Grove nears its opening in Lakewood Ranch

Standing in the middle of a multi-million dollar improvement project soon to become the Grove restaurant in Lakewood Ranch, Greg Campbell had his hands full of a wooden frame as workers surrounded him in the soon-to-be, main dining room.

Still holding the frame upright, he looked as a visitor entered the room. Campbell shook his head. It was obvious he wasn't going to be available for his morning appointment.

"Can we meet at 5 p.m.?" Campbell asked. "Then the mayhem will be over."

If the mayhem was going to be over at 5 p.m., it would just be for a few moments. Campbell, who is the Pier 22 and Grove general manager and executive chef — and hands-on construction worker when need be — would work long into the night.

"We're making a massive push," Campbell said of the goal to get the Grove open by Dec. 1. "We've done a lot in such a short time ... three or four months."

In July, Pier 22 restaurant owner Hugh Miller announced he had signed a long-term lease with Lakewood Ranch Main Street LLC to bring a new restaurant to Lakewood Main Street, one to replace the Polo Grill & Bar, which had a 10-year run in the building. 

Considering the planned improvements, Miller and Campbell had an ambitious timeline of getting the catering operation, the Ballroom at Grove and the main restaurant open before the end of the year.

In October, Ballroom at Grove began hosting events as Miller and Campbell had promised.

"Knowing their team, I was confident everything would be seamless," said Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance Executive Director Heather Kasten, who had booked the Ballroom at Grove for the LWRBA's huge awards event, The Sandies, on Nov. 16. Kasten expects between 350-400 people and she said only four or five businesses in the entire Manatee and Sarasota counties area had room to host such an event.

She checked out a luncheon at the Ballroom at Grove shortly after its opening and she liked what she saw. "They had told us with confidence they would be ready," Kasten said of Miller and Campbell. "We had an ongoing dialogue throughout (the improvement project) and they were very proactive."

Kasten did have to reassure those attending The Sandies everything was on track.

Campbell understood why people questioned whether they could get the ballroom, and then the restaurant, open before the end of the year.

He walked out to an area in front of the ballroom, which was a driveway that would allow for three or four cars to park. That area now has been transformed into a porte-cochère, which can hold 14 cars for valet service.

"This was a big pile of dirt," Campbell said of the spot.

Trucks still were pulling up to the restaurant last week with windows, restaurant equipment and other items. Construction workers buzzed around the site. 

However, Campbell saideverything should be complete in a couple of weeks.

"We're in the finishing stage," he said. "We're going at a blistering pace."

That blistering pace includes the kitchen. Campbell enters his new kitchen beaming with pride. New appliances are everywhere and the walls are lined with stainless steel.

"We've changed out 80% of the kitchen equipment," he said. "And I designed it myself. As a chef, I loved the stainless steel and I redesigned the cook line to make it like the one we built at Pier 22 about three years ago. This will be a show kitchen."

The head chef at the Grove will be Jeremy Thayer, who was head chef at IMG Academy for nine years. The Grove's general manager will be Austin Harlow, who was an executive at Pier 22. Both will operate under Campbell. Juan Sarmiento has been hired to be the executive sous-chef after working with Campbell for 12 years.

In the main dining room, Campbell stood near the front corner of the room where two huge pocket doors opened to Lakewood Main Street. Adjacent to the area is the new main bar.

Outside, restaurant seating for 100 will invite those strolling past to give the restaurant a try. Cocktail seating will be available outside as well. The cocktail area is covered by 2,300 square feet of Pergola Retractable Canopy.

"The people can't miss us," Campbell said.