Sarasota,FL

Am going to visit Sarasota in January to see my Dad who will be there for the winter. My San Fran sister will be coming too. We are sick of the places he thinks are good. So--Sarasota recommendations-- we will be staying far south in the city near Central Sarasota Blvd, but can travel. Fish, upscale, Italian, etc. Breakfast/brunch too...and some ok lunch/diners. It's a long time ahead but have to have time for research!

hi: we go every year to Long Boat Key to be with my in-laws . . . don't know much about Sarasota but we love the Cortez Kitchen in Cortez for "local flavor" fish in a dockside setting. That translates loosely as the locals being fishing guides that sit at the bar and eat and have a few beers while the tourists sit in the seats and wonder which catch of the day. It's very casual but not cheesy and not overrrun (by us winter fleeing tourists) in any way.

It's a little tricky to find, if you have any problems, pm me and I will send you directions.

bjt

On St. Armands Circle, Columbia House has very good Cuban. Make sure to get the black bean soup and 1905 salad.

The dearth of information about Sarasota has me worried about my upcoming trip there. Anything worth going to besides Columbia House and Le Macaron?

We spent spring break in Tampa and Sarasota and had ok meals, nothing great. Our favorite was Il Panificio, http://www.panificiousa.com/piatti/index.html. Wonderful calamari, linguine with clams and pizza and a very nice bartender. I didn't like Turtles and I had the worst mojito there - they used Rose's lime juice and it was nasty sweet. To make things worse, they messed up and gave us 2 of them. I never send drinks back, but this one I did. We had an ok meal at Thailand Steak and Sushi- tuna rolls didn't seem that fresh, but the deep fried appetizers were tasty. We got takeout Cuban sandwiches and that 1905 salad from Columbia in Tampa and were not impressed at all. Somehow the sandwich managed to be salty and bland at the same time.
I hope you have better luck, but food wise it wasn't a great success for us.
LO

I used to love Phillippi Creek--it's been a family destination for years (my family lives in Tampa and we have a condo in Longboat Key so I grew up in the area and know it well). Haven't been in a long while though I believe my family who lives down there still goes.

I also love Columbia and, especially, the on in St. Armands Circle. Sorry that LO had a mediocre experience but hope you'll still check it out. Nothing like it here, that's for sure!

A few other recs here: http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12760&sk=a#p326416

Frigging love Sarasota. Grandma got re-married a few years ago to a guy with a condo right off of the bridge to St Armands and so we go pretty much every December. I've gotten more and more of a chance recently to sample restaurants around there with some pretty damn good results:

Station 400 is a solid brunch place with a beautiful outdoor garden patio

Same goes for The Breakfast House on Fruitville - had an incredible brunch there this past time.

Libby's Cafe and Bar was outstanding for a big dinner with my whole family.

Mozzarella Fella, despite the stupid name, had some of the best italian deli sandwiches Ive had in a long time.

As I sit here lamenting this latest wintry spell at the end of March, I'm longing for the beach.

A month ago I was enjoying the high life on the sparkly shores of the Gulf in Bradenton Beach, where my parents winter. I've been pushing off this post for years, this last trip was my seventh consecutive year down there. This is partly due to little-to-no traction on the board for the area and also due to the somewhat one note food scene down there. My parents like to refer to the vibe of the Anna Maria/ Holmes Beach/ Bradenton Beach/ Cortez zone as a "taste of old Florida" and this is not entirely off mark– Cortez, in particular, still boasts a healthy fishing industry and the area is a little more diverse than other Florida coastal communities densely populated with the blue haired set. But its still a mainly tourism- based economy and snow birds are looking for plates piled high with seafood (often not-that-local and not-that-fresh) and food service fries and slaw. Its a happy hour type scene and my folks, included, are usually chasing the drink specials.

Here are some of the highlights that I've sampled over the years organized by town:

Cortez

Cortez is a fishing village perched on Sarasota Bay, across the bridge from Bradenton Beach. The main catch here is mullet– more on that in a bit– though the charming old fish shacks tend to focus on grouper (usually imported, not local, as the industry has tightened up due to overfishing in the gulf), mahi (also of dubious origin), and shrimp (you gotta ask if its local and its usually not). Spots like Swordfish Grill and Cortez Kitchen, for what they lack in good food, have beautiful views and down-home vibes, and yes, drink specials. They're popular with the locals and Northern migrants alike. When I eat at these spots, I usually wash down a Sysco-esque blackened grouper sandwich with plenty of beers and am just thankful to be warm in February, enjoying the views. It is worth noting that Cortez Kitchen has an adjacent fish monger that sells nice local catch including stone crab in season. A great option for take out. I've also heard good things about Star Fish Company in recent years, who also source local catch, though apparently have huge wait times. So where the mullet at?

