The Anna Maria Oyster Bar on the Pier is putting the finishing touches on a restoration at Bradenton Beach’s Historic Bridge Street Pier that followed damage sustained during last fall’s hurricanes.
AMOB owner John Horne, who operates the restaurant under a concession agreement with the city, updated commissioners June 27 about repairs and improvements to the restaurant, 200 Bridge St.
Commissioners had raised concerns over the size of a tiki hut built to replace an aluminum awning destroyed in October 2024 by Hurricane Milton.
At a June 5 city hall meeting, commissioners began the process of closing out the rebuild permit for AMOB. However, questions arose about aspects of the reconstruction project, including the restaurant’s footprint, the replacement of safety railings and other public safety issues.
The new tiki covers more area than the awning but, according to Horne at the June 27 meeting, the footprint of the restaurant’s dining area is smaller.
“We’ve actually decreased it 24 square feet,” Horne told commissioners. “We took the old (railing) down … and replaced it with bollards, and then the planters.”
The outdoor layout includes new planters that delineate public traffic areas from AMOB operations.
Horne said the planters and bollards replaced a metal railing, also destroyed by Milton, to “keep the kids from running and stumbling around. So hopefully this looks a lot better.”
The restaurant addressed other safety concerns, including moving televisions that were low over walkways — posing a risk to people carrying fishing rods.
“They’ve already been moved,” Horne said. “And if we need to lift them more up into the rafters, we can do that as well.”
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the tiki hut and dining area configuration, allowing the restaurant to close out its permit.
Meanwhile, other hurricane recovery efforts continue at the pier, with repairs to floating and finger docks being completed by Duncan Seawall of Sarasota.
The docks are central to pier access for recreational boaters as well as commercial operations.
The project is supported with county tourist development tax funds.
Manatee County and the city entered an agreement in October 2021 to expand and improve the finger docks.
Last fall, hurricanes Helene and Milton caused significant damage to the finger docks, making restoration necessary to return them to safe working condition.
After funding was approved by the county in the tourist development council budget, repairs were first made to restore ferry service access to the floating dock. Now work is underway on the finger docks.