It was all hands on deck on Saturday at the Harbourfront Restaurant - out of 25 staff, only three did not show up for work and the team worked round the clock to get the eatery back in business by Monday.

Hurricane Fabian blew the roof off the building on Friday, leaving extensive damage to both the grill room and patio, with vital equipment in the kitchen blown out of the building and landing in the lane.

But miraculously the main part of the restaurant was left untouched, with not a table cloth out of place.

"It was just as you see it now," said Pierangelo Lanfranchi, manager of the restaurant. "Everything was just in place."

But just outside and through in the grill room, the full fury of Hurricane Fabian had passed through the Little Venice restaurant.

Mr. Lanfranchi's team, however was undaunted by the scale of the task before them. "We started cleaning at 10 a.m., and did not stop until 6 p.m. Everyone worked very hard to get the place cleaned up quickly. We wanted to be able to serve our customers at a time like this - it is a public service to be able to provide food when most of the Island is without power and water."

Mr. Lanfranchi said that the response of the builders and construction crews was amazing, arriving within 15 minutes of being called.

Mr. Lanfranchi said he was not sure of the value of the damage, but the kitchen exhaust vent which crashed to the ground floor below had just been installed and cost upward of $20,000.