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BRADENTON, FL — A new Chick-fil-A restaurant opened its doors in the Bradenton area on Thursday.

The new Bayshore Gardens location at 6010 14th Street W. created about 130 jobs in the area, according to a news release.

The franchise, owned by local owner-operator Nathan Anderson, is the fourth Chick-fil-A in Manatee County. The others are at 4311 Manatee Ave. W., 5206 73rd Lane E. and 4573 14th Street W., all in Bradenton.

The latest Chick-fil-A is open Monday through Saturday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the drive-thru remaining open until 10 p.m. It offers customers dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out, delivery and catering options.

"Our goal at Chick-fil-A Bayshore Gardens is to do more than serve great food—we want to create opportunities for our leaders to grow and make a difference," Anderson said. "My family and I are honored to serve Bradenton and build a restaurant where Guests, Team Members, and the community feel valued and supported."

A Florida native, Anderson transitioned from retail operations to Chick-fil-A in 2015 because he was drawn to the restaurant company’s hospitality and community focus, the news release said.

He served as a local owner-operator in Colorado for nearly a decade before returning to Florida with his family and his entire leadership team and their families.

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Both he and his wife, Jessica, a retired teacher, are passionate about mentoring young leaders in the community.

Anderson plans to give back to the Bradenton community through the Chick-fil-A Shared Table program, which gives surplus food to local nonprofits and has helped to create over 35 million meals nationwide to date.

To celebrate the location’s opening, Chick-fil-A, Inc. also made a $25,000 donation to Feeding America to support local hunger relief efforts.

Anderson also recognized 100 local heroes making a difference in the Bradenton community by offering them free Chick-fil-A meals for a year.

Those interested in job opportunities at the new Bayshore Gardens location should go online here.

The Rod & Reel Pier is reopening its iconic restaurant on Anna Maria Island after suffering catastrophic hurricane damage — but it’s in a new location.

Oliver Lemke, who bought the restaurant and Manatee County landmark a year before Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton destroyed it, said he’s planning to revive Rod & Reel at 3246 E. Bay Drive in Holmes Beach.

Lemke has not revealed an opening date for the restaurant’s new location at the previous home of the Old Hamburg Schnitzelhaus restaurant, which closed in November.

“What we’ve got planned in this new location is to give people the same that they had on the pier, minus the pier, obviously,” Lemke said. “We don’t have the water. We don’t have the old building. But everything else, interior, is going to be very similar. And the staff will be the same, and the food and beer and drinks will be the same.”

Meanwhile, Lemke said he’s working to rebuild the pier on the north end of Anna Maria Island. Part of that process was starting a GoFundMe in October following Helene. As of Wednesday afternoon, Lemke has raised nearly $100,000 of the $300,000 goal.

Both numbers are far from the estimated amount needed to rebuild the pier after Milton caused further damage.

“I can’t tell you (any) numbers at this point of time, but it’s going to be far more than those $300,000,” Lemke said. “We’re talking about millions. And obviously that (fundraiser) is going to bring just a little bit of what we need. And, unfortunately, we do not get government help. There was no insurance, because a building like that will not be insured by anybody.”

Lemke said he is using the GoFundMe fundraising effort, bank loans and revenue from restaurants he owns in Germany to bring back the pier.

“We’re determined to rebuild the Rod and Reel Pier, but we can’t do it alone,” the online fundraiser said.

Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short said everybody wants to see the famous Rod & Reel Pier return.

“It’s iconic,” Short said. “You think of the island and that, our city pier and Bridge Street. I mean, that’s all you have on the whole island now of something that even resembles what used to be out here. And so people want it back, and I want to see it come back.”

But first, Lemke will need to clear several hurdles. In addition to raising enough money to rebuild the pier, Lemke will need permits from agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers and theFlorida Department of Environmental Protection.

“Because their project is over open water, so they need to get those permits and those approvals to rebuild their pier first,” Short said.

Short said studies from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission might be needed, too.

