Thanks for finding our castaway bar — but did you have to demolish it?!
The owners of a Brooklyn marina bar that floated two miles from home during Superstorm Sandy before washing up on a Gerritsen Beach street were thrilled to learn its new neighbors partied in it for a few days.
But Debbie and Louis Kallif are unhappy that their relatively undamaged shack was later razed by the city without giving them a chance to bring it back to Gateway Marina in Mill Basin.
The couple noticed the floating bar missing Wednesday when they went to the marina to assess storm damage. They learned of the structure’s whereabouts only after reading about it online — by which time it had been destroyed.
“We didn’t know what happened to the bar,” Debbie Kallif said yesterday. “When we saw the pictures of it, and that it was in perfect condition, we were really happy.
“Then, when we saw that it was torn down, we were upset.”
Her father-in-law, Ted Kallif, questioned why cops didn’t contact the family before ordering the bar torn down — especially since ownership information was listed on a liquor license still affixed to a wall inside.
“They could have notified us, and we would have hired a flatbed and a crane and brought it back here,” he said. “We put in $3,500 just for the inside last year.”
An NYPD source said it was removed for safety reasons, including that it was blocking emergency vehicles.
The floating bar drifted from the Flatbush Avenue marina along swollen Deep Creek Bay to the dead-end block at Madoc Avenue and Keen Court.
When it came to a rest, residents discovered its tables and chairs were miraculously intact — as were bottles of booze.
The partying ended Saturday when cops and sanitation workers arrived and razed the structure.
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley