ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — In the days after the back-to-back hurricanes, MadFish manager Josh Garcia knew they were one of the lucky ones.
“We’re so high up and water didn’t get inside, so as soon as the city said go ahead we could start to reopen,” he recalled.
Garcia rallied his team, and MadFish was one of the first restaurants in the badly damaged stretch of St. Pete Beach to welcome customers once again.
A few days after getting going, he connected with some of his former employees from Frog Pond just down Gulf Boulevard and learned the beloved breakfast restaurant had a much different fate.
“I got a couple phone calls and came together with a couple people and decided, 'Hey, why don’t we start pumping breakfast here?” Garcia said.
MadFish previously opened at 5 p.m. only serving dinner. So, with permission from MadFish owner Mark Tomlinson, they decided to open in the morning and take in many of the employees from down the street. A handful of the breakfast spot’s dedicated servers started working as the morning team at MadFish, as well as their longtime chef of 18 years.
“We kind of created that same environment right here until hopefully they can reopen in the near future,” Garcia said.
Garcia and Tomlinson feel it’s a way to keep more people employed on the beach while giving customers the familiar faces alongside with the breakfast they loved before Hurricane Helene hit.
“It’s also to offer a place for our locals to come and just have a place of normality, they’ve been through a lot with their homes and things and it's nice to offer that,” he said.
Members from both the morning and evening crews will be working Thanksgiving day to offer both breakfast and a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at MadFish.