The building had to be expanded and renovated and after much work and expense on April 1st of 1976, Café Gardens opened for business.  After a few years of Mike and Wade working full time in the restaurant new opportunities were sought and the Café was sold on April 1, 1979.  During that time, Steve and Mike went to Sarasota and opened up Café Gardens on Siesta Key in May of 1980.  Then in early 1983, the new owners of the original Café Gardens notified Mike, Wade and Steve that they were disillusioned with the restaurant business and since there was still an amount to pay on the note owed from the purchase they wished to turn the restaurant back over in lieu of payment.  Blaker had moved to Atlanta, and Leet didn’t want to leave Sarasota because his parents lived in Venice.  Since McKinney was born and raised here in Gainesville and his family was here, the obvious decision was for him to come back and run the Café.  So on April 1st of 1983 McKinney took over control of the Café Gardens in Gainesville.  The location was closed for two weeks while redecorating and rehiring a new staff was accomplished.

In the years after  Steve and his wife, Jane, eventually bought out Mike and Wade from the original Café and sold his share of the Cafe on Siesta Key to Mike.  Later, after expanding the business to include the patio area, They took on a new partner, Bill Kloeppel.  Before long the restaurant won the Gainesville Beautification Award for the upgrading of the patio area. Also during this time they expanded the restaurant operation to include a retail wine shop and bakery in the brick building next door.  This new venture was operated as a separate business and was known as “The Everyday Gourmet”.  At the end of ’99 Steve bought out Bill as he sought other endeavors.  During the fall of 2001 the McKinneys sold off the wine shop and has since that time have concentrated on keeping the Café Gardens true to the original ideals and standards.