Silver Ring Cafe making Cuban sandwiches for 35 years on Tennessee Ave downtown Lakeland may to an end. Silver Ring Café opened in 1986.
On Sept. 1, the restaurant will need to find a new space to lease or close.
Silver Ring has two full-time employees “who have been with me for a long time” and two part-timers, Tim Altman said.
“I’m very concerned about my employees,” Altman said. “I’m really worried about them more than myself — and my customers. Some people are very upset we are being run out.”
Altman said he was surprised his lease wasn’t being renewed. “I’ve been leasing here from four different owners since I’ve been (in Lakeland). I wasn’t expecting it, that’s for sure.”
“The landlord informed me that my lease is up in August and she is not planning to renew it. She has plans for somebody else” to lease the space, Altman said.
The two-story building at the intersection of Tennessee and Main Street has three ground-floor businesses and is owned by Katherine Lake
“Their lease expires at the end of August — August 31st — and, yes, it is not being renewed. There is another entity that is going to be moving into that space,” Lake said Thursday. “I did last week touch bases with (Altman) to remind him the lease expires and to let him know it would not be renewed.”
Lake said it was NOT an easy decision.
Silver Ring is “a long-standing piece of the community. I know a lot of people will be disappointed. At the same time, I’m excited with all the changes happening in downtown Lakeland,” she said.
Lake said she expects to reveal the new tenant in “three or four months” and that it will fit in with “the bigger picture with the changes that are coming that will be good for downtown.”
A phone number (863) 333-5120 to get a hold of Katherine Lake. To save the Silver Ring Café.