Photo by Aubrey Carr | The Crow’s Nest
By Alisha Durosier
Every time Lindsay Bixler recounts what she saw when she arrived at The Grind in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, she gets chills.
Upon arrival, Bixler had to resort to peeking through the coffee shop’s windows because the doors were waterlogged, making it difficult to access the building immediately.
“Things were down on the ground, that should’ve been standing up. And I can see fridges and freezers on their sides,” Bixler Recalled.
Bixler has owned The Grind, which sits on the edge of campus, alongside her sister, Emma since 2020. Next door — connected to the coffee spot — is The Tavern, owned by Bixler’s parents Dennis and Stephanie Bixler since 2019.
They found the glass wall that connected the two businesses, shattered.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s big bend region on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm. However, the impacts of Helene’s 140 mph winds and 3 to15-foot storm surges were felt across four states, including Florida.
The Bixlers knew flooding would be an issue for the building because it often floods after heavy rainfall. Hurricane Idalia, which also made landfall in Florida’s big bend region as a Category 4 storm in August 2023, left residual flood water, but caused minimal damage. After extensive clean up, the Bixlers were able to reopen soon afterwards.
This time, the Bixlers didn’t encounter any leftover flood water, but the walls marked how high the storm surge rose. All of the businesses’ furniture, appliances and equipment were damaged and lost.
“There was three to four feet of water in there and it just pushed and moved things around to the point where we lost a wall,” Bixler said. “I definitely was not expecting the amount of destruction that we sustained … everything was gone.”
The recovery process started as soon as the Bixlers stepped foot on the property to assess the damage.
The first step was cleaning up. They discarded all the furniture and appliances, cardboard and food — items that would attract bugs. Then they worked to cut out the remainder of the wall between the businesses. At one point, Dennis accidentally backed into a piece of the remaining glass wall, injuring his leg. Not wanting to get sidetracked, they bandaged his leg and continued working.
The Bixlers received help from their landlords and previous owners of The Tavern, Gavan Benson and Mike Tarantino, along with their friends, an employee of The Grind, and USF St. Petersburg professor Chris Campbell.
Reflecting on that Friday, Bixler said it was depressing.
“I was just cleaning stuff up. I wasn’t even delegating; I was just so quiet because I just didn’t want to talk to anybody … but I appreciate their help so much and I wish that I could tell them.”
Just as the Bixlers had hoped, recovery is moving as quickly as possible. In the following days, they finished cleaning, FEMA assessed the businesses, contractors began removing the bottom 4 feet of the walls, and used large commercial fans to dry the space.
The biggest setback, however, was another hurricane.
Less than two weeks after Helene, Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a Category 3 storm. Luckily damage wasn’t as extensive, with The Grind only experiencing some water intrusion.
Currently contractors are replacing the drywall. Their completion will initiate the painting phase, where the Bixlers and their staff can once again be more involved in the recovery process.
“We [used to] see the same faces every single day, and it’s hard not doing that anymore,” Bixler said.
Though The Tavern and The Grind are not affiliated with USF St. Petersburg, they are local landmarks of the campus.
The building itself, initially a woodworking shop, was built in the late 1940s. The carpenter who owned the building even crafted signs and figures for the newly built Busch Gardens in Tampa.
It became The Tavern in 1981 and before it fell into the hands of Dennis and Stephanie, the business had three previous owners. The space next to The Tavern was once a bookstore called Bayboro Books until 2010, when The Grind first opened. The Bixler sisters took over and reopened The Grind in 2020, even displaying the original Bayboro Books sign in the shop — a piece of the building’s history that luckily wasn’t damaged by the storms.
“I just want my patrons back, that’s really all I care about,” Bixler said. “I just wanna have a place for the students to come back to.”
For those who wish to support The Tavern and The Grind, donations can be made to a GoFundMe, created by a close family friend of the Bixlers.
To help refurnish the space, The Grind also welcomes furniture donations.
