Minnie’s Beach Cafe has been providing a family-friendly atmosphere for breakfast and lunch on Anna Maria Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast for 20 years.
“It’s kind of like ‘Cheers,’” says co-owner Kathy Smart, the TV show where everyone knows your name.
But the Holmes Beach restaurant at 5360 Gulf Dr. is in danger of closing.
Construction, COVID-19 loan payments, hurricane losses and an owner’s health prompted co-owner Kathy Smart to start a GoFundMe to save the restaurant, which was founded in 2004.
Smart said she initially balked at the GoFundMe. But in three days, Minnie’s campaign reached its $20,000 goal to “get us up to speed on everything.”
“Every time someone donates something, I start crying,” Smart said. “I can’t believe how many people have done that for us. It’s just, everyone is so generous. And we’re like a family here. We always have been. Our customers, we know their children … we know their children’s children.”
Fans raise $20,000 to save Minnie’s
Co-owners Smart and Mary Doub haven’t received a salary in two years. Smart said they received a letter saying a construction project would take three months.
That was almost three years ago and it is still not finished.
“So they would block the parking lot quite a bit… and that almost killed us,” Smart said.
The year construction began was also the year they had to pay back COVID-19 loans, which only compounded the challenge of staying afloat, Smart said.
And during a hurricane, Smart said, they had a generator that kept their freezer running and fully stocked to weather the storm. But someone turned off the generator, which caused a huge loss.
“We lost everything,” Smart said. “We lost everything that was in the coolers. It was a mess.”
“One problem after another has put us in big trouble now,” said Smart.
One of those things was Smart’s health. She had been struggling with blood clots and said she walked without a cane for the first time on Monday. And during that struggle, she was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer. Radiation treatments followed.
This left Smart unemployed.
And Smart and Doub have, according to GoFundMe, “exhausted our savings” to address each problem.
How Minnie Began
Minnie’s Restaurant has been on Anna Maria Island since the early 1970s, but became Minnie’s Beach Cafe in 2004 when Smart, Doub and others bought it. One of the other owners had a grandmother named Minnie, and that became the name of the restaurant.
Minnie’s offers a variety of breakfast and lunch items, as well as several specials. Omelets are Minnie’s signature, but Smart said they’ll make whatever the customer wants with the ingredients they have.
“I always tell people our menu is a suggestion,” Smart said. “If you see the ingredients on it, we’ll make it for you.”
