St. Pete company buys trio of Manatee beachfront restaurants

Longtime Manatee County restaurant owner Ed Chiles has sold his three beachfront restaurants and some other components of Chiles Hospitality, a company he founded 45 years ago.

The new owner of the portfolio — it includes Sandbar Seafood & Spirits, Beach House Waterfront Restaurant and Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub, all in Manatee County — is Beachside Hospitality, a Pinellas County restaurant group that oversees 13 restaurants in eight Florida cities. Beachside, according to a statement, also acquired Anna Maria Bake House and Chiles Hospitality’s events department in the deal.

Financial terms of the acquisition, scheduled to close July 29, weren’t disclosed. Colliers International is representing Chiles Hospitality.

Chiles Hospitality’s 350 restaurant employees have been asked to continue in their current roles, the release states “as Beachside Hospitality intends to keep the businesses open and operating as usual.”

Ed Chiles, meanwhile, the son of former Florida Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, isn’t totally getting out of the business. He will continue to operate Gamble Creek Farms, a 26-acre, organic certified farm in Parrish that sells to restaurants and wholesale through a farm market. He will also continue to promote the sustainable projects and environmental causes he’s passionate about, the release states. That, and he intends to spend more time with his family and new grandson. (For more on Chiles’ hospitality career and leadership lessons, listen to his interview on the Business Observer’s From the Corner Office podcast from Aug. 31.)

“This has been a difficult decision, but I know it’s time for me to move on,” Chiles says in the release. “I am passing the torch to new owners who understand the value of our employees and who will carry on the legacy that our team has built together. I leave knowing that the work our team has done together is one of the greatest experiences of my life and we have made a measurable and positive impact in our community.”

Beachside Hospitality Group has over 20 years of experience in the restaurant business, the release states. This will be its first venture in Manatee County. It operates six restaurants on the east coast of Florida, from St. John’s to St. Lucie counties, according to its website. It owns another six in Pinellas, including Crabby’s Bar & Grill and Crabby’s Hideaway in Clearwater and Crabby’s on The Pass on Treasure Island. It also owns The Salty Crab Bar & Grill in Fort Myers Beach. 

Chiles founded the company in 1979 with the purchase of the historic Sandbar restaurant in Anna Maria. Mar Vista came next, in 1989, when Chiles Hospitality bought that property, one of the longest-standing structures in Longboat Key. The Beach House Waterfront Restaurant, on 650 feet of gulf front beach, was acquired in 1993. Anna Maria Bake House was established in 2018 as a scratch-artisan bakery within Beach House.

“I have had the pleasure of watching our businesses grow and getting to know the generations of families we have served,” Chiles says. “I took a beat-up restaurant in a great location and built it into a world-class hospitality company, one that I believe has and will continue to truly make a difference.”