“There will be a process they have to run first with those agencies to get them to sign off and give them the green light to rebuild their pier,” Short said. “Then once all of that is done, then they would come to the city for the appropriate permitting permits that they would need from the city’s perspective.”

The city’s process would not require special commission approval — it would just be a normal construction project through the Anna Maria building department, Short said.

Lemke said they have already started the permitting process and they’re going to do something about repairing the sea wall.

Lemke said he hasn’t heard anything that would make rebuilding the Rod & Reel Pier impossible.

“I just cannot say right now when that’s gonna be the case,” Lemke said. “It’s not an if, it’s a when.”

While an exact timetable is unknown for rebuilding the original Rod & Reel Pier location, the Anna Maria City Pier’s rebuild, which was also damaged by Helene and Milton, is scheduled to begin as soon as this fall.

A huge swath of the walkway connecting the city pier building and Mote Marine Science Education and Outreach Center with the mainland went missing after Helene’s storm surge weakened the pier for Milton to destroy the rest, Short said at the Anna Maria City Commission meeting on March 27.

Short said the city received permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in early January.

Short said the city commission will vote this week on whether to approve “a vendor to demolish what’s still in the water that needs to be removed.” He added that city officials will seek to rebuild the walkway in the meantime.

Meanwhile, hurricane season begins June 1.

“We are crossing our fingers that (hurricane season) doesn’t just throw a monkey wrench into everything,” Short said.

The first time Joey Bennett visited Monk’s Steamer Bar, a longtime staple in Sarasota’s Gulf Gate neighborhood, he was transported to childhood memories on the Jersey Shore.

“To get fresh clams and oysters and all that,” said Bennett, a Toms River, New Jersey native. “I remember going to the beach with my dad on Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach, they had those little buildout, outdoor bars right there where you walk up and order a dozen of this and a dozen of that.”

Bennett’s wife, Jaimie, was the catalyst for the visit, which stuck with him as he rebranded the building at 313 Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton into a new restaurant.

On May 20, Shuck It Raw Bar and Steamer House opened. The restaurant features oysters by the dozen in various styles, while also serving mussels, shrimp, crawfish, clams, cocktails and side dishes.

“I just wanted something really basic and to the point,” Bennett said of the restaurant’s name. “Something funny, catchy.”

Bennett said the oysters have been popular so far. They have a variety option called the “shuckcuterie,” where customers get three each of the four oyster styles (Raw, Parmesan, Buffalo and Rockefeller).

Inside the restaurant, which seats 75 indoors and 65 outdoors, a sign next to the bar reads, “Down to Shuck.” The signature cocktails utilize wordplay, too, with the Shuckaloma — a play on the Paloma cocktail — and Oyster Shucker as popular drinks so far.

Bennett said they infuse the alcohol in-house for the drinks.

Bennett, who moved to Bradenton in 2013 and previously worked as a bartender, also owns the following Old Main Street establishments: the Brown Bag, Pour Decisions and Craftails Speakeasy.

Before opening Shuck It, Bennett bought the space, previously home to the Old Main Pub, and “reinvented it as an island bar” called the Bamboozer Bar and Grill, the Herald previously reported. He shuttered the Bamboozer in June 2024.

“We closed it down out of kindness for the City (of Bradenton),” Bennett said. “The City didn’t like where the clientele was heading.”

Bennett said he knew he had to do a restaurant for the growth of Bradenton.

“Monk’s (has) been around for over 35 years, so they’re doing something right,” Bennett said. “And to me, that’s the most fresh seafood you can have. You’re not frying it. You’re literally steaming it or eating it raw.

“None of that is fried on our menu,” he added.

To maintain freshness, the restaurant receives seafood deliveries three times a week. Fruit is cut fresh for drinks, and side dishes such as jalapeno cheddar cornbread, mac and cheese, cheesecake bites and smoked sausage are prepared in-house.

The restaurant maintains a nautical theme throughout. Some of Bennett’s friends donated crab box traps and fishing nets that appear inside. They were cleaned and repurposed for Shuck It’s decor.

