Caddy’s new Madeira Beach location opens next week

Helen Freund, Tampa Bay Times
·2 min read

MADEIRA BEACH — Just in time for spring break, Caddy’s newest location opens next Wednesday in Madeira Beach.

The March 10 opening is just two months behind schedule from what the owners of the popular local chain had originally planned and comes a little more than a year after their last location launched in St. Pete Beach.

The first Caddy’s opened in Treasure Island in 2015. Since then, the group has expanded with several other locations — Indian Shores, Bradenton, Gulfport and St. Pete Beach. The Madeira Beach spot, which sits directly on the beach side of Gulf Boulevard overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, marks the company’s sixth location.

Caddy’s Executive Director David Culhane said they purchased the property at 14080 Gulf Boulevard five years ago and spent the last year and a half building the restaurant. The large, two-story structure — painted in Caddy’s signature pale blue and yellow colors — includes a downstairs bar and area for picnic tables and a main restaurant and bar upstairs, with seating for roughly 240 people.

“With the view, looking out on the water — it’s beautiful,” Culhane said. “It’s the nicest Caddy’s we have.”

Depending on the crowd size, Culhane said it’s likely they’ll have live music in the form of a one- to two-piece band playing on the upstairs deck some nights.

The company recently hired a new corporate chef to oversee the menus at all six restaurants and Culhane said they’ve added roughly 15 new menu items (don’t worry, all the Caddy’s fan favorites — grouper nuggets, smoked fish spread, coconut shrimp baskets — are still there).

With the new restaurant opening, Culhane says the company will be able to hire an additional 100 people, bringing Caddy’s employment numbers up to 600 — just 100 people shy of their pre-pandemic payroll. Last March, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the company laid off all 700 of their employees.

“It’s been a very, very tough year,” Culhane said. “But now, we’re seeing it turn,” he said, adding that business has increased considerably over the past few weeks.

Once open, Caddy’s will serve lunch and dinner daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.