PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A popular Pinellas County restaurant is celebrating being in business for more than four decades. The timeframe also marks one year since The Frog Pond re-opened after being hit by Hurricane Helene. The owner of the North Redington Beach restaurant attributes a community coming together.<\/p>\n
Frog Pond has been celebrating welcoming guests here for 44 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were here yesterday and today,\u201d said Tiffany Allen, who was visiting with her family from Ohio.<\/p>\n
That community and customer support is what makes owner Luciano Larocca most proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m most excited about the reason why we make it 44 years,\u201d said Larocca. \u201cIt\u2019s because all the people that come and support all the locals, we\u2019re so blessed to have that support from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diners make up locals who have become regulars, to longtime visitors who make stopping here a regular part of their vacation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to it every year,\u201d said Amy Baker, who has been bringing her family here for 11 years. \u201cThey\u2019ve always just made us feel like family here. I come here at least three times a week\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming back now makes this anniversary extra emotional, said Larocca.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot to take in at first, I think when we first were walking up and we saw the windows blasted in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The decades-long anniversary also marks one year since the restaurant re-opened after being hit by Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very hectic,\u201d said Larocca. \u201cThere (were) a lot of ups and downs but once again, it was fueled by the locals, my closest friends put their blood, sweat and tears in it, he said. \u201cThe locals are the reason why it got funded.\u201d<\/p>\n
That support continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to see the cars on the parking lot, the people out, the smiles on their faces,\u201d said Baker, comparing the before and after. \u201cIt was really bad, I mean when I came over the bridge for the very first time it was just sand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now re-opened with the familiar frog feeling but with some re-imagination, the menu includes more homemade items.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to change the vibe to everything in-house and scratch, so that\u2019s kind of where we started with these,\u201d said General Manager Jacquelyn Tully, who is excited to spread the word about the Sunday cinnamon roll special.<\/p>\n
The managers say it all marks a fresh future with support from the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo know that we are able to support such a family atmosphere and stuff, it\u2019s really special,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to support the local businesses that were impacted,\u201d said Baker. \u201cThey\u2019re taking care of us, and we\u2019re taking care of them, and I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larocca says he feels that love.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing. It\u2019s such a blessing to see everybody back. It\u2019s like, you would think it never happened. It feels normal, and it feels like we\u2019re exactly where we\u2019re supposed to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A popular Pinellas County restaurant is celebrating being in business for more than four decades.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[767,1011,1013,274,770,1190,3125,2200,1187,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,12166,135,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-402067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-community","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-latest-human-interest-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-human-interest","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-storm-season","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}