From lobster to grouper, this seafood grill offers coastal classics in Lakewood Ranch
Members of the ROMEO Club — Retired Old Men Eating Out — were the first customers coming in the door for lunch Wednesday at Blue Surf American Grill.
They are among the regulars at the restaurant, 5829 Ranch Lake Blvd., Unit 102, in the Ranch Lake Shopping Center.
So, what attracts the ROMEO Club? It’s the menu, said Larry Beebe.
Favorites?
“The whole menu,” he said.
For Ken Fiscella, it’s the convenience, being next door to River Club, Lakewood Ranch and Rosedale, among other neighborhoods.
Owner-operators Ira and Mary Freedman opened Blue Surf in April 2022, after a lifetime working in the restaurant business.
Ira Freedman, a native of Wilson, N.C., worked in the restaurant business in the Carolinas and Virginia, notably for Travina Kitchens, prior to moving to Florida.
Before opening Blue Surf, Ira managed the Tommy Bahama Restaurant and Bar on Sarasota’s St. Armands Circle, and was a partner in the Lazy Lobster restaurant, 7602 Lockwood Ridge Road, in southern Manatee County.
Blue Surf has a diverse lunch menu with lots of choices: soups and salads, sandwiches — Philly cheese steak, grouper sandwiches and cheeseburgers to name a few — as well as entrees, a la carte items and a kids menu.
The dinner menu, starting at 4 p.m., has many pasta dishes, including Coquina Beach Pasta with bow tie pasta, blackened chicken, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and green onions in an asiago cream sauce.
Other pasta offerings include shrimp scampi, Seafood Fra Diavolo (mussels, shrimp and calamari in a spicy marinara sauce) and Blue Surf Pasta (shrimp, green onions and spinach, tossed with a sweet and spicy cream sauce over linguine).
Also offered are chicken dishes, think caprese or marsala, and a Blue Surf favorite, the stuffed chicken, as well as beef filet dishes.
Not surprisingly, Blue Surf offers many seafood choices. Selections range from fish and chips for $18 to shrimp dinner for $22, macadamia encrusted grouper for $26 and much more.
Blue Surf has seating for 150, a full bar, happy hour 2-6 p.m. daily and live music 5-8 p.m. Thursdays. The restaurant can accommodate private parties. Blue Surf also offers catering.
On Sundays, Blue Surf serves prime rib, starting at 2 p.m.
Blue Surf is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
For more information, visit www.bluesurfamericangrill.com or call 941-777-7674.
