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Waterfront restaurants sold in Sarasota area. What we know about copper

Waterfront restaurants sold in Sarasota area. What we know about copper


Who Just Bought Three Popular Waterfront Restaurants in Sarasota, Bradenton? Here’s What We Know About the Buyer

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Three of the most famous waterfront restaurants in the Sarasota-Bradenton area have been sold by a local resident to one of Florida’s largest restaurant management companies.

Chiles Hospitality, founded by Ed Chiles, got its start in 1979 with the purchase of the Sandbar restaurant on the beach in Anna Maria, on the north side of Anna Maria Island. Chiles also acquired Mar Vista on Longboat Key and Beach House in Bradenton Beach. On Wednesday night (July 17), Chiles announced that he had sold all three waterfront restaurants to Beachside Hospitality Group.

Here’s what we know about Beachside Hospitality, followed by information about each of the three local waterfront restaurants they’ve acquired, and Ed Chiles. Chiles Hospitality’s 350 restaurant employees have been asked to remain in their current roles, as Beachside Hospitality plans to keep its businesses open and operating as usual, according to a press release.

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Here’s what we know about Beachside Hospitality Group, the new owner of restaurants on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key

  • Greg Powers is the CEO of Beachside Hospitality Group, he attended Rollins College and lives in Clearwater, according to his social media profile.
  • Based in St. Petersburg and calling itself “Florida’s Leading Restaurant Management Company.”
  • Chiles plans to keep its restaurants on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key open and operating as usual, the July 17 press release said.
  • Has over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry.
  • Currently oversees 13 restaurants in eight cities in Florida.
  • Their website lists 10 Crabby’s locations across the state, including one on Treasure Island and three in Clearwater.
  • They also own Salty’s Island Bar & Grille and The Salty Crab North Beach in Clearwater, with another Salty Crab location in Ft. Myers Beach.
  • This marks the first time Beachside has ventured into Sarasota or Manatee County.
  • Beachside Hospitality Group Restaurants specializes in seafood. According to its website, these items include snow crab “caught in the Bering Sea between October and January,” PEI mussels “farmed vertically in the frigid waters of Prince Edward Island, Canada,” and rock shrimp “caught in ultra-deep water in the Gulf of Mexico via net fishing.”

More about the restaurants Sandbar, Mar Vista and Beach House

Sandbar Seafood & Spirits and Beach House Waterfront Restaurant are both beachfront dining options on Anna Maria Island. Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub is located on Longboat Key overlooking Sarasota Bay. All three were owned by Ed Chiles Hospitality, a longtime Manatee County resident, before being sold to Beachside Hospitality Group.

In addition to its prime waterfront locations, Chiles’ restaurants have been hugely successful because of the owner’s dedication to locally sourced cuisine, particularly seafood and fresh breads. The sale also includes Anna Maria Bake House and Chiles’ events division. However, Chiles Hospitality will continue to operate Gamble Creek Farms, the 65-acre organic-certified farm in Parrish that supplies the restaurants.

Below you will find additional information about each of the three restaurants. They have all undergone extensive renovations over the years, yet still retain their seaside charm.

Seafood and spirits

100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria; 941-778-0444; sandbardining.com

Sandbar has been a special destination for over a century. In 1979, Chiles Hospitality and a group of partners purchased the site and built a reputation as one of the most popular restaurants on Anna Maria Island and in Sarasota and Manatee counties in general.

The views are some of the best in Florida. There is indoor seating with window views of the Gulf, as well as outdoor tables that place guests right on the soft white sand, within earshot of the waves.

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Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub

760 Broadway St., Longboat Key; 941-383-2391; marvistadining.com

Mar Vista offers guests a unique waterfront dining experience, especially when seated at wrought iron tables under buttonwood trees overlooking Sarasota Bay. It also has over 100 years of history.

In 1912, a large Longboat Key landowner named Rufus Jordan built one of the restaurant’s original stone block structures. It was converted from a home to apartments to the Pub Cocktail Lounge in the 1940s and was purchased by Chiles in 1989, who subsequently opened Mar Vista.

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Beach House Waterfront Restaurant

Beach House lives up to its name by placing guests directly on the sugary white sands of Bradenton Beach, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, on the southern end of Anna Maria Island, just south of Tampa Bay. While Beach House offers both indoor and outdoor dining and a bar, the place to be, depending on the heat and humidity, is the covered patio, where you’ll find a bar overlooking the public beach.

Chiles purchased the Harbor House restaurant in 1993 and opened the Beach House. A series of renovations completed in 2017 transformed the Beach House into a chic, tropical resort-style dining destination unlike anything else in Manatee County.

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Who is Ed Chiles?

Ed Chiles was born in Lakeland to the late former Florida governor Lawton Chiles and Rhea Chiles, according to his official biography. He graduated from the University of Florida and got his start in the restaurant business while working at legendary Miami establishment Joe’s Stone Crab before opening Sandbar in 1979, followed by Mar Vista in 1990 and The Beach House in 1993. In 2021, Chiles took over Gamble Creek Farms in Parrish.

Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on TwitterFacebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. Support local journalism by subscribing.