Anna Maria City Pier
I’ve been enjoying the Anna Maria City Pier since I was a kid in the early 1960’s. But even in those days the pier was something of a relic from another era. According to the Anna Maria Island Historical Society, the pier was originally a dock constructed in 1911 to attract wealthy people from Tampa and St. Petersburg. Steamers made daily stops to bring tourists to the sparsely settled barrier island.
Originally a 776 foot dock, this pier structure has attracted fishermen since 1911.
The wooden planks are splattered with fish blood, scales and pelican poop, baked to a mellow, but slightly stinky patina by decades of intense Florida sun.
During the 1920’s there was a personal residence and an icehouse built at the end of the pier, which later became a fish canning operation, then a rental house named Belle Haven. One night it fell into the bay, but the resident escaped and swam away.
Drinking, or fishing? Dog day afternoon on the City Pier.
In 1928 the City of Anna Maria acquired the pier. I set foot on it for the first time in the early 1960’s. I have wonderful memories of days spent fishing on this pier as do countless others from many generations of residents and visitors. The only real change I’ve seen, other than upgraded facilities and the addition of a real restaurant, is that summers are no longer as quiet on the pier. We have more visitors year-round now. That’s true for most of central and south Florida.
At the end of the pier is a nice surprise: a full-service restaurant with food that is a cut or two above typical pier food.
After a relaxing swim in the Gulf, I'm cooling off in the pier restaurant, waiting for our peel-and-eat shrimp.
The view from inside the restaurant is--dare I say--better than that from the Columbia Restaurant at the St. Petersburg Pier.
Our appetizer arrived on slightly wilted salad greens, but the shrimp was some of the best peel-and-eat shrimp I've ever had, though perhaps slightly over-cooked. The cocktail sauce was the hottest I've had and shot straight up into the sinuses. Wow.
The grilled mahi sandwich was excellent, and very reasonably priced. Another nice feature: side dishes were $1.25 extra. I don't generally need side dishes so I was glad to opt out and save the money for Key lime pie.
We really enjoyed our lunch on the pier and I can definitely see us coming back here more often. Their lunch menu is very reasonable. The dinner menu is a bit more pricey, with entrees in the $18 to $30 range. It’s the best water view in town, with the nearest competition about half-a-mile away at the Rod & Reel Pier. I enjoyed a fine grouper sandwich at the Rod & Reel Pier a couple of days ago.
A bit north of the City Pier is the privately owned competition: the Rod & Reel Pier.
