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Archive for June, 2005
In the Swing
I had been meaning to review Calusa Lakes, a semi-private golf club in nearby Nokomis, for some time. Some fishing buddies, who also travel around playing different courses, had told me "The Lakes" is very "player-friendly," and I was curious to see whether this was true or not and why. Well, now having visited, I [...]
Read More >>Street Talk
Hot Seat Roger Birkel is the new director of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens-an interesting change from his last job as director of the Baltimore Zoo. Originally from St. Louis, where he got his start in zoos beginning at the bottom, Birkel comes across as smart, open and at times, very funny. He may be exactly [...]
Read More >>Gunning for Jane
Jane Fonda’s back, and I’m worried about her. I’m not quite sure she understands the depth of feeling people have about her. To many she remains a wartime traitor. And even to her admirers she’s far from perfect-hectoring, humorless, the archetype of the silly actress who gets in over her head. With all these strong [...]
Read More >>Homefront
MOVE OVER, MICHELANGELO Sarasota ceilings-and walls, and more-are getting the Sistine treatment thanks to the partnership of an Italian fresco studio and its Sarasota spin-off, Design O’Fresco. The studio’s Palm Avenue showroom sells original wall hangings in addition to specializing in custom fresco and Venetian plaster designs for the home. All the materials are imported, [...]
Read More >>Real Estate Go$$ip
Neighborhood Watch SITTING ON SAN REMO ESTATES Spanning the gap between mainland Sarasota and north Siesta Key, the quietly exclusive waterfront enclave of San Remo Estates boasts gleaming stucco houses, many of them redos of original homes dating back to the 1950s. Fashionably west of the Trail, San Remo is bounded on the west by [...]
Read More >>Top Docs
Forget beachfront property or downtown real estate; the most valuable commodities in the world are time and health, and they can depend on each other. It takes time to find the right physician, and the problem is exacerbated in Sarasota, where seasonal visitors and newcomers may not have established a relationship with a doctor when [...]
Read More >>Critical Mass
When Sarasota resident Shirley Darling was a little girl, her mother made her sleep without a pillow to keep her posture arrow straight. "She was always telling me and my brother to sit up," recalls the 80-year-old former nurse. So when Darling noticed her spine starting to curve about eight years ago, she headed straight [...]
Read More >>Focus on Flavor
Bob’s Place, a small, unassuming hangout on Central Avenue, serves good, no-frills meals in a storefront setting full of framed circus photographs. But on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, Bob’s magically morphs into Ray’s, an intimate café of candlelight and decorous drapes where the chef serves a fixed-price supper of four courses for $34. He [...]
Read More >>Car Guys
Sarasota is home to a unique group of auto enthusiasts who share a passion for everything high-performance. The group calls itself the Café Racers and gets together twice a month at lunch to talk about cars. Participants cross all socioeconomic and cultural lines, and interest levels run the gamut from hot rods and racing to [...]
Read More >>Million-Dollar Babies
This year’s Parade of Homes, produced by the Home Builders Associations of Sarasota and Manatee counties, offered fewer homes than last year for the public to tour but more than made up for it by unlocking the doors to no less than 24 model residences that sell for more than $1 million. The top priced [...]
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