BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — March 17th, 2020 was supposed to be the official grand opening of The Seaside Bar and Grill in Bonita Springs, but that afternoon President Marc Devisse says his business took an unexpected turn.
“We opened around 11 am and then all of a sudden DeSantis around 5, 6, 7 pm had to shut the state down,” said Marc Devisse, President of the Seaside Bar and Grill.
For 10 days Devisse and his team closed their brand-new business to figure out, how they were going to keep their doors open.
“Someone said one to go meal lessens the bleeding just a little bit. So, we started with carry out, me and chef just doing one carryout at a time,” said Devisse.
For Seaside, it’s been tough over the last year not knowing what business will look like day to day.
“One week we are slammed and we think we’ve got over the hurdle, and then the very following week we’re dead and it’s crickets and we just can’t figure out why,” said Devisse.
Recently celebrating its one-year anniversary, and grand reopening, this family-friendly eatery would not be here without the support of the staff and community.
“I think we were one of the first to bring back live music, so we’ve got a great name for that. Our team just being very resilient and showing up when sometimes you just don’t want to show up. The community coming and supporting us and helping us through this has been astounding,” said Devisse.
Debbie Toy, a customer since the beginning says despite being older the Seaside Bar and Grill gives her a safe place to regain some sort of normalcy during the pandemic.
“When they started doing take out we were a little bit reluctant because we are not take-out kind of people. However, once they opened full time we said we have to give them a shot. I’m not the least bit hesitant to come here and be apart of this family,” said Debbie Toy a regular customer at Seaside Bar and Grill.
