Local staples and longstanding icons. 10 of Bradenton’s most interesting restaurants

These days, Bradenton is a restaurant boomtown, with an always-growing list of new places to try.

That gets a thumbs-up from us hungry folks.

But while restaurants and dining fads come and go, there are a few special places that have weathered the test of time to become local icons.

Is it about the food? Sure, it’s true that you can find something tasty to eat at any of the eateries we’re about to mention.

But some restaurants fill more than just your belly. In fact, they offer a whole lot more than what can be listed on a menu.

Those secret ingredients — like intriguing backstories, local history, quirky decor, nostalgic family traditions and unique vistas — are all woven into a recipe that keeps people coming back for more, year after year.

Whether you’re new to the Bradenton area or a longtime local, here are some storied restaurants that are worth knowing a little more about.

Shake Pit, West Bradenton

Opened: 1959

The story: Harry and Janet Cummings opened Shake Pit in the 50s after moving to Bradenton from Indiana and established its reputation for thick frosty shakes, ice cream, burgers and crinkle-cut fries. Harry was known as “Master of the Milkshake” and Janet ran the grill, according to a restaurant history previously posted to Shake Pit’s website.

The restaurant passed relatively unchanged through the care of several more families over the decades. Most recently, it was purchased by the Crowe family in 2001, and they’ve kept the nostalgic atmosphere alive into the 21st century.

Why it’s special: Shake Pit has become a destination for a sweet treat after a day at the beach or a night in the bleachers and part of many local family traditions. Look out for community messages, like happy birthday and graduation wishes, spelled out on the Shake Pit’s marquee sign along Manatee Avenue.

What to try: Shake Pit’s original staples — old-fashioned cheeseburgers, milkshakes and fries — are popular with visitors to this day, but they also recommend the chicken BLT, chili cheese fries and banana splits.

Details: Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sunday and Monday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 3801 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton. Cash only. 941-748-4016.

Rock Inn Restaurant, Palmetto

Opened: 1945

The story: Palmetto resident Pearl Isom opened this local soul food staple in the segregation-era South. In its younger days, it was home to jukebox music and dancing in the evenings. It’s now among Manatee County’s oldest restaurants and Black-owned businesses. It closed temporarily in 2016, but, much to our good fortune, reopened at the end of 2022.

Why it’s special: Rock Inn and its enduring recipes are still all in the family, and it shows.

“It’s a passion of mine. The secret ingredient is always love,” chef Lawrence “Bono” Isom, recently told the Herald. He’s Pearl’s grandson.

What to try: Rock Inn keeps it interesting with a revolving menu of soul food dishes, including main plates like oxtails, pepper steak, barbecue chicken and ribs, turkey wings and Cornish hen, plus scrumptious sides like okra, mac ‘n’ cheese, sweet potatoes and grits. The all-day breakfast and hamburgers are also popular, and a weekly “Soul Food Sunday” highlights the restaurant’s roots. Check Rock Inn’s Facebook page for the latest offerings.

Details: Open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday & Saturday; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday; 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. 2112 Second Ave. E., Palmetto. facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087552735197.

Linger Lodge, east of Bradenton

Opened: 1945

The story: Nestled along the Braden River, the original Linger Lodge was a two-story log cabin on a fishing and canoeing campground. The cabin burned down in the ‘50s, according to the restaurant’s history. But in 1968 Wisconsinite Frank Gamsky saw the land’s potential and convinced his wife Elaine that they should buy it and open a restaurant and RV park.

Frank, a veterinarian by trade and a taxidermy enthusiast, soon began to decorate the restaurant with a variety of preserved Florida wildlife that lent the dining room its peculiar charm. He was also known for his table-side jokes and magic tricks.

Gamsky, who died recently, ran the restaurant for 37 years. It has since gone through a handful of owners, a renovation and a recent two-year closure, but its quirky character has been kept intact. Longtime general manager Rita Lewis became the Lodge’s new owner earlier this year.

Why it’s special: Linger Lodge is a little piece of Old Florida backcountry in increasingly developed Manatee County. Once deemed “one of the top five weirdest restaurants in the country” by Al Roker, you won’t find any place like it.

What to try: The restaurant’s menu spans Southern favorites like fried green tomatoes, catfish and fried chicken, plus soups, pastas, burgers, sandwiches and smoked meats. Then there are the straight-from-the-swamp offerings, like frog legs and alligator served fried, grilled or blackened.

