Pops Sunset Grill and Triple Tail Seafood and Spirits at the Savor Sarasota Media Kickoff. Photo by Rod Millington.

There is a common misconception about Sarasota: That come summertime, when our winter residents have migrated north and the temperatures hover in the low-90s, that everything comes to a screeching halt and suddenly, come June, the world on the Gulf Coast stops spinning. While that notion is grounded in some sense of reality, in 2025, it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“It’s hard for people who have lived here for 5-10 years to remember what it was like 20 years ago, but Sarasota really slowed down for the summer,” says Erin Duggan, president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County. “Around 2004, we had a bunch of restaurants contact us saying, ‘Miami has a restaurant week, D.C. has a restaurant week, why are we doing something in Sarasota County?’”

And so Duggan and the team at Visit Sarasota County got to work. In 2005, the organization launched the first iteration of Savor Sarasota, a month-long celebration featuring specialty menus from local restaurants across the board. This June, Savor Sarasota is celebrating its 20th anniversary, in which over 50 restaurants throughout Sarasota County will feature multi-course meals from June 1-20. Participating restaurants must be a member of Visit Sarasota County—which provides them with year-round exposure for tourism, Duggan notes—and have to feature a two course lunch menu for $25 and a three course dinner menu for $45. “As a resident, it inspires me to try something that I’ve never tried before. Yes, I’m still going to go to Michael’s On East, but I’m also going to look at the menus and try new places,” says Duggan. “That’s ultimately why the restaurants participate in this—they want residents to be exposed to all of the wonderful offerings we have here.”

This June, Savor Sarasota has a new wrinkle to it. While the Visit Sarasota website has listings of restaurants and their menus by neighborhood and biographies of the chefs, it also features the Savor Sarasota Flavor Trail—a new, app-less mobile experience through which participants can explore the varying menus and check in when dining at participating restaurants. The top three diners with the most check ins between June 1-20 will be awarded prizes, which include gift cards to local restaurants. The 20th anniversary of Savor Sarasota is a testament to the fact that when the dog days of summer come, life in Sarasota is anything but slow.

Savor Sarasota, June 1-20, lunch for $25 per person and dinner for $45 for person.

Pops Sunset Grill and Triple Tail Seafood and Spirits at the Savor Sarasota Media Kickoff. Photo by Rod Millington.

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