Village Idiot Pizza

I read about this place on John T Edge's top 10 of 2013 for Garden and Gun. I was pretty surprised to find old Cortez on this list. And it was not for their pizza, but a charred Caesar salad with mullet roe standing on for the anchovy.



It turns out that mullet roe is also known as the Italian delicacy, bottarga and this culinary application has become a primary drive behind the commercial mullet industry, exporting it to Italy. I read an awesome piece in the NYTimes about a local entrepreneur who cures and dries bottarga locally and supplies Village Idiot amongst other local restaurants. This is a great salad, with all sorts of assertive flavors– a nice smokiness from the whole leaf romaine's quick trip into the pizza oven, anointed with a perfect Caesar dressing, and draped in luscious, salty mullet roe (the orange strips in the pic above).

Their pizzas are pretty great too. A bready take on Neapolitan with a nice chew and char. The ingredients are first rate, though their house topping combinations can get a bit heavy handed, weighing down the pies and preventing the center bottom crust from achieving a doneness to my liking. But if you go easy on the toppings you'll have yourself a mighty fine pie.





Cortez Fishing Festival



My mad search for mullet continued at the Cortez Fishing Festival, which serendipitously takes place the second weekend in February, while we are usually visiting. Its a crowded popular festival and looks like a flea market centered around a rather large food court. Many of the vendors are either bigger restaurants from Sarasota or festival-catering-type businesses.



Aside form a few smaller vendors hawking smoked mullet spread (the most common mullet prep in the area), it took me some sleuthing to find where the freshly prepared mullet was at. Fairly cen­tral to the fest, I had mis­in­ter­preted a cou­ple of extra wide smoker rigs for a BBQ set up. These dudes were stok­ing the wood fire and duti­fully man­ning their smoker.



Once I started pok­ing around with my cam­era phone they waved me over to check out the rows of small golden, but­ter­flied fish enveloped in the caress of smoke. Awe­some. I ordered a whole one. It was smoky, oily, and assertive, driz­zled with what reminded me of South Side- style "mild sauce". Hell, why can’t fish be BBQ, because that’s exactly what was going down.



Next, I strolled over to the pier and found a group of mul­let fish­er­men engag­ing with the crowd about their work and hawk­ing what was called a “Cortez hot­dog”, a corn meal encrusted, per­fectly fried skinny filet of mul­let on a cheap bun with tar­tar sauce and a scat­ter­ing of diced onion.





Mullet a’int too bad.

Anna Maria Island

There are technically three towns on AMI: Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, and Anna Maria, though in my mind it’s all one long beach with a parallel strip of businesses up and down Gulf Drive. We’ll start where my folks stay in Bradenton Beach. We avoid the touristy places on the beach. There’s really one option that we hit up and its on the bay side in “downtown” Bradenton Beach.

Bridge Tender Inn

I dig BTI. I like their palapa bar on the water for rum drinks and its pretty nice hanging late by their fire pit. There’s always live music with a requisite Buffet-leaning vibe. They have a pretty standard menu of questionably-sourced seafood options. However, the kitchen puts a little more effort in here. Seafood pasta dishes and apps are all scratch made. The sleeper hit for me is their side of black beans– developed flavors from a slow cook fortified with ground meat that I suspect might be chorizo served with a dollop of sour cream and diced onion. I always order the common-to-the-area anomaly that is the grouper reuben.



Perhaps anything tastes good in reuben format, but somehow this works. The sweet, flaky grouper meat has no relation to the salty meatiness of corned beef, but I dig it.

I have yet to try Island Spice, a new-ish Indian joint on Gulf Drive, but I’ve heard its passable.

On Holmes Beach my folks like the small plates at Eat Here, which is a mini-chain and a spin off of Zagat rated Beach Bistro, also in Holmes Beach. My favorite spot, probably in the whole area, is a simple burger shack.

Skinny's



This place is all vibes. Beers are flowing from the minute they open and by mid-afternoon you can tell some of the clientele has been there that long.



The griddled, on-the-thicker-side ¼# burgers are excellent. They remind me somewhat of my lifelong favorite Redamak’s in New Buffalo, MI (though sans Velveeta). Cheeseburger in paradise, indeed.

