St. Petersburg will soon be down to one Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille.
HM Restaurant Group, the Ft. Myers-based organization, will close the restaurant’s Bay Pines location Sunday. The Doc Ford’s on the St. Pete Pier will remain.
In about a week, the Bay Pines location (8790 Bay Pines Blvd.) will re-open as Boca Ciega Waterfront Bar & Grill, according to a restaurant spokesperson.
Doc Ford is a character in more than 30 novels by bestselling Florida author Randy Wayne White, who licensed the name, and book-related design and menu ideas, to Island House Restaurants in 2003. HMRG took over the contract in 2015.
Today there are locations on Sanibel Island, near White’s home, and on Fort Myers Beach, in addition to the St. Petersburg restaurants. The Pier location debuted in 2020, while the second, known as Bay Pines Jungle Terrace, appeared in 2022.
In the summer of 2025, White sued HM.
“Within a year after the signing of the License Agreement, the principals of HMRG again approached Mr. White demanding a further reduction in royalties, repeatedly browbeating Mr. White about the royalty structure,” read the lawsuit, filed in Lee County’s 20th Judicial Circuit.
“Mr. White, though, refused to entertain the idea of further reducing HMRG’s royalties or other concessions to HMRG’s demands, insisting that HMRG live up to the License Agreement it had executed with Mr. White just months earlier …
“Moreover, HMRG has not paid all royalties due to Mr. White pursuant to the License Agreement.”
HMRG denied the allegations.
It is not yet known how the removal of the Doc Ford’s name from the Bay Pines location is directly related to the lawsuit.
In an August 2025 interview with the Catalyst, White said HMRG also violated the terms of its licensing agreement by using the Doc Ford’s name to promote its other restaurants.
He couldn’t discuss precise details of the case, he said, on the advice of his lawyer.
“I’m very disappointed (in what’s happened),” White said, “but I actually don’t think about it much because I have a very good trademark attorney. And my trademarks have been extant in place for decades, and well established. And really, they can’t be argued.
“According to my attorney, if someone breaches the conditions in the contract, I really have no choice but to sue.”
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