Restaurants Adjusting To Changing Tastes

During a tough stretch the last few years for restaurants, chefs and owners had to figure out how to get customers in the door.

Restaurants that Patch spoke to at the fifth annual Forks and Corks Food and Wine Festival opened up about how they're doing just that.

Lynches Pub & Grub

Irish restaurant  on St. Armands Circle has been in business for 25 years, and moved to St. Armands from Longboat Key in 2003.

Ethna Lynch says heavy sauces are on their way out for now.

"They're definitely looking for a good product — a good, raw ingredient — and not fancy," she said. "We make everything from scratch at the restaurant."

You'll find your classics here, but it's the desserts by Christine Lynch that folks seem to rave about. A blueberry banana crumble was offered to Forks and Corks guests Sunday by the pub.

It's a concoction Christine and Ethna came up with years ago while on Longboat Key.

"The Irish always made their own. My mother was a great baker. She made apple pies all the time," Ethna said. "We never bought anything."

Ethna's sister Christine turned out to be the baker in the family, starting at age 7 creating loafs and and now makes "the best keylime pie," according to Ethna.

Recently the pub was approved by the Sarasota City Commission for a variance to gain a liquor license. This wasn't as much as adjuting to tastes as it is for customer demand, as Christine told the City Commission in November, as customers wondered why they couldn't order scotch at an Irish pub.

mi Pueblo

Mexican restaurant and cantina  prides itself on traditional Mexican dishes, and it found that the organic and veagan options in Mexican dishes were a natural to highlight, said Michelle Buice of mi Pueblo, as customers with special dietary needs requested more options.

"We try to incorporate fresh ingredients and we know exactly what's in our dishes," Buice said.

So the restaurant came up with some new menu items, and folks are latching onto it more as shows like "Dr. Oz" highlight more what the health impacts are of food, she said.

"At our Bee Ridge location, we're working with a local farmer (King Family Farms) who uses organic practices," Buice said.

The restaurant has Sarasota locations in Palm Plaza and University Walk, as well as a third in Venice's Brickyard Plaza. They've been open for 12 years in Sarasota and is led by head chef Bonifacio Caro.

Madfish Grill

on Cattleman Road just finished revamping its wine list to fit last week customer's purchasing patterns.

"We kind of geared more toward the more expensive bottles because the people who order bottle service trend more toward getting a nice wine instead of the more affordable ones," said Stefanie Westra. Still, house wines are still popular during happy hours for wine by the glass, she said.

The tastings are also becoming more popular, so the restaurant is offering 3-ounce pourings instead of 6-ounce pourings that are used at many restaurants, Westra said.

Customers also want more variety and smaller portions. There is higher demand for Pan-Asian seafood as well as tapas offerings.

"We do a tapas menu in the summer just to accommodate that, where people can pick three items and they're all small plates," owner Miles Milwee said.

Cafe Baci

has been open for 21 years serving authentic Italian food and over the years, people are looking for core ingredients, said Roberto Mei, president of Cafe Baci.

"They like highlighting the main ingredient more, instead of having heavy sauces on veals, you'll have a nice light sauce on veals, fish," he said. Refiner, finer foods are key, he added.

For the wine offerings, the restaurant has seen a trend toward more white wines like sauvignon blanc.

"Pinot grigio used to be our most popular wine," Mei said. "I think people appreciate lighter foods and lighter wines. Although our best wine for Italian food is a zinfadel — a nice, spiky zinfadel."