In Anna Maria, there’s one clear option at the very northern tip of the island, which I consider to be the king of the area’s fish shacks.

Rod and Reel Pier



Aside from the stunning 360 views of water and archetypal fish shack vibes, they put quite a bit more effort into their cooking than at the other places. Soups, dressings, and sides are all house made. What I really appreciate is their transparency about what is locally caught. On my last visit, a fisherman was cleaning his catch at the end of the pier– almost too-beautiful-to-eat parrot fish on this occasion. I was surprised by the firmness of its flesh, which was as pristine tasting as any fish filet should be.

Bradenton

Compared to the rest of these zones, Bradenton is a real city of over 50,000 people with diverse communities. This is where we go when we crave a little culture and its land of strip malls conceal little taquerias and BBQ joints. One little spot that’s received quite a bit of press, including a stop by everyone's favorite bloated, wrap-around-shaded bro, is José’s, for Cuban.

José's

I know I keep using the term “vibes” but that’s what the good part of Florida is about, laid back vacation time with a lived in beach feel. José’s fits the bill, crowded yet convivial, just run down and sticky enough.

Now, I’m not incredibly versed in Cuban– I’ve spent very little time in Miami; still haven’t been to Tampa (I know, I know, its right across the bay); we all know how sparse Chicago’s Cuban scene is; and Havana is on the bucketlist. That said, I found José’s to be just okay to pretty good, foodwise.



The signature lechón certainly is sumptuous– garlicky with a citric tinge from a long bath in mojo. They slow cook it to a very shredded, tender consistency. It’s very good, addictive even, though I’m not sure it’s ever seen a lick of flame or smoke. The sides were somewhat disappointing–black beans had nothing on that Margaritavillian fish spot on Bradenton Beach and the rice was borderline crunchy. Yuca faired better, with a savory and sticky quality likely from a simmer in a good broth.



The Cubano was fine, though maybe I’ve had yet to be totally seduced by the simplicity of this sandwich. I like them fine but I’ve never had one that added up to transcendence.

A stop at the Red Barn Flea Market is requisite for us. Where else can you get your teeth whitened; dance polka; buy shell art, cheap jewelry, and used tools; and get your documents notarized in one stop. It’s a high temple of geriatric kitsch. What makes the stop totally worth it for me is grabbing tacos at their in-house taco stand.

Maria's



The choices here are good to great and probably not up to Chi-town standards, but a welcome respite from grouper sandwiches. Quesadillas are DF street style– handmade and griddled in a pleasant amount of grease. No melted cheese, though fillings are dusted in a healthy amount of queso fresco. Taco-wise I stick to slow cooked guisado-style options– saucy lengua, nopales, and barbacoa. All these options are fiery hot and hardly need embellishment from there excellent salsa bar. You could do a lot worse.



The farmer’s market at Red Barn will bring a tear to your Northern eye in February, might as well bring home a flat of in season Plant City strawberries.



And that’s my 7-years-a-coming dispatch from coastal Manatee County. You can find me on the beach every February and hopefully I’ll have new things to add, but the sun-drunk pace does not change much down there.

Cortez Kitchen
4528 119th St W, Cortez, FL 34215
(941) 798-9404

Swordfish Grill
4628 119th St W, Cortez, FL 34215
(941) 798-2035

Star Fish Company
12306 46th Ave W, Cortez, FL 34215
(941) 794-1243

Village Idiot Pizza
11904 Cortez Rd W, Bradenton, FL 34210
(941) 896-4857

Bridge Tender Inn
135 Bridge St, Bradenton Beach, FL 34217
(941) 778-4849

The Island Spice
1701 Gulf Dr N, Bradenton Beach, FL 34217
(941) 527-0123

Eat Here
5315 Gulf Dr, Holmes Beach, FL 34217
(941) 778-0411

Skinny's
3901 Gulf Dr, Holmes Beach, FL 34217
(941) 778-7769

Rod & Reel Pier
875 N Shore Dr, Anna Maria, FL 34216
(941) 778-1885

José's Real Cuban
8799 Cortez Rd W, Bradenton, FL 34210
(941) 795-4898

Red Barn Flea Market
1707 1st St, Bradenton, FL 34208
(941) 747-3794

(edited for geographical mistakes. there's so much dang water everywhere its hard to keep straight which bay is which)

Jefe-

Great stuff. Thanks so much for posting.

Fantastic list Jefe--already emailed to mom and sister who are down there regularly. I'm planning a trip with them to spend 4-5 days in May and can't wait to hit some of these spots myself. Thanks!!