Shuck It is closed on Mondays. They are open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The restaurant is open 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays, 12 p.m. to midnight on Saturdays and 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — A tiny bottle with a message inside traveled from Hawaii in ocean currents before being washed ashore in Bradenton Beach on Sunday and found by a girl visiting from Michigan.

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“It was in this tiny little glass bottle with cute little origami birds,” said Paris Hoisington, 31. “She was so surprised. Came running right towards me on the beach.”

Hoisington said it’s every kid’s dream to find a message in a bottle at the beach. Her daughter, Josie Law, 11, said at first she thought it was a piece of trash floating in the water.

“Then I saw the note inside,” she said. “I was like, let me grab this. This is cool.”

The note inside the tiny bottle reads: ‘Hello people who found this, you will be happy that you found this. Why? Cause you will know me with this number.’

Hoisington said she texted the phone number and got a response.

“’My brother and I made that when I was younger,’” she said the text read. “’We actually live in Hawaii.’ And I said, ‘You’re kidding.’”

Payton Hollenbeck, 21, said she and her younger brother Elias, tossed that message in a bottle into the ocean at Kaena Point in Oahu 8 years ago. It travelled more than 4,600 miles before reaching the Florida shoreline.

“To think of how many bodies of water it went through,” said Hoisington. “It’s truly amazing what little tiny objects can go places in the world and connect to people from each other side of the world.”

The Michigan mom said the family had already planned to release 3 bottles before returning home and hope to get a response someday.

“We left our phone number on one,” Hoisington said. “We can’t wait to see what happens.”

Hollenbeck said she’s familiar with that cycle because the only reason she threw a message in a bottle into the ocean is because she had previously found one as a kid.

Looking for a place to eat around Bradenton?

Manatee County restaurants are routinely inspected by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation for health and food safety issues and cleanliness.

Florida bases its inspection standards on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code, which contains many, many possible violations.

Passing inspection without flaw is no easy feat, so we like to let our readers know which restaurants did exceptionally well during recent inspections.

Here are the local businesses that earned perfect or near-perfect health inspections from May 15 to May 23.

Casa Di Pizza, 4658 S.R. 64, Bradenton

The Cravings Palace, 2801 14th St. W. #A, Bradenton (Mobile food business) (No violations)

Fabian’s Homestyle Cookin, 2407 Eighth Ave. E., Bradenton (Food truck)

FL Sunset Scoops, 3413 Cortez Road W., Bradenton (Catering service) (No violations)

Freedom Concessions at Freedom Factory, 21050 S.R. 64, Bradenton (No violations)

Georgia Girl Soul Food And Catering, 3522 U.S. 41, Palmetto (food truck) (no violations)

Graciously Made (Catering service) (No violations)

Jays Hot Dog Carts (Catering service) (No violations)

Manatee Palms, 1128 Manatee Ave. E., Bradenton (Hotel)

Mi Pequeña Honduras, 5435 15th St. E., Bradenton (Mobile food business) (No violations)

Opita Burgers, 5303 14th St. W. Bradenton (food truck)

Piper, Edgington, Bates and Mcsorley LLC, 2215 Rip Curl Run, Palmetto (Mobile food business) (No violations)

Rocketman Korean BBQ, 5718 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton (Mobile food business) (No violations)

Slicker’s Eatery, 12012 Cortez Road W., Bradenton

Sodexo America at LECOM Park, 1611 Ninth St. W., Bradenton (No violations)

Sweet Hut Bakery Cafe, 419 Cortez Road W., Bradenton (No violations)

Sysco Foodie Truck, 3000 69th St. E., Palmetto (Food truck) (No violations)

Uncle Nick’s N.Y. Style Bagels, Subs & Deli, 5917 Manatee Ave. W. #301, Bradenton

Restaurants in Florida are licensed and routinely inspected by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Diners can report health and cleanliness issues at a restaurant anywhere in the state by filing a complaint with the agency.