reopen by Christmas or early next year.