Here’s why this popular Pinellas Cody’s Roadhouse closed

BELLEAIR BLUFFS — When Suzy Sofer and her father, Stan, decided a year and a half ago they were ready to exit the restaurant business after owning the popular Cody’s Roadhouse restaurant for 18 years, they had hoped to host a farewell party with free food, drinks and gifts for their loyal staff and customers.

Unfortunately, after closing the deal, they weren’t allowed to say goodbye publicly.

“As soon as we sold as part of the franchise agreement, we had to take all the signs down and we couldn’t serve another meal,” Stan Sofer said on April 3 from his West Bay Drive office, not far from the now shuttered 300-seat eatery located in the Harbor shopping complex. He added they offered the out-of-state owners of the eight-franchise company the right to purchase the longtime local hot spot first.

“They didn’t see the value in it,” Suzy Sofer said. “But our customers did.”

Indeed, over the course of nearly two decades the Sofers built a loyal customer base, thanks to the fresh food they served daily, and hospitality shown by the employees, owners and staff.

“Cody’s was founded on steaks and fresh food cooked in-house every day,” Stan Sofer said while recalling the day they purchased the business from Tarpon Springs restaurateurs the Pappas family in 2007.

“It was where quality and value came together to make a product we could all stand behind,” Suzy added.

Over the years, the former mortgage company partners had been through the wringer while navigating the volatile restaurant industry, dealing with everything from hurricanes to oil spills. But it was a change in ownership and a variation from Cody’s long-held standards, coupled with the immediate and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, that caused the father and daughter to start considering an exit.

“When COVID-19 hit, everything changed,” Suzy Sofer, a 16-year Belleair Bluffs City Commissioner, said of the March 2020 pandemic. “Personnel, pricing, staffing. Everything about running a restaurant changed. We became the mask police, the social distancing police. We went from being a 300-seat restaurant to a take-out deli.”

“We were the whipping boys for the business industry as a whole,” Stan added.

Then, cost-cutting measures, like using more frozen foods, implemented by the new owners pushed the Sofers over the brink.

“In 2018 when the new franchise owners came in, we started to see little blips (in how things were done), and they just blew up during COVID,” Stan Sofer said. He added they were being forced to follow restrictions and guidelines from another state here in Florida, where things were being handled much differently.

“When my customers could tell the change in quality, it was time for us to go,” Suzy Sofer said. Not being able to have a farewell party and thank their staff and customers was tough.

“We may have relief on our faces, but there’s sadness in our eyes,” she said.

With the sale now finalized (due to a non-compete agreement, the Sofers can’t say who they sold to or what will occupy the old Cody’s space) and more free time on the horizon, Stan and Suzy Sofer are already searching for their next father-daughter business venture.

“We’ve had some discussions,” Stan said, adding, “it was wonderful to not do anything this weekend!”

Suzy Sofer said while they “don’t know what the future holds, we still like being business partners, and we want to continue that.”

“But we will never be in the restaurant business again,” Stan Sofer said. “We can safely say that. The people in that industry deserve a medal.”