Details: Open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 7205 85th St. Court E., Bradenton.

LingerLodge.com.

Rod & Reel Pier, Anna Maria

Opened: 1947

The story: This privately owned fishing and sightseeing pier and restaurant at the very north tip of Anna Maria Island has been a popular hangout for locals and visitors for more than half a century.

Legend and Bradenton Herald archives have it that one-time pier owner Frank Cavendish, described in the Manatee County Library archives as “an avid fisherman and well-known local character known for his eccentricity,” caught a 17-foot, two-inch, 1,386-pound great hammerhead shark off the pier in 1973.

The pier has survived the passage of time, multiple hurricanes and a lightning strike.

An electrical fire in 2013 led to a temporary closure and remodel that still preserved the restaurant’s old-timey feel. It reopened in 2014 and has been serving seafood and waterside views ever since.

Why it’s special: You can’t beat the Rod & Reel’s unique view of the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of Tampa Bay, and it’s all-day hours make it a good place to take in the island’s natural beauty from sun up to sunset. Stingrays, dolphins, sharks, manatees and seabirds are all known to make appearances.

What to try: Seafood is the star of the menu at the Rod & Reel, including its popular grouper sandwich, po’ boys (shrimp or oyster) and seafood dinner plates. There are also soups, salads, burgers and chicken sandwiches. Breakfast is served every day.

Details: Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. 875 N. Shore Dr., Anna Maria. rodreelpier.com.

The Seafood Shack, Cortez

Opened: 1972

The story: In the fishing village of Cortez on Manatee County’s coast, angling is a way of life. Historians date it to pre-settler times, when the Indigenous Calusa population used woven nets to harvest seafood along the Gulf Coast of Florida. The practice was next adapted by Cuban fisherman in the 1700s, who traveled up to Southwest Florida for the area’s bountiful waters.

Later, the North Carolina anglers who settled in the area of Cortez, then known as Hunter’s Point, followed suit with their own handmade nets. The skill eventually helped the village survive the Great Depression without federal aid, and the reliable source of food-inspired a nickname for the area of Sarasota Bay: “The Kitchen.”

You’ll find many popular restaurants preparing locally caught seafood in Cortez, but one of the oldest and most often recommended is The Seafood Shack.

The Seafood Shack Marina opened in 1971, and the restaurant followed in ’72, providing a pit stop for hungry boaters.

Why it’s special: Accessible by boat or by land, The Seafood Shack reflects the heart of Cortez history with fresh seafood, nautical decor and waterside dining.

What to try: Grouper, shrimp, fish and chips and chowder are all popular here, as well as appetizers, beer, wine and tropical drinks.

Details: Open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. 4110 127th St. W., Cortez. seafoodshack.com.

Star Fish Co., Cortez

Opened: 1920s as a wholesale fish market; restaurant opened in 1996.

The story: Another Cortez mainstay that goes back even further, Star Fish Company opened as a fish house in the 1920s. Seafood freshly caught by Cortez anglers and netters was sold wholesale.

Cortez’s fishing industry took a hard hit when a net ban was passed in the ’90s, severely limiting the catch for local anglers. In 1996, Cortezian Karen Bell purchased the struggling Star Fish Company with hopes of keeping some of the Cortez traditions alive, according to Bradenton Herald archives.

In addition to continuing the tradition of selling fish, a small restaurant was added to show off some Florida seafood cooking.

Why it’s special: Simple, fresh eats and waterside environs make this a pure taste of Cortez. The restaurant is a nod to the village’s angling past and a testament to how it has survived changing times.

What to try: Fried, grilled, blackened and sauteed Florida seafood dishes fill the menu at Star Fish. Peel-and-eat shrimp, smoked mullet, grouper and shellfish are all popular. Classic Southern sides of cheese grits, hushpuppies, coleslaw and fries round out the menu.

Details: Open 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday and Monday. 12306 46th Ave. W., Cortez. starfishcompany.com.

Alvarez Mexican Restaurant, Palmetto

Opened: 1976

The story: Among the reasons that Marie and Antonio Alvarez opened the Alvarez Restaurant in the 1970s was that the closest place to eat Mexican food was in Sarasota, according to Bradenton Herald archives.

