The original Anna Maria Oyster Bar opened on Anna Maria City Pier in 1996 and operated there until 1999. John Horne is president of the company that now has three restaurants by the same name in Manatee County, but none on Anna Maria Island.
Horne handed in one of five proposals submitted to the city of Bradenton Beach by entities interested in leasing the restaurant on the Historic Bridge Street Pier.
The proposals, opened July 10 by the city clerk, are from Horne, Michael Bazzy, Rich Foresta, Paradise Boat Tours and Kam Sourivongs.
City staff were tasked to score the proposals. City commissioners intended to meet July 14 to discuss them, after the deadline for the July 15 edition of The Islander.
The city accepted proposals for three pier buildings: the restaurant alone or in combination with either a bait shop or retail space, or all three.
Officials plan to accept separate proposals later for the bait shop and/or retail space if they determine there is no acceptable proposal that includes the three units.
Horne proposed only to run the restaurant. He said July 9 if he were awarded the restaurant concession he’d love to open a smaller version of his oyster bar-theme there.
Horne added that the small pier restaurant is reminiscent of the original AMOB. He said “the vibe from Bridge Street is just fabulous. It’s busy, it’s vibrant. There’s a lot of live music. There’s great food on Bridge Street. It’s busy. It’s just alive.”
Horne said an AMOB menu on the pier would include “the best hitters, the most popular menu items from our existing menus out to the islands.”
The main pier structure, at approximately 1,900 square feet, is the indoor/outdoor restaurant. The second 214-square-foot structure has a pass-through window and a live bait well. The third structure, at 160 square feet, also has a pass-through window and has served as a snack bar in the past.
All are located at the land’s end of the pier that extends into Sarasota Bay from Bridge Street.
Sherman Baldwin of Paradise Boat Tours, a day-cruiser that operates from the day dock on the pier, made a proposal for all three properties. But he is primarily interested in the retail space, which would serve as a ticket office for his tour boat business and the “water taxi, people-mover concept” he envisions for Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, Bradenton and Sarasota.
He hopes to be awarded the lease for the retail space without waiting for the city to put out a request for proposal.
“I feel that there is some serious restaurant know-how going into the pier,” Baldwin said, citing Horne and Foresta. “I’m very happy about that.”
Meanwhile, John Maguire of Cortez, who sells bait from a dinghy off the day dock because the bait shop is closed, said he hopes to submit a successful proposal to lease the bait shop.
After helping two young men from Ocala catch two sand perch on the pier July 9, Maguire said commissioners should award him the bait shop concession.
He said there hadn’t been a sand perch caught on the pier since it re-opened in January.
Maguire said he is the best person for that role because of “basic knowledge. I have photographs of 17-year-old girls catching their first saltwater fish ever and it’s a 12-pound redfish, right here at the pier.”