Ed Chiles’s concept of utilizing regenerative and sustainable practices is integral to his Anna Maria Island restaurants.
In today’s world, sustainability and regenerative farming have become vital to many restaurants’ programs. One company, Chiles Hospitality, is a fixture in the Anna Maria Island food scene by taking these concepts and creating a story about farm to table and table to farm. It’s a cycle of life within its own culture reflected throughout Anna Maria Island restaurants.
Produce from Gamble Creek Farms. Photo Courtesy of Chiles Hospitality
Chiles Hospitality and Anna Maria Island Restaurants
It started with Florida’s natural beauty and resources and a family’s mission to farming and the sea. Lawton Chiles fulfilled that as a Florida senator and then governor. His son, Ed Chiles, continues that legacy through outstanding work adopting environmental policies in all his businesses. As a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization affiliate, he is a USF Patel College of Global Sustainability faculty member. His restaurants, Beach House, Sandbar, and Mar Vista, are the only restaurant members of the Blue Community Consortium, whose goal is to protect Florida’s oceans, coastal habitats, and marine environment.
Gamble Creek Team with Ed Chiles. Photo courtesy of Chiles Hospitality
Gamble Creek Farms
Gamble Creek Farms is a leader in the Anna Maria Island food movement. The farm, located in Parrish, sits on 26 acres. The land is certified organic. It serves as a community with sustainability as its focal point and specializes in a sustainable closed-loop growing process. The produce is fresh, organic, and local. Gamble Farms is committed to sustainable practices, which include composting, mulching, and worm casting. The goal is to reduce food waste, contributing to a healthy environment. One of the ways Gamble Farms accomplishes its goals is through permaculture.
Gamble Creek Farms services the produce at all the Anna Maria Island restaurants owned by Chiles Hospitality. They are Sandbar, Mar Vista, Beach House, and Anna Maria Bake House. When you dine at those restaurants, you enjoy the labors of love created on the Gamble Creek Farm.
Gamble Creek Farms. Photo by Cori Solomon
Permaculture Philosophy
Most of Gamble Farms’ philosophy is based on permaculture. The concept coined by Bill Mollison approaches land management and settlement design through a system that adopts arrangements observed in a flourishing ecosystem. Its basis includes the thoughtful design of plant relationships. One plant can help another. Twelve principles are the backbone of permaculture. They include the following:
- Observe and interact
- Catch and store energy
- Obtain a yield
- Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
- Produce no waste
- Use renewable resources and services
- Design from pattern to detail
- Integrate rather than segregate
- Use small and slow solutions
- Use and value diversity
- Use edges and value the marginal
- Creatively use and respond to change
From these twelve principles, the overall theory is to care for the earth, care for people, and fair share—returning the surplus to the earth and people’s care. These guidelines aim to develop sustainable and resilient systems that support biodiversity, soil health, and water conservation. The farmer creates a design for plants to interact with one another through diversity, stability, and resilience, thereby creating a balanced ecosystem that sustains itself by nurturing the plants around it.
Biodiversity and commingling at Gamble Creek Farms. Photo by Cori Solomon
Visiting Gamble Farms
A tour of Gamble Farms gave me a unique look at how permaculture works in conjunction with the farm-to-table, table-to-farm concept. Looking at the plants that comingle together on a farm plot reminded me of a jungle where the shade of a tree can help another plant. In this case, the nutrients of one plant feed another.
Every scrap from each restaurant is brought to the farm and put onto a compost pile. Eventually, the compost goes back into the field. The most interesting are the oyster shells. Oyster shells offer an ingredient that acts as a soil additive. The shells add calcium to the soil, making it more alkaline. Fortunately, the shells do not release toxic material or greenhouse gases.
The compost pile with birds at Gamble Creek Farms. Photo by Cori Solomon
In come all sorts of birds, from pelicans, seagulls, and others, and they too help break down the waste food into compost. Nothing goes to waste.
In addition, you can visit the Farm Market and purchase not only the produce grown on the farm but also the best products in the area. These include bread and pastries, milk and eggs, poultry, beef, pork and seafood, coffee, and more.
Gamble Creek Farms produce. Photo by Cori Solomon
Anna Maria Island Restaurants
Some of the most popular restaurants are those owned and run by Chiles Hospitality. Their popularity is due to their location as beachfront property and quintessentially providing the Anna Maria lifestyle with fresh, locally sourced cuisine.
Sandbar Seafood & Spirits
Probably the most popular of the Chiles Hospitality restaurants, Sandbar Seafood & Spirits promises the most spectacular sunset views while dining. When you mention Sandbar to people who visited Anna Maria Island in the past, they all comment about the fantastic food and location. Its iconic reputation since 1979 says it all.
Sandbar Seafood & Spirits. Photo courtesy of Bradenton Anna Maria Island Longboat Key
From oysters and clams to locally sourced and sustainable seafood, the cuisine is excellent and a favorite of both locals and visitors.
Clams at Sandbar Seafood & Spirits. Photo by Cori Solomon
Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub
Although it is on Longboat Key and not directly on Anna Maria Island, you must include Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub in the grouping of Anna Maria Island Restaurants.
Constructed as a residence by Rufus Jordan, who used a block-making machine to build these residences, the Mar Vista building dates back to 1912. A hurricane in 1921 destroyed most of the dwellings on the island. Mar Vista’s structure withstood the hurricane. By 1947, the property became the Pub Cocktail Lounge. It was also designated a fish camp, selling bait, tackle, and beer. In the 1980s, Chiles Hospitality purchased the property to retain its charm and history while making it another outstanding restaurant.
MarVista Dockside Restaurant & Pub. Photo courtesy of Bill Doster Photography LLC
Situated amongst the Buttonwood trees, the outdoor patio makes for a pleasant location to dine dockside. The cuisine from Chef Aaron Kulzer is fabulous. A must-try on the menu is the Tater Tots.
Tater Tots from Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub. Photo by Cori Solomon
Beach House Waterfront Restaurant
Although I did not experience this restaurant, Beach House Waterfront Restaurant has to be excellent if it is anything like Chiles Hospitality’s other restaurants. The cuisine is fresh seafood with a “clean, modern approach.” Like the Sandbar and Mar Vista, this is another oceanfront restaurant offering casual dining. The motto “Be a good steward of the environment” reverberates from the building’s construction to the food, where again, the focus is on local and sustainable products.
This restaurant pledges 1% of its annual revenue to environmental causes through the 1% for the Planet organization.
Beach House Waterfront Restaurant. Photo courtesy of Bradenton Anna Maria Island Longboat Key
Anna Maria Bake House
The Anna Maria Bake House lies within the Beach House. The Bake House is a scratch-artisan bakery that provides bread, crackers, and desserts for all the Chiles Hospitality restaurants.
Anna Maria Bakehouse bread. Photo courtesy Chiles Hospitality
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The Ed Chiles Legacy on Anna Maria Island
Ed Chiles’s concept of being a steward of the land utilizing regenerative and sustainable practices has become an Island staple you can observe when visiting and sampling the food at his Anna Maria Island restaurants. These restaurants and the Anna Maria Island food scene are tied together through Gamble Creek Farms’ farming practices.
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