NEW SMYRNA BEACH — The tablecloths come out inside as the pool at Chase’s on the Beach closes down.

The beachfront bar with a pool recently reopened, eight months after the double whammy of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole shuttered it last year. The pool and tiki bar are still part of the fun, but now Chase’s has added an air-conditioned indoor dining room, and with that, a more upscale menu for the venue that dates back to the mid-1990s.

“The town has changed a lot since then,” said Joe Ryan, general manager. “There’s a different clientele in town, and we wanted to grow with the town.”

Chase’s closed last October to make repairs after Ian damaged the deck, but then “Nicole did the knockout punch,” washing the deck away and damaging the tiki bar, Ryan said.

“There was nothing we could do at that point,” he said. “We had to rebuild.”

It reopened at the end of June, with repairs made and the new dining room added. Ryan did not disclose the cost of the work.

“We never really had indoor seating, even the stuff that was under cover, if it was 110 degrees out, you were covered, but you were sitting and eating in 110 degrees,” Ryan said.

Now, during the day, customers inside can eat flounder sandwiches, shrimp tacos, and burgers. They can also still enjoy the pool or the tiki bar overlooking the ocean.

The pool, which before the two storms used to close at dusk, now shutters at 5 p.m. Kitchen service takes a break between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. as the tablecloths and candles come out for a dinner menu that includes steak Argentine, bourbon pineapple mango salmon, and grilled chicken and eggplant Napoleon.

“It’s still a fun beach bar to come during the day, listen to live music, have some good drinks, good food,” Ryan said. “Then if you want a more upscale dinner, come for that.”

Ian and Nicole devastated the Volusia County coast last year, particularly in Daytona Beach Shores and Wilbur-by-the-Sea, north of New Smyrna Beach. In Wilbur-by-the-Sea, homes have remained devasted well into 2023, even as beachgoers return to the shore behind homes that nearly collapsed into the surf.

New Smyrna Beach, however, has bounced back.

While condominiums might still be undergoing renovations, the city’s hotels are all now reopened, said Debbie Meihls, president and CEO of the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitor’s Bureau. The last to come back online was the beachfront Best Western, which reopened in April after being closed since Ian struck in September.

After losing its deck to the storms, Chase’s has managed to keep the same amount of total seats at 150, thanks to the new indoor dining.

The business employs 56 people, with Ryan saying about 20 are from before the closure. He said Chase’s was able to give staff work during the renovations doing other tasks such as paperwork.

Chase’s still needs to get its stairs down to the beach and seawall back up, something Ryan mentions more broadly when assessing how New Smyrna Beach has recovered.

“There’s still a couple places still doing seawall repairs,” said Ryan, a resident of nearby Edgewater. “I think New Smyrna’s had a pretty good turnaround. I know there’s other places that definitely have it worse.”

Curtis King enjoyed a flounder sandwich inside at Chase’s during a recent Friday lunch with his wife, Rose Mary King, who got the shrimp tacos. The Edgewater couple, both 78, said they have been coming to the restaurant for more than a decade.

“It was just wiped out. It was the saddest thing,” Curtis King said. “We walk the beach all the time and walking past here made us sad and this makes us feel great.”

Curtis King had his doubts about the changes while work was going on, but was happy with the results once he visited.

“It’s a wonderful thing to have it back because it’s a definite beach experience,” Rose Mary King said. “For the people, it was very sad … it’s a destination.”