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| conceptual rendering of the proposed Daiquiri Deck for Venice. (Rendering provided by Beebe Design Studio Architects) |
By Kim Hackett
Published: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 4:45 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 4:45 p.m.
VENICE - Siesta Key's Daiquiri Deck Raw Bar, known for its beer-pong competitions as much as its mussels and oysters, is bringing its restaurant concept to mature Venice, where the median age is 68.
The owners plan to build a 6,100-square-foot restaurant, the third in the Daiquiri Deck chain, on a vacant lot adjacent to the Bank of America building near Centennial Park.
It will be the first new commercial building constructed in the downtown historic district in 30 years, said architect Mark Beebe, who designed it.
The planned Caribbean-themed restaurant will seat 218, about half on two outside decks, with sports TVs, live Jimmy-Buffet style music and of course, daiquiris, co-owner Todd Syprett said. It will open at 7 a.m. for breakfast, serve lunch and dinner and close at 2 a.m. — almost unheard of in downtown Venice where the locals joke that the sidewalks roll up at 9 p.m. and most retailers close before dinner.
Syprett said he and the other two owners plan to open in December and employ about 100 people, most above minimum wage jobs. The menu will include coconut shrimp, sandwich wraps, seafood and oysters.
The Venice location will be different than the college-age dominated Siesta Key restaurant and bar, which features "Bar Wars" on Tuesday nights.
"We're a little more than daiquiris and college kids," said Syprett, 45, who opened the Siesta bar in 1993. "Siesta is a creature unto itself."
The Venice restaurant's design was approved by the Architectural Review Board last week. It will have to be approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council.
The owners opened a Daiquiri Deck on St. Armand's last year and were encouraged by local business people to consider a Venice location.
The success of the 15,000-square-foot Pineapple's Restaurant, which opened in 2010, and the recent opening of a Bonefish Grill chain convinced Syprett that the timing was right.
"Everybody looked at Venice as an old blue-haired community but it has become more diversified," Syprett said.
Downtown merchants hope it will encourage more night life.
"It's going to offset the mentality that we are solely a retirement town," said Jeff O'Berry, who owns Nifty Nic Nacs, a nostalgic novelty store and one of the few merchants who stays open late. "It's going to be good for downtown."
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