St. Armands Circle took a big blow from both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Storm surges and flooding destroyed most of the first floor businesses, leaving little untouched. The vulnerable area had certainly struggled with flooding in the past, but most long-standing tenants report that they had never seen anything of this magnitude before. While some shop and restaurant owners have made the difficult decision to not reopen, several went right to work, striving to come back in time for the bustling holiday season.

Since 1959, Columbia Restaurant has stood as a beloved landmark in St. Armands Circle, drawing in locals and visitors with its timeless Spanish-Cuban flavors and old-word charm. Casey Gonzmart, fifth generation owner and operator, shared the intense recovery process after Helene and the damage to his restaurants, Columbia and Cha Cha Coconuts. Initially, with power and cameras down, they had no idea how bad the damage was. The next day, a team member managed to assess the flood, revealing over 4 feet of water inside both restaurants. The team quickly pivoted from shock to action, bringing in a restoration company to remove saturated drywall and mitigate further damage. Despite the destruction, they made a plan: dry out the buildings, replace materials with more durable options like cement board and start rebuilding. But just as they were nearing completion, Hurricane Milton approached. The team quickly moved materials to higher ground, boarded up windows, and braced for more flooding. Fortunately, the second storm brought only minor flooding (18–22 inches), but debris from surrounding homes piled up in front of the restaurants. Within days, the team got to work cleaning, rebuilding and replacing kitchen equipment. Thanks to a dedicated crew and a strong support system, they managed to reopen both restaurants in just five weeks. Despite the challenges, Gonzmart believes the experience strengthened their team, and when the doors reopened, it was hard to tell anything had ever happened. While rumours circulated that the restaurant was closing for good, Gonzmart maintained that it was always their plan to reopen. “Not only are we the oldest restaurant in Sarasota and a family business, we’re a community restaurant. People rely on us to be open and to be able to celebrate all these amazing life achievements and celebrations,” he says. “We are blessed to have the community that we have that rallies around us and supports us and we felt it was necessary to do everything within our power to get those doors open to not only get our teammates back to work so they could provide for their families but to give the community a sense of hope when everything around us was devastated.”

Cariloha Sarasota, the St. Armands store, known for carrying some of the softest and most sustainable products on the planet, had nearly three feet of water in the store from Hurricane Helene. “We lost most of our major fixtures, electronics, office equipment, store supplies, marketing materials and about two thirds of our inventory,” says store owner, Jeff Snell. “The lower part of the walls were damaged and the raised wood floor was also destroyed.” In the two weeks before Hurricane Milton, Snell had removed all of the damaged items. Milton resulted in about the same amount of water in the store but since everything was already removed, this basically just delayed the cleanup and restoration process. Luckily, the glass windows and door were not damaged at all. As for the inside of the store, the owner of the building had all of the damaged drywall and flooring removed.

Since the storm, the damaged drywall has been replaced, the store has been repainted and a new tile floor has been installed. “Unfortunately for us, during the process of painting, the contractors literally removed everything else that was in the store, even what was not damaged by the hurricanes. We were not expecting to have to do a completely new buildout, replacing or reinstalling everything, but that’s where we are now,” adds Snell. “Amazingly, all of our employees are coming back. They worked very hard helping us get all of the damaged items out of the store initially and are helping us get everything put back together.”

Snell had applied for an SBA Loan as soon as the store opened up after Hurricane Helene. “We were actually working with the SBA on our application while we were evacuated during Hurricane Milton. Unfortunately our application was put on hold when the SBA ran out of funds,” he shares. “Losing two and half months of income has been financially devastating and it is because of receiving the Emergency Bridge Loan funds that we were able to keep going and can now reopen. Over the years we have grown a large and loyal customer base. We have been communicating with them by email while we have been closed and they have been calling us to place orders, which we have shipped to them from the main warehouse. This of course hasn’t made up for the revenue lost from being closed, but it will help us replace some of the inventory that was damaged.”

Coming back from over three feet of water from Helene and about a foot of water from Milton in their St. Armands location, Le Macaron French Pastries has reopened and is more beautiful than ever, according to Rosalie Guillem, Founder and CEO. Although grateful to be safe from both storms, Buillem reports that the team was initially quite sad and in shock. “Now is a perfect time to pick up macarons for Valentine’s Day and support the businesses impacted by the storm,” she shares. “We have two new flavors—flavors of orient and cookie butter!”