What type of restaurant would you like to see at the Historic Bridge Street Pier?
Should the menu be gourmet or beachy? Will it offer chicken Marsala or chicken fingers?
And to what degree should the Bradenton Beach Commission affect these decisions?
Those were the types of questions city commissioners and Police Chief Sam Speciale, pier team facilitator, pondered during a May 20 workshop. They went through the request for proposal the city will soon publicize for the new pier restaurant.
Having been evicted last month by the court, Cast-n-Cage owner Roland Pena must leave the city property by June 1.
The type of restaurant offered on the pier affects menu prices. High menu prices, commissioners said, may be affordable to tourists but they could exclude lower-income Bradenton Beach residents — such as residents of the nearby Pines Trailer Park — from enjoying meals on the pier.
“Historically, with that pier, it got away from the beachy $3 breakfasts, the $5 hamburgers,” Speciale said. “We have to get back to (attracting) the people from the trailer parks, coming to have a very reasonable breakfast. We have enough gourmet places around here.”
Cast-n-Cage and its pier predecessor, Rotten Ralph’s, offered seafood menus in a casual setting. Both failed, for reasons the restaurant owners and commissioners might debate.
Commissioner Janie Robertson initiated the discussion. Concerned about the sustainability of pier restaurants, she said it would be appropriate to provide potential concessionaires with an analysis of the types of restaurants that have been there before and the levels of success each achieved.
“I’ve seen the last two people — who have had it — begin to fail after about a year and a half,” Robertson said. “I believe it’s the product they are offering.”
When casual-dining restaurants begin to fail, Robertson said “price creep” happens, as owners begin charging fine-dining prices for a casual-dining menu, to make up for losses.
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said the failure of the last two pier concessionaires “didn’t have anything to do with the food, per se. It had to do with the people that were running it. We have to make sure we pick somebody who is qualified.”
Mayor-elect Jack Clarke said the operator of Rotten Ralph’s failed because he was trying to run two restaurants at once. Pena, he said, “was doomed from the start.”
Commissioners agreed that a prior tenant, an operation that was contracted through Bridgetender Inn & Dockside Bar owner Fred Bartizal and managed by Georgia and Jim McKee, was the last successful restaurant on the pier.
“Georgia’s was fantastic,” Robertson said.
The $9.99 Friday night all-you-can-eat grouper specials really drew them in, although most agreed the meal consisted of fried cod, not grouper.
Commissioner Jan Vosburgh said the failure of the last two pier concessionaires “didn’t have anything to do with the food, per se. It had to do with the people that were running it. We have to make sure we pick somebody who is qualified.”
I’m thinking some of the commissioners aren’t qualified. SHE was one of the ones that chose Tami and Roland and is now claiming they weren’t qualified. SHE is the one that seems to think that operating an interior decorating business out of your home is the same as running a restaurant that employs 30 or more people and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. SHE is the one making decisions on things she hasn’t researched properly or doesn’t understand.
“I’ve seen the last two people — who have had it — begin to fail after about a year and a half,” Robertson said. “I believe it’s the product they are offering.”
That’s rather short term memory. For 5 years Ralph’s did well on the pier paying almost $9,000 a month for rent. Our Fish and Chips was an Island staple and for $10 a plate was a bargain.
The Commissioners need to take a good look at the facts and what THEY are doing before leasing out the pier again. They aren’t going to do anyone any good going into it as a partner and demanding a percentage of the sales and dictating the menu. They are the landlord. PERIOD. Figure out a fair price per square foot for the property and that’s what you charge. It’s simple if a little more common sense and a little less greed is used.