Made Restaurant - Sarasota, FL

 

We spent the day in Sarasota again yesterday and discovered a great restaurant!  Made (short for Modern. American. Delicious. Eats.) takes a gourmet spin on typical comfort foods.  It was voted Best New Restaurant and Best Chef in Sarasota Magazine. 

 

 

It is located in the heart of downtown Sarasota on Main Street.  The weather yesterday was nice and cool, so we dined on their patio.  We were brought food and drink menus (the menus were tattered and creased, but all of the dishes sounded amazing!)

 

I tried their Cucumber Collins – with vodka, muddled cucumbers, lemon juice, simple syrup, and club soda.  It was refreshing and infused with extreme cucumber flavor. 

 

We started off with their Pork on Pork on Pork Mac-n-Cheese – made with Parmesan and gruyere cream sauce, roasted pork shoulder, billionaire bacon, and chorizo.  Lance kept saying that it was one of the best foods he’s ever eaten.  It was one of the best mac & cheese dishes for sure. 

 

For our entrée, we split the Double Dipped Fried ½ Chicken and Brown Butter and Billionaire Bacon Brussels Sprouts.  The chicken was buttermilk and Cholula hot sauce brined with a hot-n-honey crust and crispy herbs.  It was served with a black pepper gruyere waffle and kale (the greens were cooked with even more bacon). 

 

The crust on the fried chicken was perfectly crispy and flavorful.  The honey Cholula sauce was sweet with just a bit of spiciness.  The Brussels sprouts had a nice charred exterior and paired well with the thick chunks of bacon. 

 

The food definitely isn’t healthy for you, but it is well worth the calories.  All the comfort foods and obsession with bacon reminded me of the menu at Datz. 

At the end of the meal, we were told about the desserts (which we of course didn't have any room for this time).  Their bourbon pecan pie à la mode did sound pretty decadent though.  We were brought "the damage" in an envelope.  

 

If you can’t make it to Sarasota, you can attempt their Double Dipped Fried Chicken yourself with this recipe. 

Made is located at 1990 Main St #112, Sarasota, FL 34236 and is open 11:30am – 2:30pm for lunch then 4:30pm – 10pm for dinner Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30am – 12am Friday, 5pm – 12am Saturday, and 10am – 3pm on Sunday. 

Bucket’s Grill – Tampa, FL

 

We tried to go to Bucket’s Grill about a week ago, but since it’s right down the street from MacDill Air Force Base and the President was in town, it was impossible to drive the couple blocks to get to it.  Tonight it took us barely 2 minutes to get there. 

They opened in July, and all the reviews I’ve read have given them praise.  They only have 2 Yelp reviews so far (both 5’s), but their facebook page has 50 reviews, 43 of them rating it 5 stars, and the rest giving the restaurant 4 stars.  Plus, I read a review on the blog SOG City Oracle (SOG meaning South of Gandy), which called it a “South Tampa Bucket of Goodness”. 

Bucket’s specializes in comfort food and the prices are incredibly reasonable.  Tonight was pretty quiet, with maybe half a dozen other people in the restaurant (it was a rainy weeknight though). 

While there are some healthier options on the menu like grilled fish, a black bean burger, and salads, there is also a "Cardiac Burger" which includes 2 Angus burger patties, bacon, fried egg, and onion rings topped with lots of cheese (with an appropriate price of $9.11 – which may be the phone number called after the heart attack caused by the burger...)

We went for some of the less-healthy options, including Kai’s Mac and Cheese Bites, Q.T.W. Sweet Potato Waffle Fries, and the Jack-N-Jack (flapjacks with Jack Daniel’s whiskey maple syrup served with shredded Cuban pork).  

The Mac and Cheese bites were made with pepper jack so they had a little kick of spice.  The sweet potato fries were some of the best I’ve had – Lance said they reminded him of food at the State Fair.  The brown sugar coating almost made them taste like churros. 

The pancakes were an interesting combination – like a twist on the popular chicken & waffles.  They were very generous with the pork – it was both on top and in between all the flapjack layers.  Although I’ve never had pork with pancakes before, it was a perfect sweet & salty mix once topped with the boozy syrup. 

Our meal including 2 beers only came to $22 after tax.  Nothing fancy, but a very enjoyable meal.  I’m sure we’ll go back again, especially now that we know that they have $0.49 Wing Mondays and $1 Taco Tuesdays. 

Bucket’s Grill is located at 6231 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611 and is open 11am – 11pm every day.