Cheers

Cheers May 2013

Cheers is dedicated to delivering hospitality professionals the information, insights and data necessary to drive their beverage business by covering trends and innovations in operations, merchandising, service and training.

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SCENE By Amy Sherman Florida Ritz Goes Local With Jack Dusty Sarasota resort reinvents its restaurant as a casual nautical concept L uxury hotels and resorts across the country are replacing their fine dining restaurants with more-casual concepts, and it's easy to see why as consumer dining habits evolve. What's not so easy is to make the transition a success. The Ritz Carlton Sarasota's new casual concept Jack Dusty shows how it's done right. Located between Tampa and Ft. Meyers, coastal Sarasota was once considered primarily a retirement destination. The city today attracts the well-traveled and welleducated, including snowbirds from the East Coast and a younger, artsy local crowd. Tanky's Tot, one of Jack Dusty's "Gulper" cocktails, combines Jamaican rum with spiced Guinness syrup, pineapple, quince and lime, topped off with sparkling wine and Creole bitters. 18 | MAY 2013 As in other coastal resort destinations, dining options in Sarasota have changed in recent years to draw an increasingly sophisticated clientele, who expect more than fried seafood or continental cuisine. But when the Ritz Carlton Sarasota's guests would ask the concierge where the locals eat, the answer was not Vernona, the whitetablecloth French restaurant on property. While well regarded and successful, Vernona attracted 60% hotel guests and 40% locals. The resort's management set out to flip that ratio. One challenge in drawing a local crowd is that the resort is a bit off the beaten path, says its director of food and beverage James Cole. It's located between two dining destinations, Main Street, which attracts both locals and tourists, and St. Armands Circle, which is more tourist focused. "We're in between and kind of a third option," Cole says. To make the resort more of a local dinining and drinking destination, the Ritz gutted the old restaurant and spent $3 million transforming it into an easy, breezy seafood concept. FRESH, FUN AND LOCAL Jack Dusty, which opened in January, can be described in two words: local and casual. The theme is nautical, fitting the waterfront setting. In fact, the concept's name refers to an 18th century short-hand term for the naval store clerk: The Jack Dusty, under the purser, was responsible for doling out the daily lot of rum to sailors on board the ship. Everything from the menu to the names of the drinks reflects seafaring lingo, but not in a way that feels forced. With a bounty of seafood, farm-fresh produce year round and even local spirits, the Ritz felt that it made sense to go local www.cheersonline.com

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