New Orleans restaurateurs buy Destin's Cuvée Beach

In less than 15 minutes, the sale price of Cuvée Beach shot up by $475,000.
The auction of the Destin restaurant and wine bar started with an opening bid of $1.1 million. Spurt by spurt over the next quarter-hour, the price jumped up, sometimes by $100,000, sometimes by only $25,000.
"Don't lose that bid," John Roebuck of Roebuck Auctions said as auctioneer Chris Camp of Roebuck's Destin office kept urging the bidders among the 40-plus people in the audience to go higher. The auction took place at the restaurant itself. "It's under-valued ... you're going to wake up tonight (and) you're going to be sorry."
As Camp kept calling for higher bids, "ringers" from the auction house darted through the crowd, accepting notes or whispered instructions from bidders. By 12:30 p.m., Joseph C. Marcello, who said he's a former owner of the New Orleans restaurant Broussard's, had bought
Cuvée Beach and all its contents for $1.575 million, plus a 10 percent fee for the auction company.
"They knocked me out," Destin businessman Claude Perry said. "I don't see how anyone can make any money (at that price)."
Another auction watcher said, however, that breaking into the fine-dining business for anything under $2.5 million was a steal. The auction was "absolute," meaning the restaurant went to the highest bid, no matter how low.
Marcello's partner, S. Joseph Segreto, said they might make a few changes, such as the color scheme, but Cuvée Beach would otherwise stay the same. Roebuck said the restaurant would stay open without a break, despite the change of ownership.
Most of the audience said they came to watch, not to bid. Some were real estate agents checking the market, while others were Cuvée Beach regulars.
"I want to see who buys it," Destin resident Pati Stapleton said. "I'm tired of my favorite places getting screwed up."