Bar Fly’s next chapter is already underway, even as it prepares to close a beloved one.
After 14 years in Safety Harbor, the fly fishing-themed bar and seafood spot’s last day of service will be July 30. The restaurant is under contract to be sold to Frenchy’s, a Clearwater-based restaurant group. The sale, according to Bar Fly’s Facebook post, was scheduled to close July 31.
“We made a decision now because we’re closer to sort of semi-retirement,” owner Jeff Harrell said. “We have the little spot, our son’s learning the business, we want to travel a little more, fish more and enjoy a little more life as we’re getting older.”
The next phase centers on Palm Harbor. The family opened a smaller outpost there about a year ago, designed to return to the original Bar Fly vision: a small, laidback coastal bar with fishing gear and apparel.
Expansion plans are already in the works.
Harrell said he recently signed a lease for the space one door down. The former Pizza World will be converted into a sit-down restaurant, with plans to offer 80-90% of the menu from Bar Fly’s Safety Harbor seafood restaurant, known as the Saltwater Grill. Although in the same strip, the Palm Harbor locations will be separated by Serava Nails & Spa.
“It sounds weird, and it sounded weird to us, but then I kind of dissected the business a little more, and looked at how the Safety Harbor location is, and there’s almost two separate businesses,” Harrell said. “We have our fishing apparel, our brand apparel in the bar and we have live music. Then, we have a little restaurant.”
Concentrating their operations to one area makes it more manageable for the mom-and-pop operation. Harrell and his wife, Celeste, are looking to bring their son, Ethan, into the family business.
“By focusing our efforts on one location, we’ll be able to work together as a family, teach him the business we’ve built over the years and give the next generation an opportunity to help shape where Bar Fly goes from here,” the restaurant wrote in a social media post.
Leaving Safety Harbor was not easy for the owners, or the community.
“The hard thing about Safety Harbor is it’s been there a long time and means so much to the community. It’s probably the hardest one to move on from,” Harrell said.
Bar Fly Safety Harbor’s Facebook post announcing the closure was flooded with hundreds of comments from community members reminiscing about live music nights and beginning to mourn their favorite lobster dishes.
Tamara Poston, 66, of Clearwater, said she frequented the bar at least a couple of times a month, and in the wintertime even several times a week. Poston, who flaunts what she calls her “bohemian flair” around the restaurant, reminisced about the friendships she’s built with the staff.
“They are the heart of a community, which makes you want to go see them and support the company that they put their heart and soul into,” Poston said. “You walk into the bar, drink goes down and they know what you want to drink. It’s like the ‘Cheers’ of Safety Harbor.”
She credits the team behind the “one-of-a-kind” quesadillas and her personal favorite, C-Lime Grouper Tacos, with building a community center housed within the teal walls lined with fish-themed decor.
“It’s just one of those bars that you go in and literally people remember you,” Poston said. “That gives everybody a good feeling.”
During the selling process, Harrell, 58, said his staff was a top concern. As part of the deal, Bar Fly and Frenchy’s structured a severance package for the employees.
“We want to make sure those staff have something to have to move on, and whether they go get another job somewhere, or they wait around until those renovations are done and then reapply to stay in that location with the new company,” Harrell said.
Frenchy’s, similar to Bar Fly, got its start locally. Michael “Frenchy” Preston opened Frenchy’s Original Café in 1981 and now has five locations across Clearwater and Dunedin. Following renovations, the sixth Frenchy’s restaurant will open in the corner spot in Safety Harbor.
“Their business model, being really a mom-and-pop and an operation like ours with the seafood and everything else, concentrates on a lot of similar items,” Harrell said. “For us, looking into it, it was like a better transition than anything.”
Customers not ready to say goodbye can enjoy Bar Fly’s Palm Harbor location. While the menu is smaller, it still features fan favorites, including the lobster melt, lobster roll and a selection of tacos.
With the new restaurant expected to open in September, Harrell said it won’t be long before more familiar dishes return to satisfy cravings.
For Safety Harbor’s Bar Fly lovers, it means a longer drive to “drink like a fish.”
