BRADENTON – The cheesesteaks were sizzling on the grills once again as the long-awaited Bradenton Boiler Room opened its doors on July 2.
Under new ownership and with a new name, the former Boiler Room Bar and Grill at 5600 Manatee Ave. W., owned by Matt Lavallee from 1984 until its closure in 2020, has reopened under the partnership of Cortez business owner Karen Bell and Cortezians Josh and Staci Wilkinson.
“This is something that the town has missed, at a time of a lot of growth, redevelopment and change we’re kind of trying to bring back something that everybody loves, a time-honored tradition,” Staci Wilkinson told The Sun on July 3. “We’re trying to honor the way that it once was and put our own little flair on it as well.”
Bell, owner of A.P. Bell Fish Co., Star Fish and co-owner of Tide Tables Restaurant in Cortez, partnered with the Wilkinsons, both of whom are Cortez residents and had been employees at her restaurants.
“I met Josh at Tide Tables almost 11 years ago and he was in the kitchen, and I was a bartender, and we worked together as friends for a year, and we fell in love and the rest is history. We’ve been married six years,” Staci said. “We’ve been under one of Karen’s umbrellas for that amount of time. Josh moved over to Star Fish the last two years, so between the two restaurants we’ve worked for her for over a decade.”…