(ran West, East, South editions) The new restaurant's owners had hoped to be ready for the tournament. But time ran out. They'll open a week later. Just a month ago, owners of the 250-plus-seat Midtown Sundries Restaurant & Bar talked of hiring extra staff, stocking up on basketball posters and getting plenty of food and drink on hand for the NCAA Final Four, one of the biggest weekends in St. Petersburg history. The new downtown restaurant, however, will not open in time for the championship games. "We just were convinced we could make it for the Final Four, but we would make it frazzled and frenzied and that is not how we wanted to open the door," co-owner Sandi Kott said early Friday morning as the restaurant's managers got a primer on the security system. "Taking the delay, I am convinced is the right thing. It was disappointing, but it was the right thing. The big thing is that we'll be here for a long time, and our target customer base is the St. Petersburg community, and if they came the first time and it was frazzled and frenzied and backed up and people weren't fully trained, they'd have a bad taste," added Kott. "It's not worth it to make it for the Final Four, which is really catering to non-residents, and blow your opportunities. I think we made the right choice." In that way it is like parts of the Dome business district, some of which resemble a movie back lot and will make no pretence of being ready for this week's championships. Friday afternoon, though, the restaurant, its hours of operation and its "30 television sets for gametime viewing" already had made it into a special handbook to be used by volunteer ambassadors during the basketball tournament. Jacqulyn Schuett, the city of St. Petersburg's event marketing manager, was surprised to learn from Neighborhood Times that Midtown Sundries had postponed its opening. "I am on my final edit of this handbook," she said, adding that it was scheduled to be printed later that day. Needless to say, Midtown Sundries will not make it into the city's handbook of places to go and people to see during Final Four weekend. It will be several days later, on April 5, before it will be ready for business. Last week, an enthusiastic Kott showed off the restaurant, which is on the ground floor of the eight-story McNulty Parking Garage at 200 First Ave. S. "One of the nice things about this restaurant," she said taking a visitor back to the front door, "is that we are able to offer our customers free parking. They can come in, park in the garage, come down the elevators and walk right in our doors. . . . When we said we were going to build a restaurant downtown, we said we would never do it unless we could get free parking." The restaurant, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week, is the first Midtown Sundries in Florida and part of a small North Carolina chain. Kott and her husband, Charles, have the rights to develop Midtown Sundries throughout the state. The 9,000-square-foot restaurant, with its mahogany, brass and hunter green decor, will seat from 250 to 300 people. It hopes to attract families, sports fans, the office lunch crowd, evening diners and even those who want to dance on Friday and Saturday nights. "There will be times when you'll come in here and you'll feel like it's a sports bar, an upscale sports bar _ I'm thinking mostly Saturdays and Sundays during football season _ but there'll be times when you'll come in here, you'll think it's an elegant dining place," Kott said. Friday morning, though, final touches was missing. Black and white pictures of Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman still needed to be hung in the billiards area. Others of automobiles would form a backdrop to what will be the dance floor. The St. Pete room, said Kott, would have images of the city in a bygone era. Ready are the video games in a nook meant to welcome families. Televisions sets look down from above. The kitchen, gleaming with stainless steel counters, shiny new whisks, ladles and fryer baskets, stands ready for the chefs who will prepare a wide-ranging menu from grouper nuggets to burgers to New York strip steaks. Saturday before opening day, the Kotts will have a practice session. They'll have family and friends over for a dry run. "Sunday after that party we'll have a meeting and we'll talk about what went wrong and could be shored up," Kott said. "Other than that, we're just going to open the doors on Monday."