Ticket Editor: 3 of the best Sarasota restaurants are opening new locations across Florida

There are many excellent restaurants in Sarasota.

I've shared my top recommendations for downtown and waterfront destinations this year, and covered everything from best places for pizza and burgers to stone crab claws and Cuban sandwiches. A few weeks ago, I provided a list of Sarasota restaurants to visit before the beginning of snowbird and tourist season.

Typically, these lists feature 10 or more restaurants. However, today, I'm focusing on only three. Each restaurant started right here in Sarasota or Manatee before expanding with locations beyond our two-county region. All three places serve the kind of delicious comfort foods that everyone's favorite part-time Florida resident, Guy Fieri, would adore, and at very reasonable prices, making them appealing to folks like myself who love watching "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

In the near future, don't be surprised to find these popular local restaurants, three of the best in Sarasota-Manatee, scattered across Florida proudly representing us. Presented in chronological order from the year they opened, here are the three restaurants, along with my thoughts on what makes each of them great, as well as information on their respective plans for expansion across the Sunshine State.

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Oak & Stone, founded in Manatee County in 2016, will soon have restaurants in five Florida counties

Originally a part of the Sarasota-based Tableseide Restaurant Group best known for Libby's, Oak & Stone debuted in 2016 on the Manatee County side of University Park. Oak & Stone soon expanded to Clark Road in Sarasota, and then downtown Bradenton, where it maintains a hugely popular rooftop bar and restaurant overlooking the Manatee River and Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Oak & Stone also opened a restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg, as well as another to the south in Naples.

Now part of Artistry Restaurants of Winter Park, which owns other brands such as Boca, Oak & Stone opened a location in Wellen Park, the new master-planned community in south Sarasota County, in October. Oak & Stone has also announced plans to open a restaurant in the Lee County community of Estero. This opening, expected by the end of the year as an Artistry publicist informed me, will give Oak & Stone seven locations spread across five Florida counties.

Oak & Stone, which now provides an "ideal franchisee profile" on its website, specializes in craft beer and artisan pizza in a casual tavern setting adorned with plenty of TVs for us sports fans. The brews are offered on an extensive self-serve beer wall, and the thin-crust pizzas are among the best in the region, thanks to dough made fresh daily and cooked in custom-made stone pizza ovens.

Oak & Stone also excels at many other clever comfort foods, including its burgers, fried chicken sandwich, and slow-roasted oven wings. Soaked overnight and teeming with savory flavor throughout, the original wings are topped with a Buffalo-style wing sauce and a generous serving of blue cheese crumbles, accompanied by a side of ginger honey mustard sauce for dipping. In recent years, Oak & Stone has added five more enticing flavors, including "Sweet Seoul," featuring sweet chili gochujang with green onions and sesame seeds, served with a side of sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Finally, Oak & Stone keeps the experience fresh by regularly offering new specials and deals, which often become part of the regular menu. During a visit to Oak & Stone's downtown Bradenton location on Tuesday, Nov. 14, the server handed us a copy of their new happy hour menu. Available from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, it features $7, $8, and $9 specials on everything from pizzas and appetizers to craft cocktails, with customers also receiving a 25 percent discount on all beer, wine, and whiskey.

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Five-O Donut Co., founded in Sarasota in 2017, now has five shops and is working on a 'Florida expansion'

Christine Nordstrom, a former fine-dining pastry chef whose family operated a doughnut shop in Ohio, made a huge splash in downtown Sarasota six years ago when she opened Five-O Donut Co. in the spring of 2017.

Operating near the courthouse and police station, Nordstrom's shop featured a police theme with cartoon images of a cop holding a doughnut, crime scene outlines on the floor (also holding doughnuts), and doughnut boxes stamped "evidence." The setting was cute, and the doughnuts were delectable. People could not get enough of her cake, yeast, and croissant doughnuts, which can be enjoyed in myriad flavors.

Today, Nordstrom operates three Five-O locations in Sarasota, including one in the University Town Center district, and one each in Bradenton and St. Petersburg. Another location in Ellenton is expected to open in mid-December. Located near the Ellenton Premium Outlets, it will feature a "brand refresh" and be the first Five-O to include self-ordering kiosks.

"The Ellenton shop will be representative of what we're doing going forward," Nordstrom said during a recent phone interview. "We're looking at a Florida expansion with at least two openings in the next couple of years."

