A diamond on the beach
Established doesn't mean stale: Anna Maria Island's storied Beach Bistro serves up gleaming gems for the taste buds.
By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic
Published July 19, 2007
Beach Bistro
6600 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach, Anna Maria Island; (941) 778-6444
Cuisine: French-Floribbean
Hours: 5-9 p.m. daily
Details: AE, V, MC; reservations recommended; full bar
Prices: Appetizers $10-$20, entrees $14-$65, desserts $12-$18
***
Eighty percent of all restaurants don't survive past their second anniversary. Enduring favorites must do something right in multiple arenas, but more importantly, they must do so nearly every day in order to live on. Here's where it gets tricky.
Zeitgeist changes, customers' fickleness and the vicissitudes of the food business mean that what constitutes "doing something right" is in a constant state of flux. This means a restaurant by necessity must constantly evolve, but seem at a squint to be ever itself.
I never visited the Beach Bistro on Anna Maria Island in 1985 when it first opened, but I imagine years ago it was like an elementary school photo in which you could strongly see the adult it would one day become. I expect it was never particularly prepossessing, but it must have had an indelible mark of greatness.
In the intervening years, it has won nearly every award it is possible to win in the state of Florida. Foodies and critics go on about the intimate dining room draped, tentlike, with silk; the wine list's exceptional breadth; and the playful French-Floribbean cuisine with sly Pacific Rim accents.
Its longevity is due in part to these things. It may sound like gee-whiz sappiness, but it owes much of its greatness to the sparks that fly when you get a bunch of smart, diligent people in the same room doing something they love. It's about owner Sean Murphy, or Bob Wheeler in the kitchen, Fred Sullivan in the bar, Skip Cook on the piano, David Klingler seating people in the dining room, and waiters like Rodney or Derek. They are all passionate about what they're doing at Beach Bistro, and it rubs off.
The news here, beyond "yup, it's still good," is that the bistro has enclosed part of its garden area, built a new entrance and created a casual bar side that serves the best burger on Anna Maria. You can put on the dog and dine in the main dining room or shake the sand out of the old flip-flops and grab a seat on the casual cafe side where you can still order from the fancier side's menu.
The menu seems to be increasingly geared toward offering diners an array of choices. There are the splurgy classic entrees (incredible domestic rack of lamb with a textbook port demi-glace, $60), but lots of small plates and petite portions of the larger entrees. I love eating this way - no pressure, no buyer's remorse, let's try a bunch of things.
Some of the following I tried on the bar side, some in the dining room. A diminutive Nova Scotia lobster tail ($20) is gently butter-poached and nestled in a shallow pool of lemon-tangy grits. But wait, the grits are amped delicately with the licoricey flavor of star anise. Whoa, didn't see that coming, a perfect match for a glass of Caymus Conundrum, with its party-in-your-mouth mix of muscat canelli, viognier, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay.
One night, little cups of local Bella Roma tomato bisque arrive complimentary, its sweetness juxtaposed with a clod of Maytag blue cheese. A second night, tiny cold crab claws come gratis in a cup, which we happily dispatch like so many adult lollipops.
Those same local Bella Roma creep all over the menu - the housemade focaccia bread is served with sweet, oven-roasted tomato halves dabbed on one side with emerald pesto and on the other with inky olive tapenade. It's a shirt-wrecker, but a delicious combo. Those tomatoes are also the featured element in a salad ($14): They are sauteed briefly, then tossed in an herbed balsamic vinaigrette, and the whole warm stew is arranged over baby greens and garnished with toasts and a Parmesan crisp. It's the best salad (I wasn't as charmed with the Caesar, $12, that relies too heavily on limp outer romaine, or the overly sweet, daily changing "serendipitous salad," $14).
The bistro's bouillabaisse is essentially offered in small, medium and large ($15, $44, $55), which we tried on the bar side while piano man Cook took a turn through Cole Porter. The gorgeous seafood broth is studded with lobster, meaty white fish, rings of calamari, shrimp and some other lurking sea bits, all served with classic aioli and sturdy garlic rusks. Seafood dishes generally have more of a wow factor, but duck appears multiple times in alluring guises: fanned against a salad of arugula and spinach ($16) with a bacony vinaigrette; crisp-roasted and topped with a zingy peppercorn demi-glace ($40); and tucked into a crepe ($15), slices of rosy breast and lush confit assembled with wild mushrooms and garnished with a dab of nutty parsnip puree.
My single disappointment at Beach Bistro lies in the arena of desserts. They are pricey ($12 to $18), which alone is not a deal breaker for me. Despite all the talent in the kitchen, there doesn't appear to be a pastry man in the mix. Key lime pie ($11, a little gummy), banana/mango Foster ($12), and a goofy ice cream/whipped cream/crushed praline thing called Praline Alexandra ($12) - none of it dazzles, and none of it reflects the alchemy that is the hallmark of a dessert guru. Also, nothing crunchy.
Servers are uniformly well versed in the menu, the wine list and exactly when you should start paying attention to the sunset out the back windows over the wide beach. Like all great servers, they are a little like the parents of a toddler. They are vigilant, proactive, yet subtle enough not to rupture the delicate illusion of free will. The fickle swirl of id that is the customer remains convinced he or she is orchestrating the meal - the pacing, the menu selections, the mood, even precisely when the sun dips beneath the horizon outside over the Gulf of Mexico.
Laura Reiley dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for review or the assessment. Reiley can be reached at (727) 892-2293 or lreiley@sptimes.com.