Whitney Beach Deli to close for summer

On Feb. 24, Whitney Beach Deli & Wines served its first breakfast to a full crowd. But at 5 p.m. Sunday, June 21, the restaurant will close until October. The liquor store, which customers will enter through the same automatic doors that they used for the restaurant, will remain open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Owner Andrew Hlywa said that the hurdles the restaurant faces are similar to the ones he faced with The Market, which he closed at the same location in May of last year.

“Without question the problem with the entire north end of Longboat Key is the lack of tourism,” Hlywa said. “And the financial crisis of the world didn’t help any.”

Hlywa said the restaurant was confronted an additional challenge when he learned that building codes required him to install 10 additional toilets and a voice-activated fire alarm in the nearly 10,000-square-foot space. Renovations pushed the restaurant opening back from its scheduled date of Nov. 10, 2008.

Hlywa, who owns Whitney Beach Plaza, where the restaurant is located, is also losing two tenants at the shopping center: A Moveable Feast, which moved last week, and Key Video, which will move to the Centre Shops in July.

For more information, pick up a copy of the June 25, 2009 Longboat Observer.