SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
When Hurricane Ian ripped through Florida in 2022, thousands of homes and businesses were devastated, including the Lighthouse Cafe in Sanibel Island on Florida's west coast. The cafe was destroyed and forced to shut down. It reopened a couple of years later in a new location but without one of its signature features - the wooden sign that welcomed customers. It went missing after the hurricane until it found its way back this year. Dan Billheimer is the owner of the Lighthouse Cafe and joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.
DAN BILLHEIMER: My pleasure, Scott. Thank you for having me.
SIMON: Tell us about that sign.
BILLHEIMER: Well, the sign was a fixture for many decades. My uncle, Mike, owned the cafe for 33 years. And during that period of time, the welcome to the Lighthouse Cafe, where good food and times are served daily, was given to him by his son. It was placed in front on a front desk. It was one of the first things customers saw that welcomed them in.
SIMON: And what happened to your restaurant during the hurricane?
BILLHEIMER: Well, Hurricane Ian hit Sanibel just right and essentially covered the entire island with water. We received about 6 feet inside the cafe, and our ceilings are pretty low, Scott. So, I mean, we're - 6-foot ceilings with 6 feet of water. It pretty much destroyed everything. When you recover from something like that, it's really hard to know where to start. But you pick up the first lighthouse picture and walk it out to the side of the road and throw it down, and then you pick up the second one. And then a chair, and, you know, on and on until you empty your restaurant. And the sign was a part of that. Everything that went underwater went into the rubbish pile outside.
SIMON: But I gather somebody saw it eventually, right?
BILLHEIMER: Well, we are blessed with many great customers. And on this particular occasion, Kevin and Lily were walking by and saw that - the sign sticking out of the top of this massive rubbish pile, and they grabbed it. They said, you know, Dan might want that back someday. Took it up to their home in Boston and kept it for three years - almost three years - until they came back, until the island recovered enough and opened up enough to where they felt comfortable to come back. And that's when they brought it in to me.
SIMON: Wow. What did that feel like?
BILLHEIMER: Well, I got to be honest with you, when they took it out of the bag, and it was that particular sign, I thought these things only happened in movies. But, Scott, I got to tell you, I went right back there. The shock and the dismay and what just happened to my life - I mean, we lost our house. We lost two cars. We lost the business. We lost two - like, essentially, everything. And to go back to that place, it was wild. And to receive it in this new context, this new spot, and it's bigger, and it's better, and everything is coming back, and it's been nothing but light and love from the customer standpoint and, you know, this rebirth, if you will - to see this old sign in this new context, I mean, I had to go back in the office and kind of compose myself. It just - way out of left field.
SIMON: Yeah. Dan Billheimer owns the Lighthouse Cafe, back again in Sanibel Island, Florida. Thanks so much for being with us.
BILLHEIMER: It has been my pleasure, Scott. Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTH LAGOON'S SONG, "POSTERS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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