Donovan's Reef has been a Sea Bright favorite since the 1970s. It reopened on Memorial Day weekend 2017 after being nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.
SEA BRIGHT - Kevin Marrero has been a Donovan's employee for two decades, but he still remembers one of his first jobs -- planting palm trees in the sand.
"I still have the photos, I swear," he said, pausing between stories to fill drinks under the shade of the tiki bar.
On Sunday, Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright reopened for the first time since it was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The bar has been serving locals since the mid-1970s.
Many of the customers filling the bar at 10 a.m. remembered it as a popular destination for drinks, beach, and live music like regular performer Brian Kirk and the Jirks.
Russ Hendricks, a shore resident, recalled watching Bruce Springsteen performing when a boy came from the beach, and Springsteen signed his hat.
"Then (my friend) Elizabeth came up and said, 'can't you give me your autograph too?' And Bruce said, 'I only give autographs to kids!' He ended up handing Elizabeth his beer cozy."
But after Sandy struck the town in October 2012, it left "total destruction" where the bar once was, said Christine Carducci, co-owner of Donovan's.
"Only the tiki bar survived, because it was in the parking lot," she said.
Carducci's father, the former owner of the joint with two childhood friends, passed away two years ago, leaving the bar to Carducci to finish renovations. She described a lengthy process of approvals, construction, and preparation.
In 2015, the bar re-opened as a small tiki bar with a trailer for bathrooms. The owners, however, had bigger plans in mind, Carducci said.
The bar has expanded, with a larger outdoor patio and a full kitchen. Donovan's has three bars -- an indoor bar, a bar on the patio, and a bar directly on the sand.
Carducci said in many ways, the bar would remain what it always was: a place for locals to meet with their "feet in the sand."
Marderro said that at this place, "the people make the bar."
"We're like an extended family here," said Alan Choback, another bartender. "You work here, and you can't wait to come back the next day. I'm also a high school administrator, and I think 'that's work, this is enjoyment.'"
Chris Pfeiffer, the Sea Bright town clerk, said the bar was only one example of the revitalization happening to the town after Sandy.
"The building department used to be one little desk, and now it's expanded into the gym," she said. "Pretty much every building in town had something done to it."
She said the tragedy of Sandy offered a silver lining: a chance to make the town into something nicer than before.
"We've got bigger and better homes and amazing businesses now that put Sea Bright on the map," she said.
Gary Peppas had been coming to Donovan's since it was a little more than a bar on the sand in 1976. That morning, he had time at 8 a.m. to drop by, and was surprised to see the brand-new building, open for the first time in years.
"I walked right up and of course they said, 'the first one's on me!" he said.
Erin Petenko may be reached at epetenko@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @EPetenko. Find NJ.com on Facebook.