Category: AMOB in the Community

We are SO very excited about our new collaboration with the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County & Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading! We love supporting early literacy for children, so we are happy to welcome “Book Nooks” at all four Anna Maria Oyster Bars. We invite kids to visit the Book Nook and choose a book to read while dining with us. While you’re spending family time at the table, we invite you to join in on the fun with your little one! Help them Dive into Reading by helping them read, or discussing the adventures inside their new

We are excited to finally share that we won several Readers’ Choice awards this season from great local publications including Bradenton Herald, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and (for the FIRST time ever!) a finalist award with Sarasota Magazine. We can’t say thank you enough for ALL of your continued support! We’re honored to receive the following: Bradenton Herald People’s Choice Winner • All Around Favorite, Best Raw Bar, Best Happy Hour, Best Seafood Restaurant, Best Early Bird, Best Margarita Sarasota Herald Tribune • First Place: Early Bird Dinner, Seafood Restaurant and Finalist: Margarita, Outdoor Dining, Happy Hour Sarasota Magazine • Finalist, Oyster

Education in the community is near and dear to our heart. Whether it be raising money for scholarships, donating, community outreach programs, partnering with the school district for programs… I could go on – you name it, when it comes to education, we’re about it. When I was asked to visit the Hillsborough Community College (HCC) Tampa campus for an appearance at the Hospitality and Tourism Marketing Class, of course I couldn’t say no! We’ve had the pleasure of having Frida Bahja, an associate professor at HCC, as an intern at our Corporate Office this spring. Frida asked me to

SCF’s New Library & Learning Center Grand Opening In February, we had the honor of representing the Bradenton Kiwanis at the State College of Florida’s grand opening for their newly constructed library. The Bradenton Kiwanis Foundation donated $10,000 to construct a Young Adult and Children’s Reading Room in SCF’s new Library & Learning Center. According to SCF, “the Bradenton Kiwanis gift will add to the SCF library’s current collection of young adult and children’s literature, which is accessible to anyone with a Manatee or Sarasota County library card”. The new building looks like a phenomenal addition to the SCF campus.

Forks & Corks Food and Wine Festival is a fabulous event the Sarasota-Manatee Originals organizes each year. Popular enough for tickets to sell out in a matter of minutes, it goes without saying what an attraction it is for the area. The festival brings together over 50 local and diverse food and wine vendors from the Sarasota-Manatee Originals, including Anna Maria Oyster Bar. The Sarasota-Manatee Originals is a group of locally owned restaurants who share a passion for dining excellence and commitment to our community. The festival weekend is filled with tastings and seminars, but the highlight is definitely the

Our friends at OneBlood stopped by last week to present us with this very nice award that recognized life-saving efforts by our hardworking staff and generous guests. Can you believe that since 2005, folks stopped by our Landside (869 units), Cortez (1052), and Ellenton (733) Oyster Bars to donate with OneBlood… resulting in 7962 lives saved across our community. Pictured above are (from left) Janie Peticca and Wanda Burke from OneBlood. OneBlood’s mission is “to enhance the health and well-being of others through our work with blood and stem cell products and by facilitating scientific research”. They do so by