Daily News | Opening a restaurant at the Jersey Shore takes family, gallons of paint, and local scallops.
He stepped down there recently, after 12 years, to start Grana, named after a type of cheese. “Peter Shields was the best job I ever had and if I ever left, it had to be a perfect scenario,” he said.
. “I’ve had other opportunities before, in other towns, but they always felt like gambles. This kind of fell in my lap.”On the morning of Grana’s soft opening, a cool Friday in early May, the chaos, those exciting opening-night jitters, continued. Someone was trimming a tree out front. A repairman was fixing the soda lines. Messick’s soon-to-be mother-in-law, LeAnn Russ, was filling salt shakers. The La Colombe coffee would be brewed by Black + Decker until a fancier machine made its way down the supply chain.Messick agreed to let the Philadelphia Inquirer stop by before the curtain rose. He said it was a bad day to talk, but was too polite to say ‘no’ outright. He arrived around 11 a.m., wrestling a brand new chest freezer through the back door. and looked around for a place to plug it in. The freezer would be in the way, for now, but at least the ice cream wouldn’t melt. That night Messick was at the restaurant until 2 a.m. dreaming of creme brulee recipes and scanning the endless checklist in his head. Phone calls went unanswered andthe front door went unlocked, leading to strangers popping in with giant flower bouquets and urgent pleas to put ad in the local dining guide.Grana sits at Broadway and Perry Streets in Cape May, across the street from Wilbraham Park, in a nearly 100-year-old building once occupied by Godmother’s, a longtime Italian staple. The decor at Godmother’s was old-school cozy, with wood paneling covering half the walls and old, black-and-white photos above them. Outside, there were awnings and vines and an ornate, hand-painted sign. The restaurant closed before the 2021 season. Messick said he had about 8 weeks to turn the space around to hit his May 2022 goal. Behind the Godmother’s sign was another one, for the Old Ship restaurant, and according to CapeMay.com, the building was also once a pharmacy, ice cream parlor, and a luncheonette — a whole collection of Jersey Shore businesses that came and went.On opening day, the restaurant was clean, with white, black, and gray palette and a few pieces of modern art on the walls. One leftover from Godmother’s, a full-length stained glass door by the bathroom, remains, for now. The plan is to remain open year-round, but Messick said Grana could close for a few weeks each year for renovations. The door may go.Just before noon, Messick put on his chef’s coat and began checking the temperature of the ovens. Employees came through the back door, with coffee, and starting opening the piles of boxes stacked around. Messick had about a dozen employees and expected that number to grow to about 20 by theThe first customers, mostly friends and family, would be seated at 5 p.m. The soft opening, he said, is supposed to be a grace period for the big reveal on Memorial Day weekend, a time to notice and fix any kinks before summers gets rolling. You get a pass, usually, and he hopes food critics can give him a month or two. “I mean, I can’t control that, but I really hope a critic didn’t come on opening night,” he said. “I’m making coffee with a Black+Decker machine.”
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