Longboat Key restaurants move forward with changes

After nearly than five years and five applications to redevelop his Longbeach Village restaurant, Ed Chiles stood on the roof of Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub and decided his latest plans for covered second-story seating wouldn’t work.

“It didn’t get as much of a ‘wow’ factor,” said engineering consultant Lynn Burnett during a development review committee meeting Monday.

Chiles has asked to change an approved site plan and special exception that originally allowed the restaurant to relocate 52 current indoor dining seats to a new upstairs deck. As vegetation grew in over the 12 months since the planning board approved that proposal, and the restaurant’s planners grappled with how to maintain the historic nature of the building, the plan had to be changed, Burnett said.

Instead, the newest proposal would turn the second story into office and storage space, while expanding the ground floor deck six feet toward the waterline. 

With only a few comments from staff about his latest changes to the site plan that the town approved last year, Town Planner Maika Arnold tentatively scheduled Mar Vista’s latest proposal for the Planning & Zoning Board June 21.

Planning, Zoning and Building Director Alaina Ray told Chiles Restaurant Group Project Manager Mark Anderson that the firm could file a building permit for the project as staff was processing the amendments.

Also, the owners of Shore on Longboat Key, which is slated to replace the former Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant before next season, are moving through the town’s building permit process.

“I think we’re going to start demoing in probably a week, and as long as we get final plans approved, we can start construction by May 1,” said owner Tom Leonard, who also owns a location on St. Armands Circle and a coming retail-only location in Disney Springs.

Building permits filed with the town last month show 1,500 square feet of retail space and a 2,300-square-foot kitchen, along with indoor and outdoor dining areas, a fireplace, bar and outdoor deck with sand.

Shore, which is co-owned by restaurateur Mark Caragiulo, received planning board approval in October for 185 seats, 55 parking spaces and 16 boat slips as part of a new dock.

“We’re excited to get started,” Leonard said.