Entrepreneur takes food fight to court

Sarasota restaurateur Steve Seidensticker, who opened Libby's — a high-end eatery in a high-traffic part of town in 2008 — can often be seen backslapping and smiling his way through the restaurant.

But Seidensticker is in a fighting mood these days. His target: Living Out East, a monthly lifestyle magazine distributed mostly in east Manatee County. The magazine, according to Seidensticker and his attorney, made a colossal error in its July issue, when it wrote that Libby's was “set to be closed.”

The statement was and is false, says Seidensticker. And he claims the repercussions have caused him significant damage, in terms of worried suppliers, confused customers and lost revenue. The fight is now headed to court because Seidensticker sued the magazine's publisher, Jeff Orenstein, for libel.

Orenstein declined to comment. His attorneys couldn't be reached.

Seidensticker's attorney, Matthew Taylor, says the lawsuit was filed both to recoup financial damages and get an official and legal document that proves the story was wrong. Another contention is that Orenstein and Living Out East didn't immediately remove the statement from the magazine's Web site, even after it ran a retraction in the print edition.

Moreover, Taylor says one of Seidensticker's primary complaints is that a reporter from Living Out East never called the restaurant to check its status. The story that was published, under a section called “Jack's Corner,” listed two other restaurants in Manatee and Sarasota counties “set to be closed,” eateries that did ultimately shut down.

“All it would have taken was a quick phone call to confirm with Steve,” says Taylor, an attorney with Barnes Walker & Goethe in Bradenton. “And that didn't happen.”

Libby's opened in the fall of 2008, in Sarasota's Southside Village, a few miles south of downtown. The restaurant took over the space once occupied by Fred's Restaurant, which was trendy with the local business crowd. (See Business Review, Oct. 9, 2008.)