Welcome to the 18th episode of Amplify Clearwater Show, powered by 13th Ave Media! We are very excited to take you on a journey to learn more about all of the incredible businesses, nonprofits, and community leaders. In this episode, we are featuring Scott Sousa, General Manager of Clear Sky on Cleveland!

Scott Sousa has been a highly successful restaurant operator/owner for over 30 years.  He cut his teeth working for TGI Friday’s in their heyday, running the busiest and most successful store in New England.  He won many awards including highest sales growth, lowest turnover and store of the year for over 300 restaurants.  He then took to his entrepreneurial side and partnered with a start-up restauranteur to open four upscale restaurants in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, called Roobar City Bistro.  Roobar became the most recognized restaurant group in the Cape Cod Area.  Again, they won many awards such as Best Mid-Cape Restaurant, Best Restaurant on Cape Cod, Wine Spectator Award for one of the “Best Wine Lists in the World”, Best Bar, and many more.  His Civic duties included being heavily involved in several Chambers of Commerce, heading up the Hyannis Merchants Association and President of the Mashpee Little League.  He was the driving force behind being awarded a state grant and building three new softball/baseball fields, two new soccer fields and one new football field, (with a 2 million dollar budget) all at no cost to the city.

Scott sold his businesses in 2007, and moved to Palm Harbor where he took over as the General Manager of a brand new, upscale steak house in Oldsmar.  Again, this restaurant was known to have outstanding reviews and one of the best wine lists in the area.  In November 2018 he went to work for Clear Sky Café, overseeing the beverage program while working at their Clearwater Beach location.  He took over the Cleveland St. store in 2019 and started to become involved in downtown activities.  He spear-headed a project for the company- during the COVID-19 Pandemic- ordering, organizing and handing out grocery packages to over 500 employees, five separate times.   He became a board member for the Downtown Clearwater Merchants Association in February of 2020 and took over as co-chair in August.  The DCMA took on a complete rebranding of Downtown Clearwater, and has been instrumental in developing “The District”.  He and his wife Stacey reside in Palm Harbor, his four children live in Upstate New York, he has three beautiful grandchildren and three dogs.  He is an avid golfer and a runner.