TWIS Happy Hour Guide: The Cottage

Do you have a weekend ritual? For me, a sunny Sarasota Saturday always starts with a trip to the downtown Sarasota farmers market. After guzzling a large Java Dawg coffee and stocking up on my favorite pasta, produce and candles, it’s time for lunch. In the two years I’ve lived here, I was still searching for “my place.” This Saturday, I’m pretty sure I found it.

The Cottage serves up some of the best food you’ll find on Siesta Key, but, not unexpectedly, better food comes with higher price tags. Luckily, the Peruvian-fusion restaurant offers a killer happy hour – daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The food: The Cottage offers an $8 “culinary lunch menu” during its happy hour, featuring six mouthwatering choices:

• Smoked Salmon Sliders – drizzled with crème fraîche dill sauce, arugula and Canadian smoked salmon on pretzel rolls and served with fries
• Vegetable Salad – grilled peppers, zucchini, squash, garbanzo beans, red onions, grana padano cheese and mushrooms, tossed in a cilantro tarragon vinaigrette
• Truffle Cheese Burger – 1/2 lb. of top-choice beef, dressed with lettuce, tomato and onions on a rosemary bun and served with fries
• Tuna Tartare Tacos – sushi-grade tuna topped with a light lime, avocado, cilantro and cucumber Asian dressing on crispy wontons

  

• Tempura Shrimp Platter – shrimp tempura drizzled with sweet chili sauce and served over edamame salad
• Chicken Skewers – julienned roasted peppers, red onion and cilantro pico served with Cangri rice and a black olive purée

The drinks: Drink specials include $2 Bud Light, Miller Light and Yuengling drafts; $5 Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Jim Beam, Seagrams 7 and house wines; and $7 traditional mojitos, traditional margaritas, white sake sangria, cottage sangria, watermelon jalapeño margaritas and mixed berry lemonade.

The picks: I went for the most bang for my buck. $8 meals featuring smoked salmon, truffle oil and sushi grade tuna? I’m all in. The truffle cheeseburger was good. Not epic, but good. It was worth $8 and was definitely the most filling thing we ordered. And I could eat a bucket of those french fries. The tuna tartare tacos were fantastic. The crispy wonton shells add the perfect crunch to the tuna tartare and the dressing is light, creamy and refreshing. It also comes with yummy sweet chili sauce.

Our favorite was the smoked salmon sliders. For drinks, we stuck to the specialty cocktail menu. The traditional margaritas were smooth and sweet. The jalapeño margarita is good if you want something different, but it definitely has a kick (they leave the seeds in). My favorite was the white sake sangria. Tart and refreshing, it’s perfect for relaxing outside on The Cottage’s back patio. Speaking of the patio – that’s where you should sit. Fenced off from the rest of the village, it’s a great little hideaway – like a tropical oasis within a tropical oasis.

The bottom line: While the end time of 5 p.m. makes this happy hour difficult to get to after work, its 11 a.m. start time makes it the perfect place to grab a deliciously discounted lunch. Grab a seat on the patio before the summer heat really kicks in and indulge in prime ingredients for less.

The Cottage | 153 Avenida Messina, Siesta Key | 312-9300