SRQ DAILY Jul 7, 2020
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"Resiliency is taking a moment of mindfulness and using it to look fear straight in the eye."
As is my custom, I scoured the menu for b-sides, those interesting dishes buried deep in a menu that hardly ever get ordered because they are preceded by safer choices. At Yummy House, like many Chinese restaurants, the offerings are so vast that nearly everything is a b-side. But, perhaps on account of the recent headlines coming out of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Style Roasted Duck caught my eye. Vaguely familiar with the distinction between Peking and Cantonese variations of roasted duck, the appearance of a third Chinese duck roast intrigued.
The problem is that Yummy House ran out of duck. “It’s been really hard to get our hands on it lately,” says Dan Hasty, manager of the Tamiami Trail eatery. He also says the price has gone up 30 percent, something to do with hiccups in the supply chain. Thanks, COVID-19. But Hasty had a better idea. He recommended I try an assortment of dim sum. Dim sum is part of a Cantonese tea brunch called yum cha that includes an assortment of small bites both savory and sweet designed to be shared family-style. Yummy House, when indoor seating is allowed, offers their vast menu of dim sum bites on a rolling cart, teasing diners with precious, golden-baked and breaded morsels as they dine on entrees of meat and rice.
Always a sucker for the meat and wheat combination, I went home with honey glazed BBQ buns, baked pineapple buns, Shanghai-style dumplings and BBQ pork puffs. The BBQ buns were like freshly baked Hawaiian sweet rolls stuffed with diced pork in a red sauce. With all the charm of a Cuban pastelito, the pork puff pastry offers a nice, flaky crunch to go along with its savory filling. Not quite exploding with broth like versions celebrated on TV, the Shanghai-style dumplings nonetheless provide the kind of simple, filling bite that nourishes the soul. The pineapple buns are a disaster for someone trying to cut calories from their diet. Stuffed with a sweet custard akin to Boston cream, these delights are best left for last.
They ran out of duck, but when life gives you lemons, you order dim sum. To-go orders can be placed from the Yummy House website Monday through Sunday, 11:00am-2:15pm for lunch and 5:00pm-9:00pm for dinner. 
Yummy House China Bistro, 1737 S Tamiami Trail, 941-351-1688 Pictured: From left to right: honey glazed BBQ buns, Shanghai-style dumplings, BBQ pork puffs, and baked pineapple buns. Photo by Andrew Fabian.
Throw the backyard picnic party everyone will be talking about this summer. With easy-to-order prepared meals, your neighborhood Metro Diner has your spread covered with their filling Family Value Combos that feed up to four and their weekly Fish Fry Friday special, one bite and you’ll be hooked. Their four Family Value Combos featured below each include a garden salad and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies: Chicken Tenders with seasoned fries and coleslaw ($39), Fried Chicken with creamy mashed potatoes & gravy and green beans ($44), Iron City Meatloaf with creamy mashed potatoes & gravy and green beans ($44), Roasted Turkey with creamy mashed potatoes + gravy, cranberry sauce and French-style green beans ($44)
When guests catch the craving every Friday and bite into their Fried Fish Platter, they will enjoy two flaky fillets of wild caught North Atlantic cod, beer battered and fried to crispy perfection, served with creamy tartar sauce, coleslaw, seasoned fries and a garden salad for only $11.99. Make it a sandwich with fries and a pickle for $9.99.
Metro Diner’s Family Value Combos and Fish Fry are available for pick-up and delivery via UberEats and DoorDash. Guests can also enjoy their traditional menu (including Fish Fry Friday) safely for dine-in service as their reopened locations adhere to all CDC and local government guidelines.
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles returns to the Van Wezel by popular demand on Sunday, May 9, 2021 at 7pm, delivering a note-for-note experience that brings all the greatest Beatles hits to life. Don’t miss the mind-blowing theatrical event that takes you back in time and was hailed by the Associated Press as “the next best thing to seeing The Beatles!” Performing together longer than the Beatles themselves, RAIN delivers your favorite hits with the nuance of the legendary group live on stage. Single tickets go on sale this Friday, July 10, 2020 at 10am. Subscription packages and several single ticket shows are on sale now.
941-263-6799
Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive $50,000 in direct funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The NEA recommended 855 arts organizations – in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico – to receive a total of $44.5 million in non-matching funds to support staff salaries, fees for artists or contractual personnel, and facilities costs. WBTT was one of 33 grantees in Florida.
Grants of $50,000 have been offered to 846 organizations while nine local arts agencies will receive $250,000 each to further award to arts organizations in their area. The National Endowment for the Arts received more than 3,100 eligible applications requesting $157 million for the $45 million available in direct assistance. To review the applications, the agency used more than 200 application readers and panelists to review and score each application using the published review criteria.
