Longboat Key, island are idyllic spots for fun in sun

Sleepy time: Longboat Key is awash with upscale resorts and hotels (including "the best Holiday Inn I've ever stayed in," according to an acquaintance who has stayed in way more than his share). Check out www.longboatkeychamber.com for myriad possibilities.

Throughout Anna Maria Island are more modest hotels, resorts and efficiency-type accommodations, plus some world-class villaswww.annamariaislandchamber.org.

Life's a beach: Unless you're staying on Longboat Key, there's not much access to the beaches there. But there is an open-to-the-hoi- polloi exception, Beer Can Beach, at the island's northern end, with street parking nearby.

Just across Longboat Pass is Coquina Beach, a huge stretch of sand and evergreens. It can get quite crowded with folks from the mainland on spring and summer weekends, but still is manageable.

My favorite beach is at the north end of Anna Maria, the little- known Bean Point. It's not the best swimming spot -- there are more anglers than swimmers. But the dunes and grasses and wind make you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere -- as long as not too many of you go at once.

Dining al fresco: We'll start at the top of the island, with the fabulously funky Rod 'N' Reel Pier (877 North Shore Drive, Anna Maria, 1-941-778-1885). Besides fried oysters and a great piece of grouper for under $10, this throwback restaurant/bar has a wonderfully, uh, lived-in ambience.

As a friend once noted, "Where else in the world can one sit in a restaurant booth at the end of a pier at 9 a.m. and enjoy crab and a cup of coffee with virtually no tourists around except the few still there since 1956?"

You also can fish, feed the pelicans or sometimes even feed dolphins from the pier.

About a mile south is a little slice o' heaven known as the Sandbar (100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria, 1-941-778-0444). A huge deck overlooks the gulf and frequent contests provide a bottle of champagne for the patron who comes closest to predicting the time the sun will disappear from the horizon.

The seafood is excellent, the drinks come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and there's a guy singing Jimmy Buffett, Eagles and James Taylor songs. And somehow none of it seems the least bit hokey.

The same folks operate Mar Vista (760 Broadway St., Longboat Key, 1-941-383-2391). And while there's often an excruciatingly long wait for an outdoor table, there's nothing painful about hanging out inside, in an old nautical-themed room where Ernest Hemingway would have felt right at home.

More good eats: Some of the islands' best seafood can be found next door to Mar Vista at Moore's Stone Crab Shack (800 Broadway St., Longboat Key, 1-941-383-1748). Besides the titular treat, they'll cook any of a dozen kinds of fish to order (broiled, fried, sauteed, etc.). If snook or pompano is on the menu, consider it seriously.

There's a bevy of upscale restaurants along Gulf of Mexico Drive in Longboat Key, but I generally mosey past all of them to St. Armands Circle on the island between the key and Sarasota, where a wonderful branch of my favorite Tampa restaurant resides. The Columbia Restaurant (411 St. Armands Circle, Sarasota, 1-941-388- 3987) doesn't have the 1,600 seats of its forebear to the north, but it does have the best Spanish cuisine I've come across on these shores. It's a classic, too, part of a small Florida chain founded in Tampa's Ybor City in 1905. That branch calls itself Florida's oldest restaurant.

And once you get tired of seafood -- yes, it does happen -- head for Mr. Bones BBQ (3007 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach, Anna Maria, 1-941- 778-6614.) Great African and Caribbean folk art abounds; there's a casket by the door filled with ice and two-dozen types of beer, and the food -- from exquisite baby-back ribs to Congo chicken to amazing fried rices -- is also all over the map.

It lives up to the sign over the door: "No salt, pepper, ketchup in dining room. Don't even ask. Our food is expertly made by New Orleans-trained chefs. No improvement is needed."

Copyright C 2003 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.