Morton's Gourmet Market to fill Siesta Market spot

Siesta Key will be home to Morton's Gourmet Market's second location later this summer. 

Morton's owners, Eddie and Todd Morton, have signed a lease to fill the spot currently held by the Siesta Market.

The Siesta Market, located at 205 Canal Road in Siesta Key Village, will close at the end of May after owners Vince and Peter Messina announced in late March that they wanted to retire. Chris Brown and business partner Mike Granthon own the property; they purchased the land in November for $2.8 million. After the Messina brothers decided to retire at the end of the season, Brown started searching for a new tenant. Last week, Brown said he wanted to see another grocery store in that location. 

“I think that is a service that’s needed — there’s a huge void if it’s not a grocery store,” he said.  “Customers and tourists depend on it.”

Todd Morton said Brown approached him to ask if Morton's would be interested in opening a second location on Siesta Key in the Siesta Market spot. After negotiations, the Mortons signed a lease with Brown and plan to open the doors sometime this summer. 

Morton's Gourmet Market is a locally owned catering and specialty food store located at 1924 South Osprey Ave. 

Morton said the new location will be a hybrid of Morton's Southside location and the current Siesta Market, offering what he called "normal" groceries along with Morton's signature specialty items, prepared foods and hot and cold deli.

The name won't change significantly: Morton said the current plan is to call the new location "Morton's Siesta Market."

"It's not going to be a copy of (the Southside) market," Morton said. "It's a location I think is unique. We thought we would fit in."

Morton said they are going through the building inspection now with plans to update both the interior and exterior of the building, but plan to work on the building while the market is open.

"We want to get in as-is, operate and work on it while we're in there," he said. "The sooner, the better."

The Siesta Market employs about 20 people currently. Vince Messina said most of them plan to work until the store closes May 31. Morton said some of the employees have indicated that they would like to stay on after the store switches names, and he said the employees would be interviewed and considered for the future store.