RICHMOND, Va. -- Every lunch hour, Sherwyn Bunn expects a flood of orders at Bottom’s Up, a restaurant in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom neighborhood known best for its pizza.
"It can get pretty busy. Pretty non-stop. Yes, sir,” Bunn said. "The most popular one we see in here is the Chesapeake Pizza. People seem to like that one a lot."
With nearly 20 years of experience in the kitchen, the 45-year-old Bunn has lost track how many pizzas he has perfected.
"Countless. Can’t keep up," he said.
But Bunn will always remember the one afternoon an unwanted guest showed up without a reservation.
"That day was chaotic. It was quite a scene,” Bunn said. "It was pretty scary. Pretty scary."
Former Bottom’s Up General Manager Charlie Lichter shudders recalling that day.
“We are talking about Monday August 30th, 2004,” Lichter said. “That Monday when it started raining it seemed like any other day.”
The remnants of Hurricane Gaston arrived and stalled over Central Virginia.
“It got to Richmond and it stopped for what 18 hours,” Lichter said. “All that water kept coming down and down and down.”
Bottom’s Up sits at the corner of 17th and Dock Streets, the lowest point in Shockoe Bottom.
“Imagine what happens when your sink backs up or your bathtub. That is what happened. The drain got clogged and the rest is history,” Lichter said.
On this day the dough wasn't the only item rising at the restaurant.
“About 5:30 is when it started getting really rough. I was on the ovens at the time,” Lichter said.
Floodwaters poured into Sherwyn Bunn’s kitchen.
A security camera captured the unfolding disaster.
“It was coming over my feet. Halfway up to my shins,” he said. ”We could see it coming over the steps."
With water lapping at their legs Charlie Lichter, his staff, and even some customers get stuck.
“Everything you see right there would have been that much worse had glass broken in again. This was water literally coming in from the cracks,” Lichter said.
From Bad to Worse
“Within five minutes the water was up to my knees," Lichter said. "Then I looked at the French Doors and the water was up to my head. That is when I was like everyone upstairs. Let’s go.”
Several feet of water swallowed the restaurant and surrounding neighborhood.
“I wasn’t scared for myself. I was scared for the 16 people that were here that I was responsible for. I was scared that I was going to let something happen to them,” Lichter said.
“Yeah man. Like you said it was like biblical. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think I was going to make it out of here to be honest,” Bunn added.
Before he retreated from the kitchen Sherwyn Bunn made a decision that quite possibly prevented an even greater disaster.
“It was just instinct man. I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know. Just started turning everything off. The ovens. The fryers,” he said.
The then 25-year-old father cut off the gas supply leading to the restaurant.
Watch: Richmond Remembers: How Tropical Storm Gaston flooded Shockoe Bottom
“I don’t want to be overly dramatic. There were cars floating down the street. There were cars floating right past that gas line,” Lichter said.. “He could have saved our lives.”
“Like I said I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. But I’m glad I did though. Glad I did,” Bunn said.
The stranded group rode out the calamity high above.
“I actually saw my car go under water,” Lichter said.. “It looked like hell. It was nothing but chaos.”
Hours later a Goochland Fire and Rescue pontoon pulled people from the second floor of Bottom's Up.
“You could barely see the street signs. That is what 10 to 12 feet. Yeah. Pretty scary,” Bunn said.
“Just a huge area of property and people’s livelihoods underwater,” Lichter said. "But to sit there and just watch it just beat you down live for 8, 10 and 12 hours there is just nothing like it in the world."
By midnight floodwaters mercifully receded and Gaston moved on.
Bottom’s Up and the Shockoe Bottom laid in ruins.
“Oh man it was chaos. Cars everywhere. Cars flipped upside down,” Bunn said.
Daylight revealed the worst and true cost of the storm. Eight people were killed in the Richmond area alone.
Bottom's Up owner Dirk Graham’s dream shatters.
“We’re just so fortunate that no one down here got hurt. I feel for the people that did lose their lives,” Graham said. “It was a mess.”
Bottom’s Up closed indefinitely.
Graham and his team began the slow and expensive process of rebuilding.
“We had insurance but not nearly enough so we had to go out and borrow money,” Graham said.
“I would say its more than a landmark. It is. It is a living landmark,” former manager Charlie Lichter said.
Bottom’s Up Rises
One year and more than a million dollars later, Bottom’s Up reopened in August 2005.
In the remodeled kitchen Sherwyn Bunn still cranked out his popular crusts.
“Yeah, man. Yeah. Lived to tell the story,” Bunn said.
Twenty years later, Gaston is but a memory, but one visual reminder remains in the dining room — a painted line where floodwaters peaked.
”You know the high water mark was the low point of our business here but it wasn’t the end of our business here,” Lichter said. "When you see Mother Nature in her fury, you better respect it. Or it might be the last thing you see.”
It was the day one callous customer arrived. Tropical Storm Gaston. A patron they pray never returns.
“I hope I don’t live through that again. Don’t want to do that no more,” Bunn said. ”Yes. Sir.”
Watch Greg McQuade's stories on CBS 6 and WTVR.com. If you know someone Greg should profile, email him at greg.mcquade@wtvr.com.
