Results are in: Readers voted to pick the best Bradenton-area restaurant from the past
Since May, we have surveyed our readers to find out which past Manatee County restaurant was the most beloved by locals and visitors.
After tallying the votes cast in our nostalgia food series of readers’ favorite long-gone Bradenton restaurants, we can now declare the winner.
Each week, we’ve been reminded of past Bradenton restaurant staples and the memories that hold us to them, like a large pizza from Demetrios’ Pizza House and how it paired perfectly with any major sporting event, or a warm pie from Miller’s Dutch Kitchen, which often served as an extra-sweet gift during the winter holidays, and many more.
With 1,260 readers participating in our final poll, Mr. Bones BBQ came out on top as the most beloved past restaurant in Bradenton.
Here’s a list of our finalists and how our readers voted.
Mr. Bones BBQ: 716 votes
Miller’s Dutch Kitchen: 141 votes
Fast Eddie’s Seafood Restaurant: 108 votes
Boiler Room: 107 votes
Demetrios’ Pizza House: 96 votes
Council’s Burgers: 92 votes
The story of Mr. Bones BBQ
It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing when owners Eric Connors and his wife, Charlotte Mansur, got into the restaurant business in 1992.
A man who owned a restaurant the couple frequented on Anna Maria Island was dying and asked the two if they wanted to buy it. With no experience, they opened the restaurant that sat at 3007 Gulf Dr., Holmes Beach, not knowing it would become a staple.
“It was really like a family institution more than anything else,” Mansur told the Bradenton Herald Thursday. “It seems so rewarding to me to hear that we really made an impression on people. It does my heart good because we put our heart and soul into that restaurant, and really, in the end, the restaurant itself was telling us it’s over.”
Remembering the time
The Anna Maria Island family-owned restaurant closed its doors two years ago after 30 years in business because it could not withstand the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, partly because it lacked outside seating. Plus, there were other difficulties that come with running a business for three decades.
“As far as our employees, we had so many wonderful people. Of course, there were people who didn’t last, like in any restaurant business,” Mansur said. “We had a lot of people that died that we loved very much, and there was some real sadness when we lost them. But it was happiness too — people having babies, people pulling their lives back together.”
In the restaurant’s prime, it was a community centerpiece on the island — a place where residents of the island worked, , a place where employees could ask the owners for a loan if they had trouble getting by and a place travelers flying to Sarasota-Bradenton airport from abroad would go as soon as the plane landed.
“The customers were great. They would bring us gifts and just to see us sometimes. You know, they come in and their parents have died, and we know their parents, and we would cry. You know, it was a real, personal institution,” Mansur said.
She went on to say, “So many people touched us — the customers, our staff — it was a wonderful experience for my entire family. I raised two sons on the island when they were old enough to be there. They were standing on milk crates, peeling potatoes and doing the register. It was fun. Just really fun.”
‘Olde Florida’ no more
Over the years, Mansur has watched the business landscape change vastly in the Bradenton area as mom-and-pop establishments are fleeting and franchise restaurants are becoming more prominent.
“We went through so many versions of Anna Maria Island. When we first came, it was just a family little ‘olde Florida,’ as they used to call it, and people didn’t know about the island unless you were born around here,” Mansur said. “It was a big community, and all the employees worked on the island because they could afford the homes, and then it changed. It became such a different place. And I’m glad we saw it at what I considered its best.”
Mr. Bones BBQ has expanded internationally and now sells its sauce and dry rubs online in the UK. However, the days of strolling into a restaurant and ordering a platter of baby back ribs with a side of potato salad and baked beans are long gone.
Old customers are still messaging Mansur for their most popular restaurant recipes, so she made the decision to release a digital cookbook, which can be purchased online.
Interested in getting in touch with the owners? Visit their website at mrbones.ch or find them on social media at www.facebook.com/mrbonesbbq.
