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Apple Family Restaurant, which closed in September after 40 years, will be the site of Leatherbacks Steakhouse.
By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 27, 2002
MADEIRA BEACH -- The Apple Family Restaurant, for decades a meeting place for residents and visitors, will be reincarnated in a few months as a steakhouse with a sea turtle theme.
Leatherbacks Steakhouse will team with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to become an adjunct sea turtle education center, said Todd Broaderick, CEO of Broaderick Management, which is leasing the restaurant building from longtime operators Pat and George Shontz.
Pat Shontz says converting the Apple into a steakhouse is a "real nifty" idea. "It has just worked out beautifully. Leatherbacks will be a wonderful asset for the town. It brings to Madeira Beach the whole idea of visioning."
"We expect to be open by January or February," Broaderick said. "We will give the building an entire facelift with tabby stucco and a new Key West-style roof."
The front of the restaurant will be landscaped with coconut palms, plants and a low torch-lit wall. A new entrance, including a 600-square-foot lobby, is planned at the existing rear of the building. The main parking lot off 150th Avenue will provide the only entry and exit to the restaurant.
The interior will feature a "lot of bamboo," Broaderick said, as well as a recurring sea turtle presence.
The Broadericks spent $16,000 to buy three large sea turtle artworks -- named TNT Legacy, Zahava and Guana Boy.
Dinnerware and mugs will be adorned with sea turtles.
The menu also will do some name-dropping: Kemp Ridley Ribeye Steak (for the large sea turtle), TED's Tuna (for the turtle excluder device used to prevent sea turtles from being trapped in fishing nets), and Ponce's Pork Chops (named for Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer who discovered the Dry Tortugas in 1513). Hours are expected to be 4-11 p.m.
Broaderick said the turtle theme is appropriate because Madeira Beach is a major sea turtle nesting ground.
Terry Hepburn, assistant director of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, said she is preparing displays depicting sea turtle nesting and other life cycle activities. No live turtles will be on hand.
"This is the first time we have approved a restaurant as one of our education centers. We are really excited," she said.
After proposals from two pharmacy chains (Eckerd and CVS) to redevelop the property fell through, Shontz began talking last summer with Broaderick and his father Art about taking over the restaurant.
"The residents of Madeira Beach didn't like the idea of the restaurant being turned into a drugstore," Shontz said. "We got many letters and telephone calls from as far as England. People were just having a fit. We wanted it to stay a restaurant; but after 40 years, we were going bonkers. We definitely wanted to get out."
Shontz and her husband closed the Apple on Sept. 9, "40 years and nine days" after it opened in 1962. The Apple became an institution, growing from the original 72-seat diner to a full-service restaurant with 185 seats. Until five years ago, the restaurant was open 24 hours a day.
The Apple was a favorite lunch stop for tourists and business people. Families came for dinner. Teenagers hung out there.
The Shontz and Broaderick families have been friends for many of those years -- active in town politics, boosters for the redevelopment of John's Pass Village and fellow restaurant operators.
"I got us into this. I said why don't we take over the Apple and turn it into a steakhouse?" said Todd Broaderick, whose company operates Sculley's and The Hut in John's Pass Village and is about to open High Tides Cafe.
Shontz says she is retired but plans to remain active in city affairs. Her immediate challenge is clearing out her office at the Apple: "I'm just trying to figure out what to do with 40 years of stuff."