“As our stages continue to be dark due to the coronavirus pandemic, and revenues have gone to basically zero, this financial support will be critical in helping us to keep our staff and vendors paid and our facilities attended to,” said WBTT Executive Director Julie Leach. “We are grateful for the CARES Act funding, and appreciative of the careful consideration of the NEA. We will put these funds to good use.”
Pictured: WBTT leaders during a January 2020 informal celebration of the first show in the organization's new theater: (from left to right) capital campaign chair (current board chair) Doris Johnson, board chair (now past chair) Marian Moss, founder and a
The Board of Directors of Gulf Coast Community Foundation has elected Rod Hershberger as Chair and David Green as Vice Chair for a one-year term as officers. The Board also reelected Anne Essner, Tracy Knight, and Susan Sofia to three-year terms as directors. All Gulf Coast Board terms began on July 1. Hershberger is the co-founder of North Venice-based PGT Innovations, from which he retired as CEO at the end of 2017, and currently serves as its non-employee Chairman of the Board. He also volunteers his leadership extensively in the region. Hershberger is a Trustee of Mote Marine Laboratory, a past president of the Argus Foundation, and he served as co-chair of the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Sarasota.
Green, who joined the Gulf Coast Board along with Hershberger in 2018, spent his 45-year career in marketing and branding with major international consumer brands. For 30 years, he worked for McDonald’s Corporation, most recently as its senior global marketing officer. In addition to Gulf Coast, Green serves on the boards of The Hermitage Artist Retreat and Sarasota Orchestra.
Pictured: Rod Hershberger, Board Chair, Gulf Coast Community Foundation
As the coronavirus pandemic lingers, area nonprofit organization Goodwill Manasota (GIM) has 55,000 masks available for distribution throughout the community, in order to continue to help protect the health of shoppers and team members. All who are in need can receive a mask at any GIM retail store or select mission program location, including its Veterans Services Program office and Job Connection offices at its corporate campus and Selby/Newtown locations. Goodwill Manasota received 32,000 masks from the Manatee County Health Department, 22,500 from the Sarasota County Health Department, and 500 from the DeSoto County Health Department.
GIM has been providing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to its team members at all donation sites as well as in retail stores since reopening on May 4, when the statewide stay-at-home order ended, and will now be able to give away the masks for as long as supplies last. Goodwill developed and is adhering to a rigorous COVID-19 Response Plan that addresses social distancing and awareness, cleaning and sanitizing procedures, team member health protocols, and safe operating policies. The organization operates 16 retail stores, including two Bargain Barns and two bookstores as well as several dedicated mission program offices in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties.
Manatee County officials will go over details on when and how to apply for millions of dollars in Manatee CARES Act funds during two virtual meetings this week. The first meeting, Thursday, July 9 at 9am is for local small business owners (15 or fewer employees) who experienced financial losses attributable to the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine period. CARES Act funds will be available for one-time capital investments to assist with expenses such as: sanitation, safety and COVID-19 PPE; improved signage and marketing; outdoor seating and renovations to comply with social distancing; inventory, equipment, supplies and software. The second meeting, Friday, July 10 at 9am. is for non-profit agencies, hospitals, medical, mental health and substance abuse providers to learn how to apply for CARES funding that can go toward expanded COVID-19 testing, antibodies testing and contact tracing, training to ensure effective COVID-19 disinfecting and sanitizing practices, personal protective equipment (PPE) and more.
Full details and Zoom meeting links are listed at www.mymanatee.org/ManateeCares.
At Mallory Park, DiVosta’s family-friendly, coastal inspired Lakewood Ranch community, homebuyers can take advantage of limited-time, unprecedented savings on options toward building and customizing their new dream home and toward closing and other costs. With 21 home designs to choose from, buyers can select from townhomes with up to $17,000 in total savings; manor homes with up to $28,000 in total savings; estate homes with up to $19,000 in total savings, and up to $35,000 in total savings on premier series homes. Offer applies to select homesites within each series. These special savings last through Sunday, July 12, and can be taken advantage of by calling or texting 941-213-8512, or visiting www.DiVosta.com/Mallory Park. “Residents rave about the lifestyle they enjoy at Mallory Park,” said Josh Graeve, vice president of sales for PulteGroup’s Southwest Florida Division. “Everything they need is nearby – from the community’s amenities and activities, to local parks, shopping and dining.”
Call or text 941-213-8512.
The Central West Coast Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (CWC-FPRA) is hosting its monthly professional networking session virtually with Mimi Cirbusova. “An Avalanche of Ideas: Getting the Most Out of Brainstorming” will highlight methods to create new, fun and effective brainstorming sessions with teams in person or virtually. Cirbusova believes that everyone is creative and is passionate about helping others discover their creative superpowers. As the Membership Manager for Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and Co-Founder of Compass Rose History Experiences, Cirbusova uses her skills in ideation and implementation to breathe life into big ideas.
