Island dining featured in The New York Times
by Rick Catlin. Islander Reporter
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A photograph of the Rod & Reel Pier in Anna Maria was featured in the travel section of the July 26 New York Times as part of a story on Anna Maria Island dining facilities. Islander Photo: Rick Catlin |
Add great restaurants with great views to the list of reasons to visit Anna Maria Island. And add The New York Times to the list of publications that have discovered the Island.
Following recent articles about Island vacations in Southern Living and USAToday, among others, The New York Times in its July 26 edition published an article about the great restaurants and food found on Anna Maria Island.
Reporter Cindy Price quickly discovered that Anna Maria Island is a unique, “old-school” Florida location.
Having grown up in the Miami area, Price was pleased to find small seafood restaurants built on wooden piers, fine dining at places such as the Beach Bistro, some of the best seafood and views in Florida and few chain restaurants.
Price said she “plotted out a game plan to eat my way through the Island,” starting with the Sandbar Restaurant in Anna Maria.
“Word around town is that the Sandbar’s food played second fiddle to its scene,” wrote Price, but her mahi-mahi sandwich and fried calamari “suggested otherwise.”
Next on Price’s list was Ginny’s and Jane E’s at the Old IGA, which is where, “in the morning everyone gathers,” she wrote. The bakery and cafe doubles as an “unspeakably cute boutique.”
At night, sunsets are reserved for the Sandbar, where the person who guesses the exact second of sunset wins a free bottle of champagne, Price wrote. Then families and couples follow the live music to Feeling Swell on Gulf Drive in Anna Maria.
Next on Price’s list was the Sign of the Mermaid in Anna Maria, where she enjoyed fresh Florida seafood.
Price also praised the Rod & Reel Pier restaurant in Anna Maria and sampled the fare at the Beach Bistro in Holmes Beach.
The Beach Bistro, Price observed, has one of the highest Zagat ratings of any Florida restaurant, and owner Sean Murphy has won numerous Florida Golden Spoon awards. The Bistro is “swank,” wrote Price, “but you can wear flip-flops.”
She also wrote about the hamburger competition between Skinny’s Place and Duffy’s Tavern, both in Holmes Beach.
“Both burgers are wickedly good, with similarly wide, juicy old-school patties. But saying that out loud on Anna Maria [sic] is like saying you like both the Yanks and Red Sox. Not recommended.”
Price also discovered the fishing village of Cortez, where she found the Star Fish Company “a fish market-cum restaurant hidden near the Island’s entrance to Cortez, one of the last commercial fishing villages left in the Gulf.”
One thing about eating at the Star Fish, the grouper is guaranteed fresh off the boat, she wrote.
Price’s article served notice that Anna Maria Island is no longer the “Island that time forgot,” said Sandbar owner Ed Chiles.
“We know why people love us and the story will bring more and more people to visit our unique way of life. We just have to work together to keep it that way,” he said.
Obviously, Chiles said, an article in The Times will go a long way toward making Anna Maria Island a household word. “There’s no better newspaper to be in than The New York Times Sunday edition,” he said.
With nearly 1 million subscribers of The New York Times in print and millions of online readers, the article will “spread the word about Anna Maria Island,” Chiles predicted.
Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce president Mary Ann Brockman said she was delighted with the article. She was aware the newspaper had a story about Anna Maria Island, but did not know its contents until publication.
“It shows that we have truly been discovered when you consider it with all the other articles the past few years about the Island. We are really enjoying the benefits of all this publicity. People who want the old Florida look certainly now know it’s right here,” Brockman said.
Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau marketing director Jessica Grace said BACVB said The Times first became aware of the quality of Anna Maria Island dining during a January 2008 BACVB marketing and culinary program in New York City.
Since then, the BACVB has worked with The Times on a possible article, but did not know when Price would visit the Island. The Times, Grace said, is very selective about the travel destinations it features.
“I think it was a wonderful article. It truly highlights what the Island is all about,” Grace said.
UK publicity for AMI
At the same time that The New York Times was praising the Island’s culinary delights, the British-based travel Web site, Nowfly.co.uk, published an article praising the Sandbar Restaurant and available accommodations on Anna Maria Island.
The Web site says its articles are non-biased and attempt to give UK vacationers the best values in accommodations and dining at a number of destinations.
The Sandbar was featured among an array of top beachfront restaurants worldwide. |
