What Kind of Food and Cuisine is Sarasota Known for? Discovering Sarasota’s Home-grown Cuisines

Over the past couple of decades, several national media outlets have variously called Sarasota the best place to live, retire, raise a family, start a business, go to school, and so forth. Moreover, the city’s vibrant cultural landscape is often cited as the principal reason people choose to live here.

As if these many accolades aren’t enough, one of the city’s  public beaches is frequently rated #1 in the U.S., while a few of its colleges, public schools—and indeed the region’s community health care system—have been consistently ranked among the nation’s best.

But no one in the media—at least no one we know of—has heaped praise on the Sarasota region for its indigenous cuisine. To be sure, the area has enough outstanding restaurants, eateries, specialty food stores and gourmet food trucks to impress even the fussiest foodie. But a cuisine to call its own? That is open to debate.

So, I will begin the debate by proposing that Sarasota has not one, but three, distinct styles of cuisine to call its own. In no particular order, they are:

Hook-to-Table

Practically any Gulf Coast community can stake a legitimate claim to serving fresh local seafood. But few are as quirky, well-preserved, and loaded with maritime history as the Village of Cortez, just north of Sarasota and west of Bradenton.  Here on a small peninsula, where the Florida mainland gives way to Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key, a small band of fishing families arrived from North Carolina in the 1880’s. Using their new waterside encampment as a base, they began to fish the bountiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually became so busy they barely noticed when the U.S. Postal Service opened an office there in 1896. The new office bore the settlement’s first official name: Cortez.

Today’s Cortez is one of the last remaining old fishing villages in Florida and is so authentic at depicting the daily lives of commercial fishermen that some visitors are tempted to believe its charming seaside ambiance has been fabricated by Disney. But rest assured, Cortez is the real deal and still very much an active fishing village whose residents get up and go to work every day.

Each February, the village pauses long enough to celebrate its seafood heritage when it hosts the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival.  The annual two-day event—scheduled this year for Feb. 19-20—began more than four decades ago and drew about 500 visitors. It now attracts upwards of 20,000 visitors each year, inviting them to enjoy the village’s well-worn coastal aesthetic, savor fresh seafood right off the dock; and meander through narrow streets lined with old boats, vintage fishing gear, rustic homes, and fish houses, and some of the original family cottages. A favorite culinary experience in the village is the Star Fish Market, where you can dine alfresco on their waterfront dock even as the day’s fresh catch is being off-loaded nearby.

One of Florida’s most iconic foods—with deep ties to the Cortez fishing community—is the stone crab. Each year, Florida stone crab season runs from October 14 through May 15. With much of the prized catch coming ashore in Cortez, local diners will quickly find these delicious crustaceans headlining restaurant menus throughout the region.

Farm-To-Table

Another of the region’s signature cuisines comes into sharper focus the further east you drive from the coast.

Everyone knows that Florida is home to massive citrus and produce industries, but few people realize that Florida was once a larger cattle producer than Texas. Indeed, beef cattle were first introduced to North America by way of Florida in 1521, reputedly by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon.

It’s little wonder then why farm-to-table cuisine has taken hold in homes and restaurants throughout the Southwest Florida region. The ingredients available locally are at once exceptional, sustainable, and fairly easy to come by if you don’t mind a drive out to the country.

Where I live—amid the ranchlands, citrus groves, and generational farms of Old Miakka, in southeastern Manatee County—it is possible to purchase many of my favorite meats, vegetables and produce without ever leaving the neighborhood or setting foot in a grocery store.

I buy locally ranched beef and pork from Blackbeard’s Ranch (which I am lucky enough to live next to), then serve them with fruits and vegetables from any of a dozen family-owned farms—including the well-known Hunsader Farms and the less well-known Homestead Hydroponic Farm Store.  Locally sourced dairy products are available courtesy of Dakin Dairy Farms.

Happily, you needn’t own a farm, ranch, or grove to enjoy our local farm-to-table cuisine. One of the easiest ways to find fresh locally grown produce is by paying a visit to the Sarasota Farmers Market, held each Saturday morning in downtown Sarasota. Additionally, Detwiler’s Farm Market, is stocked wall-to-wall with locally-sourced grocery products—including bakery items, fresh produce, organically-farmed meats and poultry, and sustainable seafood. The locally-owned chain has five locations—from Palmetto to Venice—and while I can’t vouch for them all, the three Sarasota stores I’ve shopped are first rate.

For dining-out on farm-to-table cuisine, several downtown Sarasota restaurants—including Boca Sarasota,  MADE, Mattison’s and the (aptly-named) Indigenous—specialize in dishes featuring locally sourced seafood, meats, and produce.

Humble Pie

The region’s third indigenous cuisine is found in Pinecraft, a vintage neighborhood just a stone’s throw from downtown Sarasota.  Around since the 1920’s, Pinecraft is a humble, no-frills neighborhood that annually attracts some of Sarasota’s most unique winter visitors—members of the Amish and Mennonite orders, who caravan south on charter busses to escape the icy winters of the upper Midwest. The neighborhood is anchored along Bahia Vista Street, then fans out in every direction between Tuttle Avenue on its western edge and McIntosh Avenue to the east.

You will know you are nearing Pinecraft when you begin to see large three-wheel tricycles being pedaled about by people clad in traditional Mennonite garb.   Although the neighborhood is very walkable, the bikes substitute for the horse-and-buggies they’re accustomed to up north. When driving your car through Pinecraft, you are well-advised to obey the posted speed limit, as local law enforcement has no tolerance for anyone who endangers bicycle or pedestrian safety.

Visitors to Pinecraft are usually there for the food. After all, what Vegas is to casino gambling, Pinecraft is to traditional Amish home cooking. And that will be welcome news for anyone who occasionally craves a dollop of grandma’s home cooking followed by a generous slice of her homemade pie. Indeed, if heaven had a buffet with nothing but your favorite comfort foods, the line would probably start in Pinecraft. Southern fried chicken, roast turkey, meatloaf, roast beef, and smoked ham—served with an assortment of traditional sides—are just a sampling of what you will find dished out in vast quantities. So be sure to leave room for pie!

The two best-known restaurants in Pinecraft— Der Dutchman  and  Yoder’s—are Sarasota institutions; and their dessert pies are the stuff of legend.   Leaving the neighborhood without diving headfirst into a piece of pie would be a little like skipping the seafood in Cortez. Indeed, show up to any social gathering with a peanut butter cream pie from Yoder’s and you will be an instant superstar.

Dig-in and Enjoy

When all is said and done, these three blue-ribbon cuisines are about much more than the food. Each imparts a strong feeling of history and sense of place; and you can’t walk away from any one of them without gleaning a little more insight into how Sarasota developed from a tiny Gulf Coast backwater into a welcoming world-class community that continues to win so many quality-of-life awards. So dig in and enjoy.