A popular local business in Flagler Beach is closing. Hang Ten, a live entertainment stage, oceanside restaurant, and tiki bar located at A1A and 12th Street, announced Monday that it would be shutting down effective immediately. The restaurant made headlines this summer when its previous owner, Jimmy Harris, was arrested on charges of the molestation of his 14 year-old stepdaughter.
After the distressing July arrest of her husband, Jayne Harris changed the restaurant’s name form Jimmy’s Hang Ten to merely Hang Ten, and kept things going for awhile. However, the myriad of stressors caused to the business in the wake of her husband’s arrest caused Harris to make the difficult decision to close following its October month.
At around 1:59 am on November 1st, Jayne posted the following announcement to the business’s Facebook page:
“It is with an extremely heavy and broken heart that I am writing this. Many of you know that the past 4 months have been extremely challenging for me and my staff at Hang Ten. I have been working tirelessly to overcome multiple challenges in running Hang Ten, but ultimately they proved to be insurmountable and I therefore have no option other than to close effective immediately.
“I want to give a sincere thank you to all my customers who have supported me and my staff through these difficult months. Here has been such a pleasure to get to know such wonderful customers, many of whom are now my friends. I also want to thank my amazing staff, without them, I couldn’t have got through one single day. Without the support of you guys, I probably would have lost my mind! I I’d also like to thank Scott and Paul from Tortuga’s and Greg from Saltwater Cowboys for their help and advice along the way.
I hope to see you soon, somewhere else in town. Please don’t forget to support your local restaurants and musicians! I love you all.”
Hang Ten was hosting musical performers and trivia nights right up until its final day of business. Altogether it was around for just over a year, with the business being established on October 27th of last year. In addition to the hardships of Jimmy’s arrest, the restaurant also dealt with issues regarding noise ordinances, zoning, and even its bathroom situation over the course of the 2021 year. All things considered, despite a lively patronage during its one-year existence, Hang Ten was under too great a weight to continue operating.
Flagler Beach City Commission Chair Eric Cooley weighed in on Hang Ten’s closure: “As a fellow business owner myself, its sad to see any business close. I don’t know the reasons for the sudden decision, but wish all well in future endeavors. I know many of the staff personally and am confident that finding future jobs will happen quickly if they are not already recruited by other owners.
“This location has a lot of potential for someone willing to plan out a future success model to address some of the existing location shortcomings. I trust the owner did what was right for themselves personally and hope to see someone pick up where they left off.”
There are few enough places left, for any young people to work here on beach side, if they want to, and the rising cost of apartments arent doing them any favors either. Very sad to see a small business close here, losing a cool place to hang and work. My hopes that all will find other places to work. They will all be missed.