I just returned from a long weekend on Annamaria Island, which is home to the city of Annamaria, as well as Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach. (Annamaria lies NW of Sarasota and Bradenton in the Gulf of Mexico, and from its piers, you gaze at the distant Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.)
I remembered, from a previous trip, that the west end of Bradenton holds a tiny fishing village called Cortez. Cortez was founded in the 1800s, if memory serves correctly . . . primarily by Cubano fishermen who built fishing “ranchos” along the coast and worked the Gulf a few months a year. Eventually, commercial fishermen of the American persuasion called this tiny but beautiful spot home, and today, a small village of modest homes, fish houses, one dynamite museum complex, and marinas is what constitutes Cortez.
I love to go to lunch at Star Fish Company, which is the best of Olde Florida. The fish is right off the boats (there’s an adjoining fish market) and once you order at the window, you sit at picnic tables overlooking the back bay and the docks. It’s almost a guarantee you’ll make some new friends while you have a cold beer and wait for your box lunch to appear.
I got lucky and ordered delicious crab cakes – HUGE – with the yummiest conch fritters I’ve had in a while, and some unbelievably tasty cheese grits, thick and creamy. With each bite, I thought I had surely died and gone to heaven, and I was quite happy about my newfound situation! LOL
While you eat, you’ll sit and watch a little boat traffic come and go, and watch locals and tourists pouring in to stand in line and order. It’s just a super relaxing hangout, sooo low-key, very laid-back. A perfect spot you’d likely not find. Just dip south of Cortez Road on any side street, just east of the bridge to Annamaria, and you can’t miss it.
The museum is one of the better ones I’ve ever been to, and makes a great place to explore before or after lunch. The nearby Sea Hag is also a don’t-miss shopping experience: it’s an historic bldg crammed full of nautical antiques, mermaids, and more.
