- November 9, 2025
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The fortunes of one the most famous restaurants on Longboat Key turned on a text.
That text buzzed into Jason Ghormley’s phone one night in late April. The note, from a friend, delivered sad news: Euphemia Haye, the landmark Longboat Key restaurant Ghormley and his wife, Rachel, had frequented for years, was closing. Jason turned to Rachel upon hearing the news, she says, with a question: Do you want to buy it?
As the Ghormleys pondered the purchase, the longtime co-owner of Euphemia Haye, Ray Arpke, was also busy on the phone. Arpke says his phone was “ringing off the hook,” in late April and early May, as he fielded more than 15 phone calls from potential buyers of the shuttered eatery. Arpke and his wife, D’Arcy Arpke, owned Euphemia Haye from 1980 to 2021. They transitioned ownership of the restaurant — but not the building — to their assistant and longtime bookkeeper, Amy Whitt, just before Christmas in 2021.
Less than four years later, this past April 30, Euphemia Haye closed. No goodbye party, only a sign on the door that stated, “We are closed this evening. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you.” (Whitt did not return calls for comment for this story; she didn’t return several calls for comment in previous Observer Media Group stories on Euphemia Haye.)
One of the calls Ray Arpke received in early May was from Jason Ghormley, who had been in the plumbing and lighting supply business for some two decades. He co-founded St. Petersburg-based Hydrologic Distribution Co., which had grown to 12 locations across Florida and $250 million in annual revenue through 2022. Dayton, Ohio-based Winsupply acquired Hydrologic in October that year, according to several industry publications, for an undisclosed sum.
While many of the people calling Arpke about Euphemia Haye were fans, few had the ties to the restaurant Rachel Ghormley had. She grew up on Longboat and Bradenton, and attended Anna Maria Elementary school. Her parents, who were in the food and restaurant business in the area, held their wedding reception there in 1982, and, in a full-circle moment, the Arpkes babysat for her when she was a young girl. In another full-circle moment, Rachel Ghormley’s family held their last Thanksgiving dinner together at Euphemia Haye in 2017 — 11 months before her dad, Stuart Solomon, died from cancer. “It was my dad‘s favorite restaurant,” she says. “He always liked to celebrate things there.”
The connections are even deeper and more modern: The Ghormleys, while living, working and raising their three daughters in St. Petersburg, bought a second home on Longboat Key during the pandemic, to have an isolated family bubble. That’s when they started going to Euphemia Haye regularly again.
In addition to the history, Arpke says Jason Ghormley was one of the few interested buyers who came with business chops and a plan. “He asked all the right questions,” Arpke says, “and he really knew what he wanted to do.”
The timeline from conversation to closing the sale to back in business was condensed: Euphemia Haye was open again by Memorial Day weekend. The Arpkes and Rachel Ghormley, in separate interviews, declined to disclose the sales price for the business. The building, at 5540 Gulf of Mexico Drive, sold for $1.48 million May 28, Manatee County property records show. An LLC managed by Jason Ghormley, Raeree Properties, bought the building from Euphemia Haye Restaurant Inc.
The Ghormleys — Rachel is 41, Jason is 51 — have made other investments in Longboat and the surrounding area, in addition to Euphemia Haye.
On the business side, the couple, says Rachel Ghormley, are silent minority partners with the ownership group that bought a trio of Manatee County waterfront restaurants all north of Euphemia Haye last summer. The company, Pinellas County-based Beachside Hospitality, acquired Sandbar Seafood & Spirits, Beach House Waterfront Restaurant and Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub from longtime area restaurant owner Ed Chiles.
On the residential side, September 2020 is when they bought their Longboat home amid the pandemic, soon after the couple’s youngest daughter was born. That property, Sarasota property records show, is a 5,259-square-foot home with five bedrooms, six bathrooms and a boat dock. The couple paid $1.9 million for it. Then, in October 2024, the Ghormleys bought a condo in the new St. Regis Longboat Key Resort for $13 million, according to the Sarasota County Property Appraiser. They own both properties today, in addition to owning two homes and a waterfront residential home site in Pinellas County.
While the purchases are searchable in public records, there is little information about the Ghormleys in other online sources — and that’s on purpose. Neither Jason or Rachel Ghormley have any social media accounts. And after Rachel Ghormley chatted about buying Eupehmia Haye while sitting in the restaurant one recent afternoon with a reporter, Jason Ghormley, working nearby in the bar area, declined an opportunity to be interviewed.
Even Jason Ghormley’s bio on Hydrologic's website has little information about him or the business, saying he’s a founding member and a board member with 22 years’ experience and is on an industry leadership council and part of an industry buying group. Rachel Ghormley, meanwhile, is the primary owner of what she calls a small industrial machinery supply business in Tampa, declining to provide specifics.
“We are very private people,” Rachel Ghormley says.
The interest from people to get to know them — from media, local residents and tourists — she adds, is both frequent and a surprise. People come up to Jason while he’s at the pool at the St. Regis to thank him for buying Euphemia Haye, she says, and people ask to meet her regularly while she’s working the floor at the restaurant. “I am so surprised people keep coming up to me,” she says.
Two other people thankful for the Ghormleys are the Aprkes, the longtime Euphemia Haye owners. The Aprkes talk to Rachel and Jason regularly, says D’Arcy Arpke, and are rooting for the couple. “We’re very positive about them,” she says. “We’re glad it's them.”
The Ghormleys might be quiet about their personal lives.
But the work they have put, and are putting, into Eupehmia Haye, is visible.
In the days leading up to the purchase and then the first few days after closing, Jason, says Rachel, “worked around the clock and was barely home.” On the logistics side, they had to have a lawyer look at much of the paperwork, including the liquor license, and also, she says, had some debt to take care of related to the restaurant.
Rachel’s parents, Stuart and Patrica Solomon, owned the Olde World Cheese Shop and Docker’s restaurant in Bradenton in the 1980s and 1990s. But even though her family was in the business, Rachel says she and Jason had no formal restaurant training or experience when they bought Euphmia Haye.
One of the biggest surprises, so far, Rachel says, is how expensive all the work has been, from changing carpets to painting. “Every project costs more than I thought it would,” she says.
On the food side, the core menu will remain the same with some changes and updates brought in slowly. Some shifts are subtle but important touches, Rachel says. One example: adding butter packets to go along with the usual butter in the cup for bread, so customers have a choice.
The couple also looks to other restaurants and bars for inspiration. Maison Blanche on Longboat Key, Rachel says, “is a fabulous representation of fine dining.” She also chats with bartenders at the St. Regis about cocktail ideas, and she says, every restaurant the couple goes to in Aspen, Colorado, “is fantastic.” (Whether Aspen or Sarasota, Rachel says Jason is constantly taking photos of the plates coming out of the kitchen “like he’s a tourist.”)
The research has a purpose. For one, the couple is thinking ahead, says Rachel, in building a place, in food, service, culture and ambiance, where a “younger generation can also love Euphemia Haye.”
Not that they are overlooking the current clientele. The regulars continue to motivate the Ghormleys to do more at the restaurant. On the potential list is bringing back Ray Arpke to do cooking and lunch sessions and a reserve wine list. A celebration of being open 50 years and possibly a food and wine fest are also on their minds.
“This is a special place to so many people, and it’s been very gratifying to hear all the stories about how happy people are that we are open,” she says. “There is a lot of love we are putting into this.”
