The Carriage House Restaurant officially reopened yesterday ? for the first time in five months, after devastating Hurricane Fabian ripped through last September and forced it to close.

The dining room, kitchen and equipment of the upscale St. George?s restaurant were completely destroyed after Fabian.

Even the restaurant?s ability to open up to diners now means it doing so from temporary quarters in the former Carriage House Museum. Normally the restaurant is housed in the same building as the museum but a floor below.

Yesterday appointed project surveyor David Summers of Bermuda-Caribbean Engineering Consultants Ltd. told The Royal Gazette the displaced restaurant would not be able to move back into the downstairs dining room until the last of the restoration work was completed, hopefully by spring.

As for it taking all of these months to get the restaurant re-opened in the temporary upstairs space, it has only been possible to do so after completely refitting the kitchen from top to bottom.

Work is now being done on the downstairs, waterfront dining room which was described by proprietor George Hoermann after the terrible September 5 storm as ?smashed to smithereens?.

Initially Mr. Hoermann had hoped to be back serving customers within weeks of the storm, but the damage was much more extensive than originally thought.

But making the best of the situation, the Carriage House will be able to play up the significance of its temporary use of the museum for diners with three well-placed carriages in the dining room.

The rest of the museum?s historic collection of carriages has been temporarily relocated by building owner, the Wilkinson Trust.

Mr. Summers spoke about the restoration work that continues: ?There is still a massive amount of work to be done. What has caused the delay was the total devastation of the kitchen. It was 2ft 6in deep in standing sea water and sea water spray was up on the ceiling. Consequently every piece of mechanical and electrical equipment had to replaced.?

Mr. Summers said that anyone who has undertaken renovations would understand that the work could be more extensive than starting from scratch.

?Everything had to be replaced and refitted. Added to this it is a historical building and we had to take special care. And of course there is the special attention needed to as it is in the heritage site of the town of St. George.?

He said they were working with the town?s preservation society to ensure that the historic importance of the site was preserved, and said they hoped to restore the property completely and where possible make improvements to the property as an important part of the historic town.

But there are still challenges, including outside of the restaurant along the Wilkinson Estate?s portion of Somers Wharf.

?We are having to replace the sea wall and completely redo the grounds and replace some of the planters.

?There has also been significant areas of the paving undermined by the sea,? Mr. Summers said.

Luckily for those involved, insurance from BF&M was in place with Mr. Summers saying that the coverage has been adequate for the repair of the damaged property.

?BF&M has been incredibly cooperative and have been doing their utmost to ensure the property is put back in the state it should be,? he said.

Mr. Summers said Carriage House had been the most severely damaged restaurant in the town with other area restaurants able to reopen their doors within weeks of Fabian.