Three of the Sarasota-Bradenton region's most famous waterfront restaurants have been sold by a longtime local resident to one of Florida's largest restaurant management companies.
Founded by Ed Chiles, Chiles Hospitality launched in 1979 with the purchase of the beachfront Sandbar restaurant in Anna Maria, on the north end of Anna Maria Island. Chiles also acquired Mar Vista on Longboat Key and Beach House in Bradenton Beach. Late Wednesday (July 17), Chiles announced he had sold all three waterfront restaurants to Beachside Hospitality Group.
Here's what we know about Beachside Hospitality, followed by information on each of the three local waterfront restaurants they purchased, and Ed Chiles. Chiles Hospitality’s 350 restaurant employees have been asked to continue in their current roles, as Beachside Hospitality intends to keep the businesses open and operating as usual, according to a press release.
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Here's what we know about Beachside Hospitality Group, new owner of restaurants on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key
- Greg Powers is the Chief Executive Officer at Beachside Hospitality Group, he studied at Rollins College, and lives in Clearwater, according to his social media profile.
- Based in St. Petersburg and bills itself as “Florida’s Leading Restaurant Management Company.”
- Intends to keep the Chiles' businesses on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key open and operating as usual.
- Has over 20 years of experience in the restaurant business.
- Currently oversees 13 restaurants in eight Florida cities.
- Their website shows 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 will be Beachside's first venture in Sarasota or Manatee County.
- Beachside Hospitality Group Restaurants specialize in seafood items. According to its website, these items include snow crab "caught in the Bering Sea between October and January, P.E.I. mussels "farm raised vertically in the frigid waters of Prince Edward Island, Canada," and rock shrimp "caught in very deep water in the Gulf of Mexico via net fishing."
More about Sandbar, Mar Vista and Beach House restaurants
Sandbar Seafood & Spirits and Beach House Waterfront Restaurant are both beachfront dining destinations on Anna Maria Island. Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub is located on Longboat Key overlooking Sarasota Bay. All three were owned by longtime Manatee County resident Ed Chiles' Chiles Hospitality company before being sold to Beachside Hospitality Group.
In addition to the prime waterfront locations, Chiles' restaurants have been wildly successful because of the owner's commitment to serving locally sourced cuisine, specifically seafood, and fresh bread. The sale also includes Anna Maria Bake House and Chiles' events department. However, Chiles Hospitality will continue to operate Gamble Creek Farms, its 26-acre organic certified farm in Parrish, which supplies the restaurants with produce.
Here's additional information about each of the three restaurants, which have all undergone major renovations over the years while retaining their coastal charm.
Sandbar Seafood & Spirits
100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria; 941-778-0444; sandbardining.com
Sandbar has been a special destination for more than a century, with Chiles Hospitality and a group of partners purchasing the place in 1979 and building its reputation as one of the most popular restaurants on Anna Maria Island and in Sarasota and Manatee counties in general.
The views are among the best in Florida. There's indoor seating with window vistas of the Gulf, as well as outdoor tables that place guests right on the soft white sands 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 one-of-a-kind waterfront dining experience, especially when seated at the wrought-iron tables under the buttonwood trees overlooking Sarasota Bay. It also boasts more than 100 years of history.
In 1912, a major Longboat Key landowner named Rufus Jordan built one of the restaurant’s original stone block structures. Transformed from a house to apartments to the Pub Cocktail Lounge in the 1940s, the property was purchased by Chiles in 1989, who then opened Mar Vista.
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Beach House Waterfront Restaurant
Beach House lives up to its name by placing guests right on the sugary white sands of Bradenton Beach, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, towards the southern end of Anna Maria Island just south of Tampa Bay. While Beach House offers indoor dining as well as an inside bar, the place to be, depending on the heat and humidity, is the covered patio area, 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 that remains 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 Gov. Lawton Chiles and Rhea Chiles, according to his official bio. He graduated from the University of Florida and learned the restaurant business while working at the legendary Miami establishment Joe’s Stone Crab before opening the Sandbar in 1979, followed by Mar Vista in 1990 and The Beach House in 1993. In 2021, Chiles acquired 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 Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
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