Floridays Woodfire Grill & Bar has your taste for seafood and southern favorites covered
Floridays Woodfire Grill & Bar may be new to Bradenton, but it offers a bit of old-school Florida fish house atmosphere, done with personality and a little quirkiness.
As examples, consider the manatee hanging from the dining room ceiling, the giant shark over the outdoor bar, and the Jimmy Buffett inspiration for the new Compass Hotel Anna Maria Sound hotel next door.
Floridays, 12332 Manatee Ave. W., is known for its smoked dishes, but also serves seafood fried, sauteed and blackened, whatever guests desire, said chef Cesare Caldarelli.
Sandwich prices start at $10.99. Fried favorites are also available, among them fried shrimp for $14.99 and fried Gulf oysters for $16.99.
The menu includes seafood specialties, wood-grilled entrees, sandwiches, starters, soups and salads.
“I think guests will be excited to see that Floridays is not an ordinary restaurant. We have great views of the water and the food is made fresh every day with a bit of southern flair,” general manager France Langan said.
A sampling of main dishes from the menu includes fish and grits (cornmeal batter fried flounder, creamy cheddar, stone ground grits, collard greens with bacon, and hot sauce) for $22.99. Shrimp and scallop skewers are listed for $24.99, and sirloin and shrimp for $25.99.
One of the most popular items on the menu is grouper. Floridays goes through up to 800 pounds every two weeks, Caldarelli said.
Whenever possible, Floridays gets its seafood from Gulf waters, including blue crab, oysters and fish, he said.
Like a lot of chefs, Caldarelli started working in the kitchen young, washing dishes, and working his way up. Four years in the Army as a cook, followed by six years in the Army Reserve taught him valuable lessons in bulk projects, and portion control. During his Army time, he served President Ronald Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger at Fort Polk, La.
After his time in the service, he worked as a chef in California at a Cajan cuisine restaurant, cooked for Nordstrom for 18 years, and cooked for seven years at IMG Academy before landing at Floridays.
He demonstrated the wood-fired grill that gives the restaurant its name.
“We set it up with a hot fire, and keep pushing it to the back adding fresh logs up front. There are two sides, one for the fish and the other for meat,” he explained while smoking filets of mullet. “The intense heat and the oak is what gives everything its uniqueness.”
In addition to its seafood and meat dishes, Floridays offers a taste of the South with fried green tomatoes, sweet corn hushpuppies with lobster gravy, and a peanut butter chocolate bar.
The beer list features local breweries and highlights their seasonal creations. Specialty drinks include the Bradenton Beach Mule, Island Bird Swizzle, Longboat Bourbon Smash, Paloma, and Old Cubano. The house “blue drink,” the Floridays Fish House Punch, is garnished with Swedish Fish.
The restaurant offers a takeout menu with a family-style “build your own basket” option, as well as picnic meals for four that can be enjoyed at the beach or on a boat.
Floridays’ indoor and bar seating is set at 50 percent, per local and state guidelines, and outdoor dining space is available.
Menus double as single use placemats. All staff, including those in the kitchen, wear face masks at all times. The kitchen team uses gloves that are changed regularly and servers use gloves to deliver food to the table. Tables are cleaned with single-use sanitary wipes and silverware is rolled in disposable napkins.
The restaurant is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A limited number of hourly boat slips are available for patrons.
For more information on Floridays Woodfire Grill & Bar, visit www.compasshotel.com/AnnaMariaSound.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 9:25 AM.
