Savor Sarasota Poolside at the Palmetto Marriott Resort and Spa

PALMETTO — Savor Sarasota 2024 is here, and on the first day of the nearly three-week culinary celebration, I enjoyed a three-course prix fixe dinner at Social, the pool front restaurant at the Palmetto Marriott Resort and Spa.

While most participating restaurants offer options among the courses, Social opts for a single menu of relatively neutral foods that most people enjoy. The first course is a crispy fried calamari with spicy marinara dipping sauce.

The calamari rings are very lightly battered before being fried just enough to achieve a crispy texture that avoids the heavy, deep-fried layer that can mute the subtle flavor of the meat. In a region choc full of calamari offerings, Social's stands tall.

The second course is a pan-seared chicken breast served with a mushroom cream sauce. The chicken was standard fare but benefited greatly from the delightfully earthy and rich wild mushroom cream sauce. Served over light and fluffy mashed potatoes with asparagus spears and a tender mushroom stalk, the whole exceeds the sum of its parts.

Dessert was a miniature version of Social's carrot cake, a spongy, more tropical version of the classic dessert featuring layered cream cheese frosting, and a sprinkle of walnuts atop a drizzle of raspberry sauce that paired nicely with the light cake.

Social's extensive craft cocktail menu is highlighted by a top-shelf margarita ($19) that rivals any on the Gulf Coast. The Savor Sarasota event runs through June 20 with more than 50 restaurants in Sarasota and Manatee counties offering prix-fixe menus featuring two-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $45 per person. Visit the Savor Sarasota website for more information.

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The Marriot Resort & Spa is the new crown jewel among Manatee accommodations

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is a novelist, as well as an editor and opinion columnist for The Bradenton Times. In addition to his regular Sunday column, he hosts our weekly podcast and does occasional theater, travel, restaurant, and wine reviews. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. His novels and short story collection are available here.