Cigar maker to deliver bar, pizza

Happy days (and hours) are almost here again for those north-end residents who have waited for a bar since 2010, when Tiny’s of Longboat closed at Whitney Beach Plaza.

Dr. Giacomo “Jack” Guggino hopes to open Giacomo’s Lounge in the former Tiny’s location in January.
Although Guggino — who is also a pediatric ophthalmologist — is the owner/founder of Giacomo’s Cigars, and his family has a deep history in the Tampa cigar industry, his bar will not be a cigar bar.

The bar will sell Giacomo’s Cigars, but cigar smoking will be limited to an outdoor patio, and possibly, a second-floor deck similar to the structure the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board approved last week for Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub. Cigarette smoking will be permitted inside the bar.

“It will, hopefully, be a wonderful bar that will cater to the people out there,” Guggino said. “We feel we can market that bar as a destination. It’s going to be wonderfully decorated to reflect the Tampa tradition of cigars and coffee.”

Guggino has not yet submitted plans to the town for the structure, although his representatives have met with town staff.

But the bar is just the beginning of Guggino’s plaza plan. He also has plans to open Giacomo’s Pizza, which will serve pizza and chicken wings, in January, and offer delivery services for both food and alcohol. Whether the pizza shop will be located in the space adjacent space north of the bar or in a separate part of the plaza has yet to be determined.

The bar will serve additional food through a catering agreement with Longbeach Café, which opened in spring 2014 in the shopping center.

Guggino is also considering opening a cigar-smoking room in the space where the Longbeach Post Office was located.

Plaza owners Ryan Snyder, a Bradenton real estate and banking attorney and Rich Juliani, principal of Boston-based JKI Investment Capital LLC, have spent nearly $2 million on renovating the plaza over the last two years.

Four new businesses opened in the shopping center in 2014, the most recent of which was LBK Liquors, which opened in the other half of the former Tiny’s space in July.