Observe this: City of Sarasota utilities director resigns

City of Sarasota utilities director resigns

→ Interim city of Sarasota City Manager Terry Lewis said Utilities Director Javier Vargas resigned Wednesday over a difference of opinion on how the utilities department should be run.

Sarasota interim City Manager Terry Lewis confirmed for the Sarasota Observer Thursday that city Utilities Director Javier Vargas resigned Wednesday afternoon, effective immediately.

“There was a difference of opinion on leadership expectations and how I believe his department should be operated,” Lewis said.

Asked if Vargas had any other options other than to resign, Lewis said, “No.” ... [click

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Mannausa forms 'The Jewel' of Sarasota

→ Tom Mannausa plans to build an 18-story condominium tower that boasts views unlike any other building in downtown Sarasota.

The corner of Main Street and Gulfstream Avenue has been eating away at longtime Sarasota real-estate developer Tom Mannausa for more than 20 years.

In 1989, Mannausa had a fifth-floor office in the Palm Tower building and remembers looking down at the one-story buildings on the Main Street block between Gulfstream and Palm avenues.

“I would come there every day and look at the view of those properties before Epicure was even built there,” Mannausa said ... [click here to read on!]

Cafe Gabbiano under new ownership

→ Marc Grimaud is done with the paperwork for his purchase of Café Gabbiano. Now, he's ready to immerse himself in the iconic Siesta Key restaurant.

As Marc Grimaud sits in the private room at the back of Café Gabbiano, low light splashes off hundreds of red wine bottles on the surrounding walls. It looks like Grimaud is in a vineyard cabin in Cyprus rather than the back corner of the Davidson’s Drugs complex in Siesta Key Village, a place he has been visiting since he and his parents purchased a house here four years ago.

When Grimaud was a senior at Central Connecticut University, he bought a snowplow and started his first business. Now the 30-year-old, who turned down opportunities for advancement at a $20 million production company in Los Angeles, will take over the Italian restaurant that has been in Siesta Village for nearly a decade ... [click here to read on!]