Wow! The expansive water views! The beautiful sunsets! And the history behind the pier. We visited in the daytime and in the evening.

There is a new restaurant at the end of the Anna Maria city pier, recently opened after having extensive repairs due to damage from hurricane Irma in 2017. The new “Anna Maria City Pier Grille & Bait Shop” as it is now called is definitely NOT as good as the original. I went there today for a beer and two hotdogs, and it took them 20 minutes to serve me. The beers are a bit small size and the top inch and a half of mine was foam. Kind of felt like a rip off right from the start. Anyway, I ordered the two dogs and a beer. After 20 minutes what they handed me was two huge Styrofoam to-go boxes, each containing a hotdog, a handful of chips, and a spoonful of coleslaw. I said, “these are just for me, I don’t need two huge boxes” and also told them that they never told me it was a full meal, as I would never have ordered two of those. All I ordered was “two hotdogs and a beer”. The woman, I’m assuming was the manager, as the other workers were young kids, was very matter-of-fact and shut the window in my face. Someone told me they just opened a few days ago, and I can tell you from having been in this position, you do not want to start out on the wrong foot by being rude to your customers. I was all set today to write a great review of this new restaurant, they used to be a favorite of mine and my family. Instead, I am writing this due to the RUDE treatment and the ridiculous amount of food they handed me, being just one person. I did not even have a place to set these two huge styrofoam boxes as it was windy, and one blew down and across the pier. I don’t think I will be returning until they get their act together.

We visited the pier which has been re-built after a hurricane. It’s so nice. Great views, fun to watch fishing. The snack bar has excellent food which was a very pleasant surprise and the pier has the cleanest public bathrooms! Not kidding.

There was a farmers market across the street on Tuesdays. Extra benefit!