Landmark restaurant will be razed, replaced

The former Pattigeorge's Waterfront Restaurant on Longboat Key, a landmark restaurant for several decades, will be torn down and redeveloped as a 200-seat eatery.

Richard Gonzmart, president of the Tampa-based Columbia Restaurant Group, will oversee the new restaurant, which is not yet named. Gonzmart acquired Pattigeorge's from longtime owners Tommy and Jaymie Klauber for an undisclosed price over the summer.

The new owners recently filed plans for the project with the Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Department, according to a story in the Longboat Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. The facility will be flood protected, promote public access to the waterfront and offer pedestrian and bicycle access to the new Bayfront Park just south of the property, according to Matthew Campo of Campo Engineering in Tampa.

“It's going to be Florida food. Real food that everyone will enjoy,” Gonzmart said in a previous interview with the Longboat Observer. “I don't want to give away what I'm going to do. But there will be great seafood and great hormone-free beef from Myakka City” — a reference to the beef his company buys from Jim and Renee Strickland, owners of the Strickland Ranch.

The Columbia Restaurant Group includes four of the historic Columbia Restaurants; two Columbia cafes; Cha Cha Coconuts next to the St. Armands Circle Columbia; and two recent additions — Ulele in downtown Tampa and Goody Goody.