A seafood landmark familiar to drivers traveling to and from Florida's Anna Maria Island closed quietly following a wave of financial troubles for its owner.

Tampa-based Gold Coast Restaurants Inc. shut down Johnny Leverock's Seafood House at 12320 Manatee Ave. W., and another location in Madeira Beach on Dec. 19 following its filing for bankruptcy reorganization in September.

Soon after the court proceeding, the company closed three locations, including restaurants in Ellenton, Sarasota and Fort Myers. A location in New Port Richey, closed in 2003 because of a fire, never reopened. The company's only remaining Johnny Leverock's restaurant in Clearwater Beach is still operating, company officials said.

Steve Burgess, Gold Coast's vice president of operations, said the decision to close the Bradenton and Madeira Beach restaurants was made by the company's board of directors, despite the Bradenton location's satisfactory performance.

"It was doing fine," Burgess said. "We always go up going into the high season."

Burgess told the Herald in late November the restaurant had stopped serving lunch weekdays because of slow traffic.

Steve Stichter, the company's lawyer, also told the Herald in late November greater competition and loss of business because of the hurricanes contributed to the bankruptcy filing.

Rich Unger, a Sarasota-based restaurant and nightclub consultant, believes the company didn't acknowledge increased competition or change its menu to suit the trend toward more healthful eating habits.

"I'm sorry to see them go, but they did it to themselves," Unger said. "The problem for Leverock's was that Bonefish buried them. They never ever changed with the times. I don't think they catered enough to people in general in this day and age."

Other people thought the restaurant offered a lot to diners.

"It is a shame because we really liked it," said part-time Bradenton resident Gerry Brissenden. "I liked the food. I liked the service. And the view -- it was beautiful to go there and see the water and lights at night."

The first Johnny Leverock's Seafood House opened in 1948 in Pinellas County. Leverock had won an oyster bed during a poker game and opened the establishment to sell the oysters, according to Herald archives.

The restaurant eventually grew into a chain, with locations in Madeira Beach, New Port Richey, Sarasota, Fort Myers, Cape Haze, St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach, Ellenton and Bradenton. The Bradenton location opened in 1990, and the Ellenton restaurant opened in 2000.

A partnership purchased the business from the Leverock family in 1981 following his death.

Gold Coast Restaurants purchased the chain in 2000, operating seven locations while the remaining restaurants were run by franchisees. For instance, Leverock's restaurants in St. Pete Beach and Cape Haze continue to operate under franchisees.

Copyright 2005 The Herald.

Florida's Leverock's closes two more units; 'Bonefish buried them'