Opening a restaurant at the Jersey Shore takes family, gallons of paint, and local scallops.

. He stepped down there recently, after 12 years, to start Grana, named after a type of cheese.

“Peter Shields was the best job I ever had and if I ever left, it had to be a perfect scenario,” he said. “I’ve had other opportunities before, in other towns, but they always felt like gambles. This kind of fell in my lap.”On the morning of Grana’s soft opening, a cool Friday in early May, the chaos, those exciting opening-night jitters, continued. Someone was trimming a tree out front. A repairman was fixing the soda lines.

That night Messick was at the restaurant until 2 a.m. dreaming of creme brulee recipes and scanning the endless checklist in his head. Phone calls went unanswered andthe front door went unlocked, leading to strangers popping in with giant flower bouquets and urgent pleas to put ad in the local dining guide.Grana sits at Broadway and Perry Streets in Cape May, across the street from Wilbraham Park, in a nearly 100-year-old building once occupied by Godmother’s, a longtime Italian staple.

Messick said he had about 8 weeks to turn the space around to hit his May 2022 goal. Behind the Godmother’s sign was another one, for the Old Ship restaurant, and according to CapeMay.com, the building was also once a pharmacy, ice cream parlor, and a luncheonette — a whole collection of Jersey Shore businesses that came and went.On opening day, the restaurant was clean, with white, black, and gray palette and a few pieces of modern art on the walls.

“I mean, I can’t control that, but I really hope a critic didn’t come on opening night,” he said. “I’m making coffee with a Black+Decker machine.”

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