HOLMES BEACH – The community said goodbye last week to Peach’s Restaurant, a long-time Anna Maria Island staple for breakfast and lunch on East Bay Drive.
The restaurant’s doors officially closed at the end of service on Sunday after landlord Benderson Development opted to not renew the lease on the space in the Anna Maria Island Center in May as well as the lease on the Peach’s location in Ellenton.
The announcement came on Peach’s social media pages on May 21 with management at the Holmes Beach location stating that Benderson said they were moving in a different direction for the shopping plaza.
That direction is The Toasted Mango Café, a breakfast and lunch restaurant similar to Peach’s business model, with two locations in Sarasota and Siesta Key. While Benderson has not responded to requests for comment, the news of the new tenant was confirmed when a woman who said she was an owner of The Toasted Mango approached diners and servers at Peach’s in Holmes Beach on June 5. Customers flocked to social media to state that she offered diners coupons to use when The Toasted Mango opens in Holmes Beach and offered to recruit servers.
“Well, that guarantees that Toasted Mango will never get my business,” Angela Pollock said on the Peach’s Holmes Beach Facebook page.
“I was quite turned off that a lady stating she was an owner of Toasted Mango in Sarasota was in my favorite restaurant attempting to hand out business cards or coupons to all the guests as well as asking the servers if they wanted to stay in this location and work for her,” Jenna Baird said. “Myself and several other guests were all just stunned that she would come into a fellow business – same breakfast and lunch – and do this, especially given the unfortunate circumstances of Peach’s being pushed out of the center by Benderson. Peach’s has been here in our communities far longer than The Toasted Mango and this is a terrible way for her to ‘attempt to promote’ taking over the location.”
“We don’t understand,” Peach’s Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hester said. “What we were told was that they were moving in a different direction, however, putting the exact same type of restaurant in our place doesn’t seem to be a different direction. It is sad finding out who was coming in behind us this way.”
Peach’s held a thank you party for the community last Friday.
Though two locations are now closed, Peach’s still has four locations with the closest to Holmes Beach located at 5240 State Road 64 E. in Bradenton.
The company’s management said they’re still looking for a new location for the Holmes Beach restaurant, which opened in 2001, and are meanwhile committed to moving staff from the two closed restaurants to one of the four open locations.
No opening date has been given for The Toasted Mango Holmes Beach location. Peach’s lease in the space officially ends on June 30.
