Style show gives look and taste of Longboat Key

They’ve made names for themselves in everything from town politics to tennis.

But 14 local celebrities will be able to add a new title to their resumes after the Jan. 30 “Taste of the Keys” event: runway model.

The models (see sidebar) will strut their stuff in fashions from Island Pursuit. Meanwhile, the event is sauntering toward its third year, and organizers hope it will be bigger and better than ever.

For the first year, it will take place at the Longboat Key Club & Resort’s Harbourside Dining Room instead of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, a Division of Ringling College of Art and Design. The larger location means that at least 300 people can attend the event.

Also, for the first year, all money will go toward the Longboat Key Garden Club, which uses funds raised for scholarships and grants. In past years, the Garden Club and Arts Center split proceeds from the event.
Susan Landau, who is co-chairing the event with Barbara Kerwin and Jackie Salvino, hopes to recruit two more restaurants in the next month-and-a-half to add flavor to the event.

The following 12 restaurants have already signed on to participate:

Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub; Dry Dock Restaurant Waterfront Grill; Chart House Restaurant; Harry’s Continental Kitchens; Lazy Lobster; Longboat Key Hilton Beachfront Resort and Longboat Key Club & Resort on Longboat Key; Sarasota Yogurt Co. on St. Armands Circle; Lido Beach Resort on Lido Key; Old Salty Dog on City Island; and Bridge Street Bistro and The Feast on Anna Maria Island.

“It’s really about the keys, and there’s nobody in it who isn’t on the keys,” Landau said.

Tickets are $50 and can be purchased at Exit Art at the Chart House, Exit Art at the Centre Shops, Longboat Key Education Center, Design 2000 and Island Pursuit.

Save the date
Taste of the Keys and Fashion Show
When: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30
Where: Longboat Key Club and Resort’s Harbourside Dining Room, 3100 Harbourside Drive
Tickets: $50
Contact: Madelyn Spoll, 383-4818 or Susan Landau, 383-8030

Meet the models
The following Longboat Key “celebrities” will build up their modeling portfolios by walking the runway at the event:
• Tennis professionals Sam Avillas, of the Longboat Key Club & Resort, and Claudio Retean, of the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center
• Town Manager Dave Bullock
• Ed Chiles, owner of The Chiles Group, and his mother, Rhea Chiles, former Florida first lady and operator of The Studio at Gulf and Pine
• Rusty Chinnis, owner of Rusty Chinnis Contractor
• Michael Drake, acting Longbeach Village Association president
• Tom Freiwald, Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force member
• Susan Goldfarb, executive director of the Longboat Key Education Center
• Kate Honea, Sarasota Ballet principal
• Cheryl Loeffler, Realtor with Signature Sotheby’s International Realty
• Diane Muir, Northern Trust Bank branch vice president/executive director
• Susan Phillips, assistant to the town manager, and her husband, Admiral Steve Branham