Maple Street Biscuit Company opens eatery in Bradenton-Sarasota area

If you hear someone say they have “an Americano for James Taylor” or “an orange juice for Willie Nelson,” you’re probably at Maple Street Biscuit Company having breakfast or lunch.

The recently opened restaurant at 8491 Cooper Creek Blvd., unit 107, in the Shoppes in University Town Center specializes in comfort food with a twist.

One of the twists is that when a staff member takes an order at the front counter, they ask the customer the question of the month. This month the question is who is your favorite musician or band?

Once the order is ready, a staff member announces, let’s say, “A Squawking Goat for The Beatles.” That’s the signal for the customer to fetch their food.

“A Squawking Goat,” by the way, is one of Maple Street Biscuit Company’s most popular offerings. Picture a flaky biscuit, fried chicken breast, fried goat cheese medallion, and house-made pepper jelly for $9.

As the name implies, biscuits loom large in the restaurant’s menu. “The Five” is a biscuit, fried chicken breast, peaconwood smoked bacon, and cheddar cheese topped with house-made sausage gravy. “The BLT” is, well, a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on a biscuit.

But it’s not all biscuits. Other offerings include about a dozen coffee offerings, “Bluegrass Grits Bowl,” waffles, salads, and sides like hashups (a fried hashbrown cake with smoked gouda cheese, topped with chives, gravy and an egg for $7, mac and cheese, and fried green tomatoes.

It’s the first Maple Street Biscuit Company to open in the Bradenton-Sarasota area.

The restaurant has 82 inside seats, and 44 outside. On nice days, the large rollup windows along one wall can be opened to the outside.

Dylan Kennedy, team leader for the restaurant, spent time Monday chatting with customers, taking orders and working with his staff.

“We have two promises. This is a safe work place, where you should enjoy coming to work. The second promise is that you will go home tired. It’s like a family here,” Kennedy said.

Maple Street was started by Scott Moore and Gus Evans in Jacksonville, on Nov. 8, 2012. Or as the menu says, by “two guys with no restaurant experience and no culinary background who decided to open a restaurant so they could stay in their community after they lost their jobs.”

The restaurant features a lot of community style seating.

Kennedy started with the company a year ago when it had 14 restaurants. Now there are 32.

“It should not have worked! But here we are,” the company acknowledges.

Two keys to Maple Street’s success appear to be its very specific menu, and its emphasis on being part of the community.

“The mission is to help others and be part of the community,” Kennedy said.

“This whole week will be busy for us with Black Friday,” Kennedy said, adding that hungry shoppers will be looking for convenient places to eat.

“We are really casual,” he said.

Maple Street Biscuit Company is open 7 a.m. - 2 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.

For more information, visit https://maplestreetbiscuits.com/.

This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 8:00 AM.