CORTEZ – Slicker’s Eatery is celebrating its fourth anniversary on Saturday, May 17 under a giant tent with live music, food, raffles and prizes.
After being closed down for 128 days following extensive damage to the restaurant from Hurricane Helene and the long haul back to reopening the doors, the anniversary has special significance to owner Bob Slicker and his staff.
The actual anniversary of the restaurant was in February, but Slicker wanted to celebrate resilience following the storms.
“It’s means more now than it did before. We were excited about the way things were going before the hurricane,” Slicker said. “(Since reopening) It was like opening a whole other restaurant, we changed the concept a bit, we changed the style a bit and we added a lot of things to the menu for the economy and Cortez.”
He has added burgers, bratwurst, wings and pretzels to the menu.
“It’s interesting, it’s like starting over again,” Slicker said. “Our fourth anniversary is almost like a first year. We really changed everything purposely to help the (Cortez) village. Everyone’s going to be tight on money, there aren’t as many tourists, which means the locals are going to have less money.”
Slicker maintains a positive attitude and has been involved in charitable initiatives through the Anna Maria Island Rotary Club, which has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to local causes.
“We’ve overcome quite a bit here, so for us this is really parallel to life, and how we deal with life and get through it and stay strong and stay happy and stay loving and kind,” Slicker said. “The last four years haven’t turned out how I wanted it to because of the struggles, but overall, spiritually and emotionally I couldn’t expect any more.”
Christine Olson, the founder of TIFF (To Inform Families First) will be available at the anniversary celebration to have people sign up for the initiative to link emergency contacts to a driver’s license.
“Because of Christine, in Florida we think it’s common to have that on your license. Now there’s 18 states doing that, and we would like to be nationwide by Oct. 26,” Slicker said. “We would like it to be going worldwide.”
The four-year anniversary celebration will be from 4-10 p.m. at Slicker’s Eatery, 12012 Cortez Road W.
There will be live music by Steve Paradis, a liquor basket raffle and prizes. Burgers, brats and chicken sandwiches will be available outside as well as the full menu inside.