Cirbusova trained at the Creative Problem-Solving Institute and is a past President for the IGNITE Creativity Club at the University of South Florida. She served as the Conference Logistics and Social Media Coordinator for the Florida Creativity Weekend for two years and has extensive training in the Parnes-Osborne model of Creative Problem Solving. The event will be held on Wednesday, July 15, at 12:30pm via Zoom with the specifics provided once guests register. Tickets for the program are free for FPRA members and $10 for guests.
SMH held a Zoom interview today with Dr. James Fiorica, Chief Medical Officer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and Dr. Kirk Voelker, a critical care intensivist and medical director of Clinical Research at SMH, to answer questions about rising cases of COVID-19 in the community, hospital/ICU capacity and the challenges of obtaining convalescent plasma and remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients in our community. A link to the interview is below.
Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, today announced that the Hermitage has exceeded its $150,000 matching challenge, raising a total of $302,000 through this campaign in response to COVID-19. This spring fundraising initiative launched with a generous $100,000 pledge from the Manasota Key-based Cook family on April 7th to match every gift dollar-to-dollar through June 30. The original $100,000 challenge was met in just four weeks, and an additional group of Hermitage supporters contributed $50,000 to extend the match. On Tuesday, June 30, the Hermitage surpassed its goal. “We cannot express our gratitude enough to everyone who helped us reach this milestone,” Sandberg stated. “I must recognize that this campaign was supported generously by all members of our community: our Hermitage Fellows and artists, our audiences, our longtime supporters, our artistic colleagues, the community foundations, our board of trustees, our staff, our volunteers, and many new champions of the Hermitage.”
Join SCD for an immersive, virtual summer program taught by Sarasota Contemporary Dance company members and nationally known guest artists. This week-long intensive includes Contemporary, Urban Technique, Dance for Camera, SCD Repertory, and Emerging Choreographer rehearsals. Classes will be taught via Zoom and there will be a live streamed participant performance July 25th. This program promises the same rigor and heart as their traditional intensive while prioritizing the health and safety of the communities near and far.
Sarasota Contemporary Dance, 1400 Boulevard of the Arts
Introducing Asolo Rep Young Artist: Online Classes, designed for ages 8-18. From demystifying Shakespeare to exploring innovative ways of creating theatre together, these classes will spark your young artist’s imagination and help to hone their theatrical technique. See below to find out more about the exciting content and amazing professional artists who will be leading these classes. Classes are $50 to $75 to register. Contact Asolo Rep Education & Engagement Department: education@asolo.org
Online Program.
Insects inhabit every domain of our daily lives, performing essential functions that balance our fragile ecosystem on Earth — functions that often go unnoticed because of their small size or scale. Now, using cutting-edge technology and custom methods that put tiny insects on a human scale, artist and photographer Bob Sober allows visitors to see the patterns, textures, colors and details that have always been present, but too small to appreciate in The Bishop’s newest special exhibition: Small Wonders: Insects in Focus.
Creating human-scale images of insects, with resolution so high that every hair, dimple and tiny structure is clearly revealed, was impossible prior to the technological advancements of the past 10 years. Now, Sober’s skills allow us to see the intersection of natural science and art in the smooth metallic finishes and heavily stippled textures, strange body shapes, delicate wing structures and beautifully engineered body components in this series of 30 images that will are on display in the Museum’s second-floor Rincon Gallery and throughout the Museum.
Small Wonders: Insects in Focus features 30 of Sober’s spectacular images and viewers will find themselves at the intersection of art and science. The exhibition, which is included in the cost of admission, is organized by ExhibitsUSA, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance and will be open at The Bishop through October 20.
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, 201 10th St. W, Bradenton
Summer Camp will be virtual this year from June 15 to August 7, 2020! We have decided for the health and safety of our teachers and campers that we will host camp virtually. Camp hours: 10am – 3pm. Cost: $75 for members | $100 for non-members (youth membership is $25) for one week. Space is limited please register for the weeks that your child is interested in.
The Creative Kids Summer Camp is for ages 6-9 years old. The Emerging Artists Summer Camp is for ages 10-13 years old. Contemporary Studies Summer Camp is for ages 14-18.
A Supply List will be sent to parents a few weeks before the camp week starts. The supply lists contain basic materials that your camper will be able to use more than once and where to find them. The camp project packet will be downloadable, for printing at home, on the Friday before the camp week starts and contains the projects for the next week. A printed version of the Camp project packet will be available upon request for pickup at the Art Center the Friday before camp from 10-2pm.
Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota
Join us on Thursday, July 9th for this month's YPG After Hours! Whether you're looking to make new friends, build your network, or learn more about what Sarasota has to offer, this is a great opportunity to connect with other young professionals in the region. Along with drink specials, enjoy appetizing lite bites for the duration of the event.
Art Ovation Hotel, 1255 N. Palm Avenue, Sarasota
Florida Studio Theatre is pleased to announce that it will present an online improv festival the same weekend its annual Sarasota Improv Festival was slated to take place: Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12. Held completely online, this Festival features workshops, shows, and interviews with established improvisers from around the world, including Joe Bill (a founding member of Chicago’s Annoyance Theater), Craig Cackowski (Quartet, Orange Tuxedo), and Gael Perry (French improv troupe, La Carpe Haute). Shows and interviews can be accessed for free on the Sarasota Improv Festival’s Facebook page. Workshops will be conducted over Zoom and cost $30 each. To register for workshops, visit floridastudiotheatre.org or call FST’s Box Office at 941-366-9000.
A Zoom Workshop will be offered Tuesdays at 6:00 pm on July 28, August 4, August 11, August 18. Led by store owner, Georgia Court, this is a chance to give poetry writing a try. They will be using Ted Kooser’s The Poetry Home Repair Manual as a guide. As a bonus, two experienced and well-published poets, Phil Terman and Rick Hilles, will be making guest appearances. A fee of $30 is required for participation. This includes a copy of The Poetry Home Repair Manual and all four sessions.
Bookstore1
Glass Artists from the Duncan McClellan Gallery in the Conservatory and the Gardens. Selby Gardens and the Duncan McClellan Gallery (DMG) in St. Petersburg presents the third annual summer glass show. This year we are featuring the nature-inspired glasswork created exclusively by Duncan McClellan and his studio artists which will be displayed in the Conservatory and in the Gardens against a backdrop of lush flowers and plants. The beautiful botanically-themed glassworks will be for sale with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Selby Gardens’ mission.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Downtown Sarasota, 900 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236
Paint along with Carolyn, working freestyle in watercolor – allowing the colors to flow freely using a large brush and finishing with an impressionistic study of florals. Instructor: Carolyn Merenda. Class Fee: $70 (Members $55).
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Downtown Sarasota, 900 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236
We are excited to announce that Selby Gardens will celebrate 40 years of the annual juried photographic exhibition and sale with a virtual edition hosted in partnership with The Observer Group! The virtual exhibition will be viewable August 27 to September 20 on Selby.org and YourObserver.com. As we pivoted to the virtual photographic exhibition format, we adjusted the photo submission deadlines and details as well as the dates of the exhibition. Please review and mark your calendar with the new dates below: Online Photo Submissions: Sunday, August 9 to Friday, August 14. Winners Announced: Thursday, August 27. Virtual Exhibition: Thursday, August 27 to Sunday, September 20. To minimize person-to-person contact, photos must be submitted digitally. Please stay tuned for more step-by-step details on how to submit your photos. Entry is open to all amateurs, but photos must have been taken at either Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota or Historic Spanish Point campuses. Please refer to the entry details below for more information.
Selby's Museum of Botany & the Arts, 900 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236
Join Historic Spanish Point for incredible stories on the artists that shaped and influenced history around the world. We are proud to offer this art lecture series with Baila Miller as part of our monthly programming. Baila’s unique storytelling presentations will connect you to the art world in a whole new way. All presentations take place at Historic Spanish Point’s Visitor Center Classrooms. Tickets: $15 for Historic Spanish Point members and $20 for future members.
Historic Spanish Point's Visitor Center Classrooms, 337 N Tamiami Trail, Osprey, FL 34229
Ultra-white sand beaches and magnificent sunsets have long defined our region, but just nine miles east of I-75 you’ll find an environment just as alluring, exotic and primal at the Myakka River State Park. For more than 20 years, Clyde Butcher has explored the deeper regions of Myakka and spent seasons experiencing its changes and its diverse ecosystems. Designated as a Florida Wild and Scenic River, the tannic waters flow through bottomland swamp and freshwater marsh spilling into lakes and sinkholes. Alligators, turtles and cottonmouths swim in the river. Herons, cranes and limpkins strut through its shallows, feeding in the muck. In the rainy season, the river rises and floods. In the dry months, the river shrinks and wildlife once again lines the banks of the Myakka River. Myakka River: A Florida Treasure features large-format, amazing photographs taken by world-renowned landscape photographer Clyde Butcher, known as the “Ansel Adams of Florida.” The special exhibition will remain open through September 6, 2020. Visiting is included in the price of admission.
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, 201 10th St. W, Bradenton
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