Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant sold

Moore’s Stone Crab Restaurant owners Alan Moore and Robert Hicks sold their 47-year-old restaurant to Sarasota restaurant owners Mark Caragiulo and Tom Leonard Tuesday for an undisclosed price.

Longtime patrons were turned away from the restaurant today, which will be closed until Caragiulo and Leonard open a new restaurant on the site that will be similar to Shore on St. Armands Circle. Caragiulo and Leonard own that restaurant.

“We have a couple of months of poking around and seeing what we can do with the building as far as renovations are concerned before we decide what to do,” Caragiulo said. “As to what extent we will renovate or how much needs to be torn down and restored, we just don’t know yet.”

Caragiulo said the name could be called “The Shore Longboat Key or something like that.”

Caragiulo confirmed the restaurant will not reopen until a new restaurant is renovated/constructed, which could take 10 months to a year to go through the planning approval and construction process.

“We’re very excited to have a restaurant on Longboat Key and ready to get to work,” Caragiulo said.

Reached before he drove away from the restaurant Wednesday afternoon with a white van full of belongings, Moore called today "a good day, but a melancholy one."

Signs posted on the restaurant's windows and doors read: "Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant has closed. A new restaurant is coming soon! We would like to thank everyone for the years of loyalty and friendship!"

In April, the Longboat Key Town Commission granted two requests by Moore to change the Comprehensive Plan and the restaurant’s zoning designation from residential to commercial.

The change was needed to allow for renovations to the restaurant.

Moore requested the conversion of his property back to commercial at the request of his then business partners. Moore teamed up with Caragiulo and Leonard last year to create a new restaurant concept last summer after declining to sell the restaurant at the time.

Earlier this year, Moore said future plans for a new restaurant wouldn’t include asking for an increase in the number of seats at the 185-seat restaurant.

Caragiulo is also involved in Owen’s Fish Camp and his family’s Caragiulos restaurant.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at kschultheis@yourobserver.com.