Brothers Bet on Concept

Brothers Bet on Concept

By Isabelle Gan

Contributing Writer

Bill Davis loves a good game of poker. But when he and brother Kenneth put their money into a seafood restaurant idea in 1998, they had no inkling their gamble would pay so well. The ante: An unpretentious seafood market and restaurant in a little strip mall on the corner of Beneva Road and Webber Street in Sarasota.

"(Kenneth) worked the front of the restaurant. I was in the kitchen and we had a couple of employees," recalls Bill Davis, 56, co-owner of Barnacle Bill's Seafood Restaurant and Market. "We just got really lucky. At that time we fit into a niche that nobody else was in."

Seafood, it turned out, was just what Sarasota was craving. That first year, the restaurant made $950,000 in sales, triple what they had expected. The next year, revenues grew by almost 6% to $1.1 million.

"In my 40 years in the restaurant business, I'd never seen anything that successful," says Bill.

The Sarasotans were hooked.

During its first peak season - from November to April - Barnacle Bill's served about 400 dinners nightly, no mean feat considering the restaurant's 120-seat limit and early closing time of 8:30 p.m.

The restaurant's best selling points were its unassuming atmosphere and low prices, he says.

"It was a little neighborhood place," he says. "It just clicked."

Servers wore Hawaiian shirts. Each day, Bill painstakingly wrote out the ever-changing menu by hand and photocopied it. He made sure no item was higher than $12.95.

The brothers' philosophy centered on the restaurant's official slogan: "No Waterfront, No View, Just Great Resort Style Seafood at Neighborhood Prices."

"I think we exceeded people's expectations," he says. "That's why they kept on coming back. We were in a little strip mall. People came in expecting a fish and chips kind of place."

But Barnacle Bill's offered more.

A European-trained chef, Bill filled the menu with high-quality, fresh seafood dishes comparable to entrees served at country clubs and more expensive restaurants.

Barnacle Bill's popularity grew. The brothers kept the momentum going, expanding two years later by opening a swankier restaurant on Main Street in Sarasota. In 2001, they opened another restaurant along the North Trail. They eventually purchased that property.

"When we bought on North Trail, people told me, 'You need your head examined,' " Bill says.

The 5050 N. Tamiami Trail location was remote from Sarasota's business district. The building was nondescript and aging and the neighborhood was run down.

Nevertheless, the brothers opened what would become their biggest and highest earning restaurant, with annual revenue of more than $2.6 million. Today, the location is no longer so distant, with restaurants sprouting up along the Trail.

"If you follow everyone else, you won't be successful," Bill says. "You need to take a gamble."

Taking risks came naturally to Bill, an amateur poker player who plays in the World Series of Poker Tournament in Las Vegas every year. In the 1970s and 1980s, he started and sold a few steak and seafood restaurants in the Englewood area.

When he moved to Sarasota in 1995, he gained country club experience while working at the Rosedale Country Club and Longboat Key's the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort and the now defunct Buccaneer Inn.

It was his brother, Kenneth, an accountant by trade, who was unfamiliar with the restaurant business. It took some convincing, but by the mid-1990s the timing was right. Kenneth was ready for a career change after working for an Ohio company for 24 years.

The partnership worked well. Kenneth provided the accounting know-how and dealt with customers. Bill took care of the food and marketing.

Even then, Bill's choice of location raised eyebrows. The Beneva and Webber site had been home to four other restaurants that had failed, one after the other.

"I really believe we were very fortunate," Bill says. "We had the right idea at the right time."

At the time, the strip mall also was home to one of only two pharmacies in Sarasota known for customizing prescription drugs. Many local residents came to the plaza for that service and subsequently discovered the new restaurant.

Whatever the winning formula was, Barnacle Bill's took off after its first six weeks.

Today, the brothers can hardly keep up with the growth. Last year, they opened their fourth branch at 8383 S. Tamiami Trail and expanded the Main Street restaurant to include a full-service bar. Renovations are in order for the North Trail location this year.

During tourist season, all four restaurants serve about 2,000 meals a day. By the end of this year, the business is expected to rake in $7 million in sales.

The challenge is to keep up with higher expectations while staying true to the original philosophy, they say.

Fierce competition, as well as the rising cost of importing seafood has already created many changes. The menu is pre-printed, with higher-priced entrees, including $21.95 for Halibut and Red Snapper. The Hawaiian shirts are gone, too. Servers now wear a more elegant black and white ensemble.

Still, the brothers ensure their operation is as non-corporate as possible. No two branches are the same. Each attracts its own kind of loyal patron.

Unlike other restaurants, employee turnover is low, Bill says. The restaurants are closed during major holidays. And salaries for the managerial staff are up to 30% more than at chain restaurants.

When asked what the secret to success is, Bill's answer is keeping expenses low. He has routinely snubbed high-profile areas, focusing instead on taking calculated risks when it comes to finding a location.

"We don't have a lot of expenses because we've always gotten the best (real estate) and lease deals," he says.

The North Trail property is a prime example. It has tripled in value since the brothers bought it. The Main Street branch could have potentially been the costliest, but they chose the area before it was hot and pricey.

Same goes for downtown.

"Not that many people were going into downtown at the time," he says, citing Tropicana Products Inc.

During the summer of 1999, the same time Bill signed a lease for Barnacle Bill's Main Street location, Tropicana had considered and rejected buying office space at the up and coming downtown Plaza at Five Points.

The company, a division of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods, eventually chose Bradenton for its offices.

That meant Bill was able to secure a more favorable lease deal for the downtown location.

The less they focused on meeting the rent, they say, the more they could turn their attention on the product - the food.

No more Barnacle Bills are planned for Sarasota. "I think we've saturated this area pretty well," Bill says.

But that doesn't mean business expansion will be slowing down.

The brothers are getting ready to grow in two different ways. First by expanding Barnacle Bill's to either Tampa or Fort Myers and second by opening a new restaurant in Sarasota.

"We're scouting out some areas, right now," Bill says of their new venture, Buster's Backyard, a southern-style restaurant serving comfort food. Bill is currently looking for a Sarasota location. He also is seeking investors to open another Barnacle Bill's in either Tampa or Fort Myers.

"I really never thought it would be this successful," Bill says. "Why did it work? Honestly, I can't put my finger on it and bottle it up so everybody could do it. All I know is, you have to put out a good product for a fair price."