New restaurant in Bradenton offers St. Louis barbecue with focus on sauces, craft beer
BeerSauce Shop recently opened in the Bradenton area and has hundreds of artisan sauces and rubs to go along with more than 500 craft beers and St. Louis-style barbecue.
St. Louis native Gary King is the owner of the BeerSauce Shop Bradenton franchise, 419 Cortez Road. W., in the Orange Blossom Plaza shopping center.
The Bradenton BeerSauce Shop is the sixth in the country, and the first outside Missouri.
King had been a competitive pit master in the St. Louis area for nine years, and was looking for fresh horizons as a purveyor of food and drink.
“St. Louis is saturated with barbecue places, and has only half the population of Tampa Bay,” King said.
He liked the Orange Blossom Plaza location because it is centrally located to Anna Maria Island and Lakewood Ranch and would be a short drive from almost anywhere in the county.
“I was ready to get out of the machinist industry and into something I love and can have fun with. As a guy on a competition BBQ team with a passion for good beer and wanting to relocate to Florida, I knew BeerSauce Shop was the best way to go into business on my own,” King said.
The sauce bar has all of the sauces and rubs in sample bottles for customers to try on their barbecue sandwiches, pork steaks, or crunchy snacks.
Menu items include a variety of sandwiches: smoked brisket, Cubans, a brisket Reuben, smoked pulled pork, smoked pulled chicken, beer brats, a chili cheese hot dog, nachos and barbecued nachos (smoked, hand-pulled pork or chicken, campfire chili, queso, sweet slaw, jalapenos and diced onion).
Guests are asked to order their food and drink at the bar. BeerSauce has seating for about 90.
Although BeerSauce originated in St. Louis, the majority of craft beers sold in the Bradenton store are from Florida, said general manager Bob Raymond.
“We carry no major brands — no Budweiser. We are a craft beer store,” Raymond said.
The store has 22 beers on tap, and a rotating selection of craft beers on the shelves, and 200-plus hot sauces and rubs.
“Since the first BeerSauce Shop opened in St. Peters, Mo., in 2017, the goal was to put a bunch of our unique flavor experiences in communities that we think would really get along with our mission of bringing a rotating selection of 500-plus craft beers, 200-plus BBQ sauces, hot sauces and rubs, and weekly tasting events to the community,” Andrew Tessmer, co-founder of BeerSauce, said in a press release.
King said he is more than pleased with his move to Florida.
“When they say this is paradise, it really is. I’ve never in my life been so peaceful and relaxed as when I’m fishing off Cortez Beach,” King said. “I can see why so many people have moved here.”
Store hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit www.beersauceshop.com, or email bradenton@beersauceshop.com.
