Rotary launches its Suncoast Food & Wine Fest with a fresh look

For its 24th year, Lakewood Ranch’s premier food and beverage event has undergone a rebrand, with hopes of taking it to the next level and surpassing the $147,000 it raised in 2025.

The soiree is called — as many of you know — the Suncoast Food & Wine Fest, which is scheduled for Nov. 14 at Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch. 

Some 2,000 attendees mingle, nibble and sip while on the venue grounds, which are outfitted with large tents. Top area chefs, restaurants, wine specialists and culinary professionals contribute food and drink. The fest has become a mark-your-calendar fall social event.

The Suncoast Food & Wine Fest is run soup-to-nuts by the Lakewood Ranch Rotary Club, which founded the affair in 2002. All of the organization’s roughly 100 members pitch in. They work in committees, covering everything from the big picture to the smallest details. 

After the event is over, and the money has been tallied, a club committee awards grants ranging from $2,850 to $10,000 to worthy nonprofits. Last year, the Rotary handed out 22 grants totaling $137,000. Recipients have ranged from Books for Kids to The Sarasota Players to Epilepsy Services of Southwest Florida. The event proceeds, minus some expenses, go toward these grants.

In 2024, the club recognized the need to freshen up its brand. The job went out for bid and was eventually won by Ivonne Ribeiro, founder and owner of iBrandStrategist. She consulted with club members and attended last year’s fest to get a feel for what was needed. 

“We’d had the same kind of artwork and the same feel over the years, and realized that it was more of a ’90s look,” says Anne (pronounced Annie) Ross, who started her one-year term as club president July 1. “The event itself is not dated. It’s a really nice, upscale day, so we wanted to show that in our branding.”

Photo by Mark Wemple

The refresh includes a new, sleeker logo (with the name of the club removed), a redesigned website using smoother (sans-serif) fonts, upgraded photos and tighter copy. It also showcases the new tagline, A Taste with Purpose. “Along with giving a better feel of what the event is like, we wanted to emphasize the return on investment for our sponsors and also for our restaurants,” Ross says. 

As of early July, the Rotary Club was seeking to add to its roster of 30 participating restaurants and to bring on more sponsors. Publix and Lakewood Ranch Medical Center had already signed on as Event Partners, contributing $15,000 each. At that point, roughly three dozen companies had committed money to eight sponsorship tiers, with two of them as low as $500. The $35,000 Legacy Presenting Partner slot remained open. 

Extra sponsors are needed this year, Ross says, in part because the club had to “put some of the budget toward the rebranding.” She declined to reveal how much the initiative cost.

Ross stresses that, while sponsors receive tangible exposure in ads and marketing materials, they also are attaching their name to a terrific cause. “We look for thoughtful companies that would like to participate in a really nice event but also see their money go to the community,” she says, plus take part in “the joy that people get when they’re at the festival.”

The Suncoast Food & Wine Fest is a classy affair, but it’s not a stuffy one. Because it’s held outdoors in what will hopefully be pleasant weather, formal wear is not required, as is often the case with some ballroom galas in the Sarasota/Manatee region. Dress is “varied,” Ross says. “We ask for nice attire. We have women in sundresses. It’s not really coat-and-tie for men, but it’s not really a jeans-type gathering either. You’ll see some people in shorts.”

Does Ross have her outfit picked out? She laughs and says, “Yes. I’ll be wearing a ‘volunteer’ shirt.”