- April 26, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
The local beloved restaurant The Green Lion Cafe is now likely to become "Loopers," a new restaurant from the owner of the popular Beach Front Grille in Flagler Beach off of U.S. Highway A1A.
Jamie Bourdeau and Dudley Shaw, the co-owners of Beach Front Grille, submitted one of only two bids to replace The Green Lion at the Palm Harbor Golf Club concession. Brittany Kershaw, Director of Public Information and Engagement for the city of Palm Coast, confirmed the city has offered a letter of intent for Loopers.
Beach Front Grille is a casual sports bar restaurant featuring American fare. Loopers, established this year, will also feature dishes influence by "American cuisine and family recipes," and serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and specialty cocktails, according to their submitted bid proposal.
The proposal also indicated that Bourdeau and Shaw want to implement services like beverage cart attendants for players on the course and food and drink specials for major sporting events.
"The goal of this proposal is to be the restaurant and bar of choice for all golfers and their guests, as well as to impress outsiders invited to experience the Palm Harbor Golf community," reads the proposal submitted for the Loopers bid. "The success of the restaurant will center on our proposed innovations and the approaches we will take to attract new golfers and/or patrons."
According to the proposal, the restaurant will seat 88, approximately 40 inside and 48 outside. Bourdeau and Shaw also outline plans to — once the lease is signed and with city approval — move the bar to face the driving range, add seats to it and add a community table, at an estimated cost of $65,000.
These renovations, plus the listed expected costs to order new equipment, furnishings and tableware, are estimated to cost Loopers a total of $121,000 before opening their doors.
Lunch and breakfast will have grab and go items for golfers rushing out to the green. The proposed breakfast menu has breakfast sandwiches at $5.25, and classic breakfast dishes like eggs Benedict ($12.49).
Lunch will have daily sandwich specials and weekly specials, and consists of a mixture of sandwiches and wraps priced from $10.99 to $14.99. Dinner will also have weekly specials, served with soup or salad and a side. There are six dinner entree options proposed, ranging from $18 to $27 — a half or full rack of ribs, a gluten-free cajun chicken dinner, chef's salmon, scallop gruyere, crab stuffed haddock and rib eye steak.
Loopers will also serve appetizers ranging from $5 to $16, soups, salads, wings, a small kids menu and specialty cocktails. The cocktails listed on the proposed menu are priced $9 to $11. The proposal mentioned Loopers will host a happy hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with "discounted house cocktails, domestic beers, and half-off appetizers."
"The mission and objective of the operation is to bring together a casual atmosphere enhanced by a golf course location that will appeal to residents and visitors," the proposal reads. "The key to success will be the quality in our products, unmatched service, and relaxing atmosphere."
The proposal also included selling merchandise items like T-shirts, ball caps, tumblers and koozies for bottles or cans.
Loopers will also offer catering options as well. Guests, the proposal said, can either celebrate at Loopers or cater out. Catering to other locations will have several options to choose from: picking up the order, having the order dropped off, buffet display set up or full-service catering.
The bidding for the concession at Palm Harbor Golf Course opened Aug. 24. It had to be extended when only one applicant applied for the bid, and closed Sep. 29 with two bids: Loopers, and Thai & I Flagler, a Thai cuisine restaurant.
Outside of the owners, the staffing requirements lists 32 employees for the restaurant, including eight servers and four bartenders.
The Green Lion Cafe will be closing its doors at the concession after a contentious year between the owners and the Palm Coast City Council. The restaurant was under a $600 monthly lease for years, with the city paying the utilities, tied in with the golf course's utilities.
The cost of the lease was brought before city council last February when the owners indicated they wished to renew, and snowballed over the summer into a heated back-and-forth between the council members and the cafe owners, the Marlow family.
The Marlow family spent thousands of dollars building up their cafe into the highly popular restaurant it has become since 2017 - The Green Lion was even ranked the top restaurant in Palm Coast on TripAdvisor in 2022.
In February, the Palm Coast City Council considered opening up the location straight to bidding, but after dozens of residents showed up to protest, redirected to negotiating the rent amount and utilities costs. Those negotiations broke down in July when the council and Marlows couldn't reach an agreement.
"We're being punished for being successful," Green Lion Cafe co-owner Christopher Marlow said on Feb. 11.
The Green Lion Cafe has until Jan. 15 to leave the facility, and a new lease with the new restaurant will begin Feb. 1, 2023.
