1990 → Present
AAA Four-Diamond
The only restaurant in Sarasota to hold the AAA Four-Diamond designation every consecutive year since 1990. Thirty-fifth consecutive year as of 2024.
Source · AAA
Four-Diamond dining for thirty-five consecutive years, on East Avenue.
Reserve a TableThe dining room that co-proprietors Michael Klauber and Phil Mancini opened on April 27, 1987 and have never left. Thirty-five consecutive years of the AAA Four-Diamond distinction, the only Sarasota restaurant to hold it every year since 1990, earned by a service team trained to a single instruction the proprietors have repeated since opening night.
Each guest should be treated the way they expect to be treated.
European-influenced contemporary American, sourced from local producers, Gulf fishermen, and Florida farms. Wine pairings drawn from a Best of Award of Excellence cellar of more than a thousand bottles, updated as the season and the kitchen dictate.
Two destinations inside the eight-acre bayfront campus of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. A garden-to-table dining room under floor-to-ceiling glass for an evening with the orchid conservatory and Sarasota Bay. A quick-casual café in the historic Selby home for a stop between galleries.
A working boutique cellar on South Tamiami Trail, built around the smaller vineyards and estate domains the proprietors have visited, tasted with, and developed personal relationships with over four decades. The list is deliberately narrow at the top of every region: a handful of growers each in Burgundy, Bordeaux, the Rhône, Piedmont, Tuscany, and the Loire, plus a careful Champagne bench and a deep Napa file.
Not so much a wine list as an invitation into the proprietors' own table.
Walking in opens the same allocations poured at the dining room, the same allocations set aside for friends. Profiled by Sarasota Magazine as a wine impresario, the cellar holds Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence, the publication's highest tier short of the Grand Award.
Four-Diamond. Thirty-five consecutive years.
A handful of the awards that have lived on the room's walls since the early 1990s. Each is independently audited and renewed annually.
The only restaurant in Sarasota to hold the AAA Four-Diamond designation every consecutive year since 1990. Thirty-fifth consecutive year as of 2024.
One of only ten restaurants in the United States inducted into Nation's Restaurant News' Fine Dining Hall of Fame.
The cellar has earned Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence over multiple years, the publication's highest tier short of the Grand Award.
Named one of OpenTable's Top 100 Most Romantic Restaurants in America in 2024, drawn from millions of diner reviews.
2025 Diners' Choice Award winner, awarded to a small fraction of the OpenTable platform on the strength of diner ratings.
Michael Klauber holds the rare Grand Commandeur distinction from La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, awarded for more than forty years of service.
"This restaurant defines every aspect of hospitality." Sarasota Magazine
"A sophisticated destination for contemporary American cuisine, influenced by the global-travel passion of founder Michael Klauber." Sarasota Magazine
Reservations on OpenTable for the dining room, walk-in for the garden restaurants, and by appointment for the cellar. Complimentary valet at East Avenue, or self-park at Midtown Plaza next door.
Dining-room gift cards redeemable across all properties: East Avenue, the Wine Cellar, and the garden restaurants.
Purchase gift cards →The dining-room rewards program. Points on every visit, redeemable across the restaurant and the cellar.
Join the program →Curated wine-and-food travel programs led by the team that built the cellar list. The vineyards behind the bottles.
Upcoming itineraries →