Business lights up on the Key

A family tradition that began in Tampa more than 100 years ago will make its way in November to Whitney Beach Plaza. And the north end of Longboat Key will finally have what residents have wanted for more than four-and-a-half years: a bar.

Dr. Giacomo “Jack” Guggino will open Giacomo’s Cigar Bar the first week of November, in the former Tiny’s of Longboat Key.

The cigar bar will be one of at least three new businesses opening on the Key this fall. Also slated to open this November:

International retailer J.McLaughlin will open a new men’s and women’s clothing store Nov. 11, in the Shoppes of Bay Isles.

And real estate investor W. Howard Rooks and chef Andrea Bozzolo will open Amore by Andrea in November, at the former Mattison’s Steakhouse at the Plaza building at 555 Bay Isles Parkway that’s been vacant since 2008.

Back at Whitney Beach Plaza, where approximately half of the units remain vacant, Guggino isn’t worried about the bar’s location — his company’s first outside of Tampa, where he opened Giacomo’s Cigars in 2010.

“We will be our own attraction,” he said. “This will be a destination, not just a bar on the plaza.”

Guggino, 74, is a practicing Tampa area pediatric ophthamologist who treated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ eye problems for 20 years.

“We’re hoping this bar will be the catalyst for many more to come,” he said. “We want our cigar bars to be all up and down the coast of Florida, and we’re hoping this will be our penetration into the market.”

A second-generation American, Guggino was the first in his family to graduate high school, and when his grandparents moved in the late 1800s to the Tampa Bay area from Sicily, Italy, they became involved in the cigar industry.

His mother, Giovonna, even helped pave his way through college by hand-rolling Churchill cigars at the Santaella and Garcia Y Vega cigar factories in Tampa.

“Now, a lot of people may ask how I can be a doctor and smoke, and that’s a damn good question,” he said. “But cigars are what got me through medical school; they are a tradition in my family.”

The cigar bar will seat nearly 100 people and will have an outdoor patio and designated cigar smoking room separate from the bar. Its hours will be from noon until 2 a.m. daily.

Guggino said his business would also have a vehicle to make liquor deliveries across the island and to drive home intoxicated customers. The bar will also feature several televisions for watching sports and an agreement with Longbeach Café, which will sell food to bar patrons Thursday through Sunday.

J.McLaughlin currently has 15 stores in Florida, including a downtown Sarasota location that opened in 2012.

Brothers Jay and Kevin McLaughlin opened their first store 35 years ago on New York’s Upper East Side. The stores feature classic American brands featuring a flair for bold colors and signature prints, according to the company’s website. The McLaughlin brothers are known for such items as hand-quilted barn jackets, Caribbean colored Catalina T-shirts and handmade five-fold silk ties.

Amore by Andrea will offer event space, with more than 7,000 square feet indoors, indoor and outdoor dining and a bar for light bites, happy hour and entertainment.

Bozzolo, originally from Pallanza in Piedmont, Italy, is founding chef of Divino and chef/owner of Andrea’s The Art of Food & Wine on Siesta Drive.

Bozzolo makes his own breads and pastas daily and uses local organic produce, seafood and meats when possible, according to a news release. His menus follow the season and generally change every three months, although he retains several house specialties.

New restaurant is a no-go
Longboat Key won’t get a new restaurant at 5530 Gulf of Mexico Drive, the site of the former Longboat Key Animal Clinic.

Senior Town Planner Steve Schield said the applicants withdrew the plans they submitted June 24 to the Planning, Zoning and Building Department for the new restaurant.

Property owners Dr. David Smith and Jo Ellen Baxter-Smith could not be reached for comment, but Paul Russo, owner of Impact Homes Inc. and the Smiths’ partner in the proposed restaurant, said their plans of opening by season wasn’t feasible.

“At the final hour, when we thought our application was about to be approved, the Water Department wanted more intricate site plans,” Russo said. “And at that point, it just seemed like it wasn’t going to be feasible anymore because it was going to cost us way too much having to go through Manatee County for permitting and planning.”

Russo added that he has already begun to pitch for a new restaurant in a different county.

Russo and his wife, Cara, own three restaurants in Punta Gorda.