For the Belleair Market at The ANNIKA, Small Business Equals Big Dreams
By Carson Racich
BELLEAIR, Fla. – When consumers make their way through the town of Belleair, a common theme is that the Belleair Market is a must-stop shop and pit stop. This week at Pelican Golf Club, Belleair Market is bringing their thoroughfare to The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, providing a delicious array of food options for fans all week long.
“We are a corner store in a unique neighborhood,” said owner Chris Scott. “We try to have a little bit of everything, whatever the neighborhood wants or needs.”
Belleair Market has been around for 10 years as a corner store. The original idea, as Scott recalled, was a wine, beer and cigar store. Despite original plans, Chris and fiancé Julie expanded on the idea to provide whatever the community needed. Hence the transformation into a one-stop shop with the addition of granite countertops and owners who had a goal to serve their community.
“This is a whole new place since we first purchased it. We now have kids showing up on bikes, families pulling up in golf carts and local businesses stopping here on their lunch breaks,” Julie expressed.
Since opening their doors, the demand and support from the community has only continued to grow. Chris and Julie’s store has grown from four employees to now 36. The community always expresses their love for the Market and come in weekly. Amongst their customers that show nonstop support is the Doyle family.
“Mr. Doyle Sr. is probably one of our biggest supporters. He comes in every day, maybe twice a day, to grab a coffee and sandwiches,” Chris said. He literally is juggling multiple sandwiches to the register.”
Not only has the Doyle family been supportive, but also the tournament management company who runs The ANNIKA, Outlyr, who has a permanent office in Tampa, continuously comes in for weekly lunch breaks. Their year-round tournament office is directly across the street.
Excited to support the community and local business, Outlyr chose Belleair Market to help with their food needs at the tournament once again in 2023.
“Outlyr has done nothing but support us and our business. They truly have been a cheerleader,” Julie stated.
For this year’s tournament, Belleair Market was asked to serve all seven days to vendors and the local, national and international media in the tournament media center. They also now serve a few items in the concession stand - a dream came true.
While choosing a menu is not the easiest task, nor is getting every single staff member on board for the tedious task of cooking and prepping. For Chris, Julie and the Belleair Market, they had a team that was all in.
“We looked at our menu and picked our most popular items. That included our Cuban, which we actually just sold our 100,000th”, Julie said. “We have a lot of dedicated employees who dedicate a lot of their time to us, and we are thankful they are on board for these types of things.”
From pulled pork, lasagna, enchiladas, Cuban and turkey sandwiches to name a few, The Belleair Market is pulling out all the stops for fans and staff at this week's ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Fans are drawn into the lingering smells at Club 59.
As a result of the Doyle family, Pelican Golf Club and the tournament staff’s continued support, The Belleair Market has been able to make an even bigger name for themselves and introduce new community members to their little slice of heaven.
“People are loving it and constantly coming back to the stand,” Chris said. I’ve seen a huge impact at the store too. People come in wearing their Annika shirts and a conversation starts. Most of the time someone is either heading to the event, or they tell us they found us because of the event. It's truly been a blessing.”
Similar to the Doyles’ phrase of ‘How do we do better for next year,’ Chris and Julie are already thinking about the future and how they can expand and improve.
Small business. Big dreams.
