How do we say we truly enjoyed our dinner at Roast.  Roast Restaurant is located next to the Sarasota Opera House in a wonderfully old building that was built  by the famous John Ringling. It seems John Ringling is everywhere in Sarasota.  Roast restaurant is in  a two- story building originally built in 1925 and is a registered historic building in downtown Sarasota, Florida.
The upstairs bar is, in fact, his gentlemen’s club. The bar is simply stunning. The carvings are gorgeous.  Their craft cocktails are quite good.  Go up the steps just to see the bar and have a drink.

The main restaurant is downstairs. The service is good and so is the food.  There were four of us that night so we were able to try a number of dishes. All of them were good and we would enjoy them again. The menu is eclectic, but there is something for everyone.  We had the smoked salmon trio that was prepared three ways including one with a potato pancake,

The other appetizer we enjoyed was a roast beet salad with goat cheese and pecans that was just yummy.

For our main courses, the two men had the same item so we only had 3 to taste. Among them was the roasted dry scallops with thick slices of bacon. Simply amazing.

The next main course was roasted halibut with a sun choke puree and artichokes in a light tomato sauce, and, again, it was delicious.

The other main course was the fabulous roast duck which had an almond crusted breast and a confit let that was made into hash. It was a bit odd. the breast was better than the hash but, overall, it was a good dish as well.

The only thing that could have been better was the mojito that we ordered upstairs wasn’t very good but the downstairs bar produced a good one.

They have a much better than average (for Sarasota) wine list.  We look forward to going back again.

Enjoy