Pediatrician turned yogurt vendor escapes Shore damage

The slant in the sidewalk in front of Bonnie's Toppings self-serve frozen yogurt shop in Stone Harbor has been an irritant to owner Bonnie Offit ever since she opened in May. It made it impossible to put tables and chairs out there, she said.

The four steps in front of her yogurt store in Avalon were a pain, too, Offit said, making for a precarious entrance and exit for customers with strollers or canes, or anyone not careful.

She will never complain about either again.

On Wednesday, the 22-year pediatrician-turned entrepreneur was crediting both structural quirks with sparing her shops from storm damage.

"I'm really loving my steps . . . love the slanted sidewalk," Offit said from her home in Bala Cynwyd after visiting the Avalon and Stone Harbor shops and finding no Sandy-related damage.

She had heard from a partner that the Cape May store - fortuitously located in the center of town, several blocks from the ocean - was spared, as well.

"We're some of the lucky ones," Offit said. "Occasionally, there is a happy story."

This was a far different Offit from the anxious one who spent much of Tuesday "glued to the Weather Channel and Facebook," seeing terrifying video and pictures of property destruction.

She had been trying to remain optimistic but would get dragged down by the thought that, as she said in an interview that day, "I've spent this unbelievable time and effort putting these businesses together, and I could lose everything in one storm."

She opened the first Bonnie's Toppings in Avalon in the summer of 2011 and the other two in May of this year.

As much as eight inches of rain and wind gusts of more than 70 m.p.h. tortured the three beach towns. Parts of them, indeed, bore the signs.

In Stone Harbor, for instance, 70 percent of businesses in the main commercial district - the area of Third Avenue and 96th Street - "probably have had water inside," said Jean Miersch, director of the Chamber of Commerce.

Offit's shop is on Second Avenue between 94th and 95th Streets, a strip that Sandy showed mercy.

So is Offit going to celebrate her good fortune and take the rest of the year off?

Not just yet.

The Cape May store, in the Washington Commons pedestrian mall, will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

"A lot of people are coming down to check their properties," she said, "and we'll be open."