For now, doughnut lovers can enjoy Five-O favorites as well as specials such as Nordstrom's beloved Food Coma Wonut. It's a stuffing waffle made with yeast doughnuts, apple, and sage. It is then deep-fried and coated with a maple glaze before being finished with a cranberry-orange compote and marshmallow yam mash, as well as a slice of oven-roasted turkey breast. Yes, it's a holiday feast fit for a true doughnut connoisseur. It will be available only on Thanksgiving Day at Five O's University Town Center, Bradenton, and Siesta Row locations, which will be open from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. or until the doughnuts are sold out.

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Food + Beer, founded in Sarasota in 2018, now has six locations with one in Lakeland and another planned for Tampa

Food + Beer owners Mike Whalen and Casey Daniels debuted their crowd-pleasing concept of first-rate pub grub paired with various brews (and now, craft cocktails) in Sarasota's Gulf Gate neighborhood in 2018. They soon followed it with a location on Fruitville Road. Next came Food + Beer's Bradenton restaurant in 2021, and then another in Venice in 2022.

Early this year, Food + Beer opened a location in downtown Sarasota's Rosemary District. This summer, the locally based owners began welcoming guests to their first restaurant outside of Sarasota and Manatee counties. On Aug. 21, Food + Beer opened its Lakeland location, and now the owners have their eyes on another major Florida city, in addition to opening a sixth business in Sarasota-Manatee.

"We are looking to do one more location locally in Manatee County in the summer of 2024," Whalen said via email. "Hoping to move into the Tampa market after that. I’ve lived up there a couple times in the past and feel it’s a natural fit for the brand. Would ultimately be excited to add locations between here and Lakeland."

Perhaps you read my glowing review of their enviable comfort foods? I've also included Food + Beer in my lists of best restaurants for burgers, wings, and chicken sandwiches. Ahead of our current football season, I featured Food + Beer among my favorite places to watch sports.

On Wednesday, Nov. 15, I dined at Food + Beer in Bradenton and found their wings were back to being plump and delectable after finding them a bit diminutive during a visit over the summer. I also fell in love again with the chicken nuggets, accompanied by a side of "stupid hot" sauce that offered plenty of flavor to complement the heat. To balance the spice, I enjoyed bites of Food + Beer's ginormous, expertly buttered soft pretzel served with sweet honey mustard and savory white queso.

I've raved before about Food + Beer's specialty burgers, but this week I ordered the humble "basic cheeseburger" and had it topped with crispy bacon and a fried egg (something you will NOT find Fieri ever doing — Google it). Cooked with the perfect amount of pink showing, it resulted in one of the best burgers I've had in recent memory. The experience was elevated by an order of Food + Beer's hand-cut fries tossed in Old Bay and blackening seasoning, served with a ramekin brimming with jalapeno ranch for some delightful dipping.

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What about First Watch?

The most famous restaurant associated with Sarasota-Manatee is First Watch, the beloved daytime dining concept with more than 500 locations in 29 states that has been headquartered in the area for more than three decades. However, First Watch did not start in Florida.

Ken Pendery and John Sullivan opened the original First Watch in Pacific Grove, California, in 1983. In 1986, they moved their headquarters to Bradenton. In 2021, First Watch opened the doors to its current corporate headquarters in the University Town Center area of Manatee County. The 39,000-square-foot standalone building is located just off Cooper Creek Boulevard at 8725 Pendery Place, a street named for the company’s Chairman Emeritus and former CEO, Kenneth L. Pendery, Jr.

"We’ve led our operations out of Manatee and Sarasota Counties since we moved to Florida in 1986, when we opened our first restaurant on South Tamiami Trail, which still serves our community seven days a week," said Hunter Carpenter, public relations manager for First Watch, in an email. "Ever since Ken and John made the decision to relocate us to Bradenton, this vibrant community has not only welcomed us with open arms but embraced us as their go-to brunch spot. We look forward to continuing to call this area home for many, many more years to come."

Here’s to hoping Oak & Stone, Five-O Donut Co., and Food + Beer will also continue to call Sarasota-Manatee home for many, many more years while expanding their footprint across Florida. And who knows? Maybe one of them will attain First Watch’s success and be able to add a corporate headquarters to the area along with their original restaurants.

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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 [email protected]. Support local journalism by subscribing.??????

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota restaurants are opening new locations across Florida