HOLMES BEACH – It’s the end of an era at the Beach Bistro.
The award-winning beachfront restaurant’s owners of more than 36 years, Sean Murphy and Susan Timmins, have sold the restaurant to Anna Maria Island developer Shawn Kaleta and attorney Louis Najmy.
The change of ownership was announced on Jan. 27 in a newsletter emailed to fans of the restaurant. The same day, a change was registered with the Florida Secretary of State naming Najmy Thompson P.L. as the registered agent for the property owner, Beach Bistro Inc. The same filing named attorney Louis Najmy as president, director and secretary, and developer Shawn Kaleta as director and vice-president.
In the newsletter, Murphy said that while he and Timmins have enjoyed raising their family around the Bistro and working with the team at the restaurant, they felt that it was time to step back and hand the reins over to a new team of owners, though the names of the new owners were not disclosed in the email.
“We have a long history, a great tradition, of incredibly talented culinarians. We feel strongly that the great team running the Bistro now is one of our finest. Which is why we feel it is the right time for us to step aside and to take pleasure in watching this special little place continue to soar without us. The Bistro staff will do an excellent job of carrying on the Bistro tradition. The people who made it great will continue to make it great. We won’t be far away,” Murphy said in the email.
Continuing, he stated that the couple plans to focus their efforts on their craft bar, The Doctor’s Office, and its adjacent event space, The Doctor’s Garden, both in Holmes Beach.
Previously, Murphy and Timmins owned Eat Here, a bistro located in The Shoppes at Waterline in Holmes Beach. However, the bistro was closed, first due to COVID-19 precautions and then due to a gas leak caused by work done in other parts of the shopping center. After closing for renovations in June 2021, Eat Here never reopened.
On the Beach Bistro website, another restaurant, The Bistro BLVD, is listed to be located in downtown Sarasota at the BLVD condominium complex. However, that restaurant has yet to open.
The Beach Bistro has received recognitions from Zagat, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the James Beard Foundation, Food & Wine and the St. Petersburg Times, among others.
