Stan Rutstein, our real estate agent extraordinaire came to us with a “property we couldn’t pass on.” Well, he was right and what do you know?! We opened the doors to Anna Maria Oyster Bar Ellenton at US 301 and I-75. This property has proven to be a “property we couldn’t pass on” as it battles with Landside to be our busiest location to this date. We purchased this property, so the task of naming was more daunting this time around…we had to come up with a name for an LLC to purchase the building and another one for the operating company…you know how attorneys like levels of insulation against lawsuits, don’t you. I’m beginning to realize it’s so they can fight for two entities and double dip the billing on you…but that’s for another day.

Once again, I called Uncle Clint and told him I needed an LLC for the purchase. He asked me what name I’d like and I told him, “The Lobotomy Wore Off, LLC”…he told me I couldn’t use that and I responded that I’d checked on State’s website and there wasn’t one already (I’d learned my lesson on pOpus.) He said it needs to be something calmer like Horne Property, LLC or John Horne Ellenton Restaurant, LLC or something like that…I turned into a 12-year old and asked, “Why?” he tried to convince me that he was right but my endless “Why’s? wore him down and he formed The Lobotomy Wore Off, LLC. A week later, a half-page business section story was in the Bradenton Herald with the headline, “Oyster Bar owner must be crazy” describing corporate name as that’s what got the writer’s attention…I sent Uncle Clint a copy to show him the value of a fun name. I have a framed copy on the wall in my office to remind me to ask “Why?”

When we looked at naming the operating company, I asked Laura our Office Manager if she had any good ideas for the newest company. Laura was frustrated with the filing differentiating between R to the Fifth, Rock Ridge and said, I don’t care what you call the next one, but it better not have an R in the title…you guessed it, No R’s in Ellenton, Inc. It was either that or No G’s in Ellenton as so many pronounce it Ellington…we like the No R’s better. Of course, with us, there’s usually a double meaning and in this case, we’re subtly referring to the “Old Wive’s Tale” dating back to times before modern refrigeration tactics when oysters were not recommended to eat during months with “No R’s” in the name.

After many attempts to buy the building on 41 where pOpus operates we were finally at a point of agreement with the landlords to purchase…we’d been here before…many times actually…only to be jilted at the altar by a runaway seller…I’d formed an LLC 10 years earlier thinking we were gonna get to the closing table…its name is “BOTWASM, LLC” from the movie Bull Durham…another acronym for the words Kevin Costner’s “Crash Davis” said to Tim Robbins’ “Nuke LaLoosh” “Bring On That Weak A$$ed S%$# Meat” but too many years had lapsed, so we used this name for an unrelated transaction so we didn’t lose a classic. Inevitably when it came to the time of the sale we needed another name… so after being left at the altar so many times and this sale finally happening, we started “Finally A Bride, LLC.”