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For a restaurant sitting right on the water in East Rockaway, the weekend could have been a disaster.
Instead, James & Main was packed with customers.
As a powerful nor’easter brought flooding to parts of East Rockaway and communities across Nassau and Suffolk, the waterfront restaurant at 1 Main St. escaped without damage or any interruption to its regular schedule.
“We got no water, no water in here, thankfully,” general manager Eric Strauss told Greater Long Island. “Just down the block on Atlantic Ave., it was very messy, so we got extremely lucky.”
There had been plenty of concern heading into the weekend.
“We were definitely worried when we heard the storm was coming,” Strauss said. “Obviously, we didn’t know how high the tide would be.”
The restaurant didn’t take any extraordinary precautions because, like many businesses across Long Island, its staff didn’t know exactly how severe the storm would become.
So they closed up as usual after dinner Friday night and hoped for the best.
“We’re a little higher than some of the other places in the area,” Strauss said with a smile. “And I guess we had a little luck.”
A lot of it, apparently.
James & Main was full Saturday night, hosted another party Sunday morning and opened again for its regular dinner service Sunday night.
“The best way to describe it was relief for me and owner Danny Quinn,” Strauss said.
Strauss knows firsthand what flooding can mean for a waterfront restaurant.
Before joining James & Main, he worked at Bridgeview in Island Park, where rising water and coastal storms have long been a concern.
“I feel sick for other places that got hit hard, whether it’s East Rockaway or other places where I know the owners,” he said. “It makes you start thinking about days like Superstorm Sandy and Irene.”
Customers were worried, too.
“I had a couple of families who have events coming up show up today to make sure we were OK, in addition to calls from all of our regulars,” Strauss said.
But at James & Main, there was ultimately little to report.
“Thankfully, it was business as usual.”
Top: James & Main general manager Eric Strauss said his team simply closed up as usual after dinner Friday night and hoped for the best. (Credit: GLI/Andrew Rappaport)
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