“We wanted to eat our own food, and share our own food with other people,” Marie Alvarez told the Herald in 1998.

Marie originally moved from Texas to Florida in her teens as a migrant worker picking fruit. She continued that work when she married Antonio, who owned Alvarez & Son Fruit Harvesting & Hauling.

Before they got into the restaurant business, she also worked for Manatee County schools and as a social worker.

Antonio died in 1994, but Marie and the growing Alvarez family have kept the restaurant’s reputation for delicious and traditional Texas-Mexican cuisine alive and well.

The restaurant has become well-known for its Cinco de Mayo celebrations and charitable giving over the years.

Why it’s special: The Alvarez restaurant has been operated by the same family since it opened. Its warm atmosphere and scratch-made Tex-Mex dishes have made it a community gathering place with many faithful patrons.

What to try: Fajitas, tacos and enchiladas are all visitor favorites. Also on the menu: breakfast served all day, soups, salads, burritos, quesadillas, tamales, dinner plates, cervezas and margaritas.

Details: Open 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. 1431 Eighth Ave. W., Palmetto. facebook.com/alvarezmexicanrestaurant.

Sea Hut Restaurant, Terra Ceia

Opened: 1971

The story: Lee Cline opened the original Sea Hut on Snead Island in 1971, where it was a bait shop, boat slip and crab house. He eventually started making sandwiches for anglers to take on their fishing trips, and with their popularity, a menu started to grow from there.

Cline sold that business and bought the restaurant’s current location on U.S. 19 around 1979. He grew the business from a juke joint into a full-service restaurant. It was called the Crab Trap for many years until Cline’s death in 2006 when his family decided to bring back the Seat Hut moniker in his honor.

These days Cline’s daughter Donna James and grandson Jarrett James operate the restaurant, where you’ll still find the Old Florida charm that put it on the map.

Why it’s special: The Sea Hut Restaurant is one of the first sights that greets visitors coming south to Manatee County from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and it welcomes them with a taste of the past. Its distinctive wooden facade makes the outside of the building stand out, and the inside is a colorful menagerie of nautical decor. Outdoor seating on a floating dock offers views of Terra Ceia Bay and wildlife.

What to try: Sea Hut is known for its fried, baked and broiled seafood dishes, “3-Crab Soup,” stuffed shrimp and crab cakes.

Details: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 5611 U.S. 19, Palmetto. seahutrestaurant.com.

Sandbar Seafood & Spirits, Anna Maria

(a.k.a. The Sandbar Restaurant)

Opened: 1979

The story: Once the site of a community gathering spot called “The Pavilion” dating back to around 1911, the original structure burned down in the ’40s and was replaced with two old army barracks and named “The Sandbar,” according to the restaurant’s account of its history.

The restaurant went through several renovations and owners before it was purchased by Ed Chiles, son of former Florida governor Lawton Chiles, in 1979.

The restaurant has gained a reputation for its sustainably sourced local seafood and ingredients, which come in part from Chiles’ Gamble Creek Farm in Parrish.

Why it’s special: Apart from being one of the oldest spots for socializing on Anna Maria Island, the Sandbar is known for its ambiance, mixed drinks and views of sand and sunsets.

What to try: Popular menu items include oysters by the tray, clam chowder, fried shrimp, grouper sandwich and the Sandbar burger.

Details: Open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria. sandbardining.com.

PJ’s Sandwich Shop, Parrish

Opened: 1984

The story: Almost 40 years ago, Patricia O’Connor opened this small sandwich shop off of U.S. 301 that has stood the test of time to become Parrish’s oldest restaurant.

“I kept thinking, ‘Is this going to work?’ I really had some doubts,” O’Connor told the Herald in 2004.

O’Connor’s daughter, Teresa Giles, owns and operates the restaurant today, which has gained a cult following for its well-stuffed subs, macaroni salad, sweet tea and country friendliness.

Why it’s special: Walls decorated with local history and its status as a town gathering place make this restaurant a good place to catch up on the past and the present while enjoying simple, satisfying food.

What to try: Subs come on white or wheat rolls and include the Deluxe (ham, salami, turkey, roast beef and cheese), the Italian, a hot roast beef and over a dozen other variations. Salads, chicken and dumplings soup and chili (in the winter only) are other popular items.

Details: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. 12342 U.S. 301, Parrish. facebook.com/PJsSandwichShop.