Popular Sarasota restaurant plans second location in East County

A prominent restaurant outside downtown Sarasota, Libby’s Café & Bar, is expanding to East Manatee County.

Libby’s, part of Tableseide Restaurant Group, a conglomerate of several area restaurant brands and a catering business, plans to open a restaurant in the Publix-anchored shopping under construction at the corner of University Parkway and Lorraine Road. Tableseide CEO Joe Seidensticker said the new location — also across the street from the Sarasota Polo Club — is expected to open by the end of the year.

The expansion is also part of what Seidensticker calls a revival of the Libby’s brand, which dates back to 2008. The Southside Libby’s will close in July for a few months, where it will undergo a major renovation. When it reopens, the name will remain the same, but the concept will be more accessible, with an open rotisserie-style kitchen, new menu and totally revamped interior. “We want to be innovative and ahead of trends,” Seidensticker said. “When people come back in here, it will be a whole new Libby’s.”

That concept will carry over to the east manatee County Libby’s, which will add something new — breakfast. “It will be a different kind of breakfast,” Seidensticker said, adding that the menu will include high-end coffee and fresh pastries, in addition to creative, artisan menu selections. “We aren’t just doing bacon and eggs.”

Tableseide, with $16 million in sales in 2016 and holdings that include Louies Modern in downtown Sarasota and Muse at The Ringling, already has a presence in the east county area, with Oak & Stone, on University in the Square at UTC. In addition to the new Libby’s, the company is considering adding a commissary, where it can bake fresh goods for all its holdings, in the Lakewood Ranch area.

Tableseide also recently won a small business of the year award from the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, in the hospitality and tourism category.