Hurricane Sandy hit Vetro hard, with water pouring into its basement and first floor. Photos Courtesy Vetro
Vetro means “glass” in Italian – and it is a fitting name for an event space that overlooks the bay in Howard Beach from numerous windows. The interior is plush and elegant: Think fine furniture and soft music and well-lit spaces. It is a venue designed for impression, and impress it does.
You would never know if you were walking in for an evening out that the scene was radically different a year ago.
“Six of us were here, we were staying overnight [during the storm] to do damage control; we knew it would be a little bit of an issue. We just wanted to cut off the problems before it got too bad, so if the water came in we wanted to try to direct it to the pumps,” said PJ Connolly, the general manager and sommelier at Vetro. He was one of the six, along with Frank Russo, the owner of Vetro Restaurant & Lounge, his son Frank III, two waiters and Connolly’s uncle.
After Sandy, Vetro underwent immediate cleanup efforts and the event space was up and running in just 38 days.
“Eventually it just got too deep too fast, and we had to run upstairs.” Connolly said. The basement, where the sales and managers offices are located, along with the wine cellar large enough to fit 80 guests, took only 20 minutes to fill up.
The first floor also took on water, so the men went to the second floor to watch the storm as it came across the bay and struck Howard Beach and Broad Channel.
“All the transformers were exploding, just crazy, cars floating by, boats going by, it was just chaos,” Connolly said. “We stayed up most of the night to watch everything.”
“When we came downstairs, it was just total destruction,” he continued.
The windows, which had been boarded up with plywood, had all blown out. So had the doors. Broken glass was everywhere, furniture was overturned, water squished underfoot. Everything on first floor would have to be changed.
Worse, the wine cellar was completely flooded. Over 1,300 bottles of wine were ruined, the fruits of three years of Connolly’s work, which was now floating down the street or out to sea.
Going outside, the men discovered the whole area was without power and covered in debris. Almost all the homes of their friends and families and neighbors were damaged. Other properties in the Russo group including Russo’s on the Bay, down the street from Vetro, had been hit.
It is impossible to tell that just one year ago Vetro was devastated by the hurricane.
Without power, Russo’s on the Bay was used to start cooking meals, 600 a day, which were handed out in Howard Beach and Broad Channel through car windows of volunteers. Vetro staff pitched in to help with clean up. The efforts of the next few days would have long-lasting effects on the area.
“I feel there is a much greater presence of “community” now and that community is stronger,” said Frank Russo.
Russo and his family are longstanding members of the business community. His father, Frank Russo Sr., founded Villa Russo in Richmond Hill over 45 years ago; he founded Russo’s on the Bay 26 years ago.
“After going through something like this, we know that we, my team and myself, couldn’t be more blessed than to have our business in this community. We are very grateful for the support from our community and loyal customers,” said Russo.
The scene from Vetro’s outdoor dining space is radically different from what it was one year ago. At that time, the restaurant’s general manager and others from Vetro watched, from the event’s space’s second floor, as Sandy came across the bay and struck Howard Beach.
In 38 days, Vetro was back up and running, the differences between before and after barely noticeable on the surface. The dining room is again elegantly decorated, the bar is stocked, the wine is ready, and the Italian glass that Vetro is named after adorns the walls and windows.
There are a few subtle changes that Frank Russo is proud of.
“As far as my team is concerned, I would say we are a lot stronger having made it through a very challenging and trying time. At the same time we are all more knowledgeable and trained in the area of technology as we have taken the opportunity to upgrade…we are more high-tech now,” said Russo.
“In our company fashion, we are bigger and better now, and improved more than we were in the storm. We took a bad situation and really turned it around for us. We’re in a better spot than we were a year ago,” said Connolly.
By Kate Bubacz
