Downtown Punta Gorda restaurant rebuilding after back-to-back storms

In downtown Punta Gorda, the back-to-back hurricanes spared no one. For one restaurant, it meant starting over, cutting up the walls and redoing the floors not once but twice.

We sat down with the owners. Despite being down and out as the year wraps up, they found a way to help out.

Red and white ornaments, bows, and bells hung from the ceiling with care. The Richardson’s always decorate their restaurant, Leroy’s. This year, they went all out.

“I think we all felt a little extra festive this year and want to see just the joy and really just take a step back to see how grateful we are,” Jamie said.

They are grateful that Leroy’s is open after back-to-back storms. Helene came as a surprise.

“The morning of the 26th, we’re like this storm isn’t going to do anything, so at 8:30 at night, I’m getting a phone call from my wife saying our restaurants are underwater. I’m like, there’s no way,” Lee said.

Twenty-seven inches of water can do a lot of damage, as many of us know.

The Richardson’s had to redo the floors, cut and put the walls back up and buy new equipment.

Twelve days later, Milton came.

WINK News anchor Claire Galt walked through the restaurant the morning after.
There was mud and a layer of soot-covered floors.

“You put everything into something, and like that, it can be completely gone, not only once but twice. You try to figure out how to continue to do this,” Lee said.

The only way he could was his staff. They worked 14 hour days to clean up. Lee told us his biggest worry was his staff.

Could they hold on with Leroy’s shut down?

“These people still had three weeks with no income, so that was really tough because I’m sitting there watching them struggle as well and figuring out how they’re going to do it and how they’re going to pay their bills,” Lee said.

His sister made a GoFundMe.

People from near and far donated more than 45k. Every dime went to staff, and some of those who gave what they could were first in line when the restaurant reopened.

“There’s no other word for us but grateful that we’ve been able to create something that our community was so supportive of,” Lee said.

While water is what beat the Richardson’s down this year, water is a cause they stand on. Lee knows the economy stands on it and has seen its quality decline.

“When I was a kid, there was grass all the way up to the bridge. Now, there’s not grass until Matlacha Pass,” Lee said.

It’s why, at a time when he said he shouldn’t have, he made a big donation to a cause he loves: Captains for Clean Water.

“Pledged $5,000, and the only reason I could do that is because of how supportive the community was with me here. In the beginning, I called Chris and said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it this year,'” Lee said.

Chris Whittman with Captains for Clean Water said it speaks to the kind of people they are.

“They love their community, and even when they have their world crumbling and have all this stuff piled on to them, the responsibility, not just of their business, but to their employees, they still find a way to show up,” he said.

In this tougher year, they celebrated 10 years of marriage and a lifetime of love for this community.