When Wendy Lee Goldberg started The Breakfast House in a yellow bungalow on Fruitville Road in 2009, she always envisioned it being part of a little village where people gather.
Over the years, she and four other business owners who built their livelihoods inside a set of colorful bungalows in downtown Sarasota have also developed a kinship that led them to explore forming their own shopping and dining village once they learned of plans to build a 324-unit apartment complex on the northeast corner of Fruitville Road and Osprey Avenue.
Goldberg is anticipating closing on the purchase of their new location in mid-May and then will renovate a structure there, while The Breakfast House remains open at 1817 Fruitville Road.
Siegfried’s Restaurant and Biergarten, operated by René and Kim Zimmermann, The Cookie Cottage, operated by Cathy Vande Mheen, Discover Sarasota Tours, operated by Tammy Hauser, and The Artful Giraffe, operated by Tess and Tim Craig, are all likely moving to that new location.
While Goldberg will renovate a new place with a larger kitchen, the other business owners hope that one of the beloved bungalows — reportedly built by John Ringling in the 1920s and ‘30s to house circus families — will move with them too.
Sarasota’s historic bungalow businesses are all open
Since media reports publicized the proposal by Franklin, Tennessee-based Bristol Development Group to build 324 apartments in a five-story complex, business owners have fielded queries about the future from their regulars.
Zimmermann said regulars are both concerned and scared when they ask about the future of Siegfried’s.
“We try to answer them every day,” he added. “We’re still here and a project like this takes time.”
Goldberg said she had a couple who had been customers since The Breakfast House opened stop in after Sunday services at First Baptist Church so they could have a meal there “one last time.”
Goldberg explained that while the restaurant will one day move, the couple will have plenty of Sundays to visit the current location.
She also told them that at the future location, “I’m getting a bigger kitchen.”
Hauser said the most important thing regulars can do, “at this early stage, is to come support us.”
Vande Mheen said summer camp reservations have been slow because people have been uncertain.
The five business owners who spoke with the Herald-Tribune on May 7 and the owners of the other dozen businesses all have individual leases with their landlords, Alex and Marlene Lancaster.
The Lancasters own 22 parcels bounded by 4th Street, Gillespie Avenue, Fruitville Road, and Osprey Avenue either through a revocable trust or through Marlex Corp. of Sarasota, a real estate holding company they established in 1996.
Can the bungalows be moved?
The five owners are hoping to work with the developer to move some of the bungalows in lieu of demolition, though currently they would need to secure ownership of the structures.
They have been reaching out to everyone from the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation and Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County to Visit Sarasota for guidance on everything from how to move the bungalows and cottages to how to establish a small dining and shopping campus.
They are also working with a local foundation to determine how to set up a nonprofit for customers who have offered financial assistance for the preservation and movement of the 90- to 100-year-old structures.
What will the new Sarasota shopping village be like?
First, it will fulfill Goldberg’s vision of creating a shopping village. It will be built around the fact that the services and goods offered by the businesses complement each other.
“So many people come to do multiple things,” Tess Craig said. “We already play off each other so well.”
For example, summer campers will both make cookies at The Cookie Cottage and take pottery classes at The Artful Giraffe.
People may eat at The Breakfast House either before taking a Discover Sarasota Tour on “Dolly the Trolley.”
The trolley, Craig said, serves a valuable introduction to a variety of Sarasota’s amenities, as well as its history.
Goldberg has discussed possible village layouts with the city of Sarasota planning staff.
There would be common parking, while The Breakfast House and Siegfried’s would share common outdoor seating, since one restaurant is closed by 2 p.m. and the other doesn’t open until 4 p.m.
There is room on the site for another business or two, or for an event space for a pop-up offering or art show.
“The branding will all be about the village,” Hauser said.
That village, all five noted, will allow the business owners to continue their relationship with the visitors and returning customers — many of whom have become extended family.
Both Goldberg and Zimmermann have entertained families who bring children and grandchildren and introduce them.
Vande Mheen said members of her preschool cookie class have returned for graduation parties and sent her graduation notices.
Earle Kimel primarily covers local governments in Sarasota County as well as land development and environmental issues for the Herald-Tribune. Follow him on Facebook, and X. He can be reached by email at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Beloved Sarasota bungalow restaurant planning major move
Reporting by Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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