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In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many businesses and homeowners have become frustrated while dealing with insurance companies. One business owner, local restaurateur Marilyn Schlossbach [pictured at right with husband and business partner Scott Szegeski] is raising money online while she waits to see if insurance funds will come through.

Following Hurricane Irene in 2011, Schlossbach’s businesses werent affected. But she revamped her insurance plan anyway so that she’d be covered in the event that a natural disaster caused businesses to close for a week or more — “to cover my employees to get paid while we’re shut down, to cover my vendors, utilities, rent and mortgage,” she said. “I paid almost $50,000 in insurance in the last year and now I might not get paid at all.”

Schlossbach wrote letters to the offices of Governor Chris Christie and Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini about her issues with securing insurance funds, and Angelini’s office is following up. In the meantime, she’s trying to raise money online to stay afloat.

It started when a customer sent Schlossbach a card last week with a $50 check inside of it.

“It said, ‘We support all the great efforts you do and you’re always doing so many things for others, we wanted to help you,'” Schlossbach said.

She went online to gofundme.com, similar to other online fundraisers like Kickstarter, and set up an account to encourage others to donate. So far, she’s raised just over $7,000, with a goal of $20,000.

There has been backlash from some who say Schlossbach is “too rich,” she said. “My answer to that is that we’re not that rich — we’re dead broke and we can’t support a family right now.”

Schlossbach also makes it a point to give back through holiday dinners, surf lessons for Asbury Park children, and more.

“I don’t feel guilty saying to my customers, ‘If you can help us, help us,'” she said.

Schlossbach’s two most profitable restaurants, Langosta Lounge in Asbury Park and Labrador Lounge in Normandy Beach, have been closed since Sandy struck on Oct. 29, 2012. And the entire town of Normandy was closed until last week, Schlossbach said, and it still isn’t accessible from the north. Normandy now has a 4 p.m. curfew, which has dissuaded Schlossbach from reopening just yet.

“Businesses are getting such a runaround and a shaft from this situation,” she said. “In my eyes, it’s like the mob. You’re afraid to file a claim because you don’t want your premiums to go up. If you get dropped, you get picked up by another carrier or the same carrier, but with a higher rate.”

The city can’t do much for businesses, Schlossbach said, although the Chamber of Commerce and Interfaith Neighbors did create a loan program using Urban Enterprise Zone [UEZ] funds after the storm, which moved very quickly, Schlossbach said.

Schlossbach is trying to be as active as she can while her most profitable businesses are defunct. Dauphin Grille, the restaurant she and her partners run inside the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, is now serving a selection of menu items from her restaurants. She’s also decreased the price point at Dauphin Grille while her comparatively moderately priced eateries are out of commission.

When her other businesses open again, Schlossbach will make a few changes.

“This has really opened our eyes on prioritizing and letting go of the past,” Schlossbach said. “We’re trying to start fresh and make better choices and hire the best people we can.”

The cajun-themed restaurant Trinity and the Pope, at Mattison Avenue and Bond Street, shut its doors for reasons unrelated to the storm right before Sandy hit. Schlossbach’s brother is running the Pop’s Garage location in The Grove at Shrewsbury now.

Schlossbach operates four businesses out of the Third Avenue Pavilion [pictured above] on the boardwalk — Langosta Lounge, another Pop’s Garage, Lightly Salted Surf Shop and the bar Asbury Park Yacht Club — and she’ll do some rearranging before they reopen this spring.

At Langosta, the kitchen will be expanded; another service bar will be built; the stage will be enlarged and a private room will be installed. Pop’s Garage also stands to see some changes, but Schlossbach wanted to keep those under wraps.

The businesses will likely reopen sometime in March or April, Schlossbach said.

“I think Asbury’s going to be really busy this summer,” Schlossbach said. “I think people are anticipating coming to Asbury Park to support it.”

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