Prominent restaurant group creates new waterfront concept

LONGBOAT KEY — The Gonzmart Family of Restaurants will open The Buccaneer on the site of the former PattiGeorge's restaurant on Longboat Key in 2019.

The restaurant group owns and operates 13 Florida restaurants, including the Columbia Restaurant, Ulele, Good Goody Burgers, Cha Cha Coconuts and Cafe Con Leche Ybor City.

The name of the new restaurant refers to a Longboat Key restaurant that opened in 1957, closed in 2001 and was razed in 2005 to make room for the Grand Mariner condominium.

“My parents' favorite restaurant, besides the Columbia, was Herb Field's The Buccaneer Inn on Longboat Key,” says Richard Gonzmart in a statement. “My goal and my dream is to make this new restaurant an architectural gem and to pay homage to some of that restaurant's beloved menu items, such as oysters and prime rib, as well as to add distinctive touches.”

Gonzmart purchased the future Buccaneer site at 4120 Gulf of Mexico Drive in June 2016 for about $2 million. The former PattiGeorge's building will be torn down.

According to a YourObserver.com article, the group also acquired the three-story Harbour Square office building adjacent to the PattiGeorge's property in September.
The Harbour Square building, which sold for about $4 million, is not part of The Buccaneer plans as of now. The Longboat Observer is a sister paper of the Business Observer.

Gonzmart has been working with architects on exterior and interior design ideas for the restaurant for more than a year, a press release says.

“My dad opened a second Columbia Restaurant on St. Armands Circle in 1959,” Gonzmart says in the statement. “He loved Sarasota and Longboat Key and always told me if any opportunity came for a waterfront location that I should go for it.”

Executive Chef Mark Boor was hired for The Buccaneer. He is developing the menu with Gonzmart and his team. An opening date has not been released.