The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper



Vol. 17 No. 16 - February 1, 2017

BUSINESS

Island Gourmet: Good food, good value

LaPensee Plumbing Pools Air

LOUISE BOLGER | SUN

Owner Scott St. Blanc offers gourmet and casual food at Island Gourmet.

If you're born and raised in New Orleans and you grew up with Ruth Fertal's children of Ruth's Chris Steak House fame, working in the restaurant business seems an obvious choice. Well, it must also have been obvious to Ruth because Scott St. Blanc ended up working for her for 23 years, at one point overseeing nine of Ruth's Chris Steak House restaurants in Florida.

Like many restaurant owners, Scott St. Blanc started out washing dishes and moving up the restaurant ladder from waiter to assistant manager, manager and regional director for Ruth's Chris. When he decided it was time for him to open his own restaurant, he looked close to home in Holmes Beach, opening Island Gourmet Grill in August 2012.

St. Blanc's philosophy is "You want to make people feel good about opening their wallets." He wants to provide food and service that will not only encourage his patrons to come back again and again but also make them feel they are receiving good value for their money.

To do this, he and his long-time chef Donny Wolfe start with the best ingredients and convert them into a variety of gourmet and casual food that will appeal to most people. In addition to specials every day and oysters year-round, Island Gourmet's dinner menu includes entrees like snapper, lemon seafood pasta and veal piccata. Start with soup and salad or appetizers like shrimp ceviche or pot stickers. And if you're in the mood for a pizza, Island Gourmet's are truly gourmet with thin crust and great specialty choices like duck and goat cheese or Hawaiian, or you can build your own with an assortment of toppings.

The lunch menu includes flatbreads, tacos, sliders, sandwiches, burgers and, of course, small personal pizzas, in addition to starters and salads.

Lunch and dinner are great, but happy hour is definitely the best. With Island Gourmet's full bar and extensive wine list, the happy hour features $5 wine and drinks with premium liquors, $5 house sangrias and $5 house martinis, in addition to $2 domestic beer and $3 imported beer. And you might just run into some of the regular crowd or a Ladies Night Out gathering lined up along the main bar or the community bar. The restaurant also has a large dining room with both tables and booths as well as outside tables that are pet friendly.

Island Gourmet not only has take-out but it also delivers to the entire Island without charge; great for renters just checking in. It also does on site and off site catering with lots of weddings on the catering list and servers will bring the dishes, if needed. In addition, Scott St. Blanc doesn't forget the Island's full time residents, offering off season specials like buy one get one, 20 percent off for locals and free appetizers.

Holmes Beach may be a long way from New Orleans but not that far that Scott St. Blanc forgot his roots. Now Anna Maria is the beneficiary of all that good training that Ruth Fertel provided, but don't take my word for it log on to Trip Advisor for the real story.

ISLAND GOURMET GRILL

5910 Marina Drive, Holmes Beach

941-778-0333

www.IslandGourmetGrill.com

Monday – Friday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (in season)

Saturday: 5 to 10 p.m.

Happy Hour: Monday – Friday 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

All major credit cards accepted

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Reverse mortgages worth another look

Investment Corner

I have written about reverse mortgages over the years, at least twice here in the Sun. My advice was that reverse mortgages were expensive for the borrower, but in the case where a retired person or couple had run out of assets, using the equity in their home through a reverse mortgage wasn’t the worst idea in the world.

I’m bringing the topic back one more time because some changes in federal guidelines have made the reverse mortgage a more attractive option for those who are over age 62, that own their home free and clear of another mortgage and who are concerned about the possibility of running low on retirement income during their lifetime

Space limitations don’t’ allow us to go into a full primer on reverse mortgages, but let’s hit some of the highlights.

• Fees are down: The up front mortgage insurance premium applied to all reverse mortgages was reduced from 2.5 percent of the loan amount to 0.5 percent by the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013, as long as the borrower doesn’t tap more than 60 percent of the available credit balance in the first year. Other fees have been standardized and are roughly in line with a traditional home mortgage, but often lenders will issue credits to offset some or all of these other expenses.

• Education: Borrowers are required to attend a consumer counseling session to make sure they understand the nature of the reverse mortgage. The cost of this session is $125

• Borrowing limit: The limit for reverse mortgage credit lines depends on the age of the youngest borrower, current interest rates and the lenders margin. Generally, you can access about half of the value of your principal resident, up to a current maximum value of $625,000.

• Payments: You don’t need to make payment on a reverse mortgage. The money you borrow and accrued interest must be repaid when you no longer live in the home. This can be through a move to another location, or if you pass away. The home will then be sold, the reverse mortgage paid off and any excess above that can be left to heirs.

In the past, advice was generally to take out the reverse mortgage as a last resort when it was obvious additional funds may be needed. Under current guidelines, that advice is outdated. Reverse mortgage lines of credit actually grow over time, giving the borrower the ability to borrow more. So, the current advice in most situations is to establish the line of credit in your mid-60s, when eligible, and instead of borrowing, just let the line of credit rest with a zero balance.

A line of credit for about $125,000 will grow to about $190,000 in 10 years, 290,000 in 20 years and over $440,000 in 30 years. Establishing, but not accessing the line of credit until later in retirement gives the retiree a lot of flexibility. The exact loan characteristics are influenced by the age(s) of the borrowers as well as the current level of interest rates.

In summary, for those who may find themselves real estate rich and liquid asset challenged, a reverse mortgage may be a good option.

Tom Breiter is president of Breiter Capital Management, Inc., an Anna Maria based investment advisor. He can be reached at 778-1900. Some of the investment concepts highlighted in this column may carry the risk of loss of principal, and investors should determine appropriateness for their personal situation before investing. Visit www.breitercapital.com.

 


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