Today, Mike and I ate lunch at Pier 22 on the Manatee River in Bradenton.

Pier 22 is located in Bradenton’s historic building and pier.  Built in 1928, the building was dedicated to 21 men from Manatee County who died in WW1. It is a 2 story building that houses a Ballroom for special events and a ground floor that used to be a freight warehouse for steamer ships coming into Bradenton.   In 1974, the Miller Family bought the building and restored the beautiful building. The Pier has a 225 slip marina filled with amazing boats.

It was a beautiful summer day today so we decided to eat outside on the patio. It was very nice to sit outside in the shade and enjoy a quiet lunch. The views are lovely with amazing boats docked in the harbor area on two sides and the river and bridge in front of you.

The service was very good. They have a very nice menu for lunch and dinner. They also had a good wine list. There were a number of good wines at good values. I was amazed to see some of the wine prices. They claim to use local ingredients as often as possible. Too bad the food isn’t as good as the wine list.

Mike started with a cup of the clam chowder. It is very, very thick. We even commented about it to the waitress who understood but said it was the way the chef likes it. It was also a bit salty but it was full of clams and potatoes.

Mike had the grouper sandwich with fruit and I had the Caesar salad with chicken added to it. The grouper was a bit overcooked so it wasn’t great. The fruit was very nice but then we saw it was a $2.00 upcharge which was a bit too much for the minuscule amount of fruit served. The sandwich was supposed to include one side dish.  I guess they think fruit isn’t a side.

My Caesar salad was large. They have two sizes. It wasn’t terrible, but it was overdressed and the chicken was overcooked and probably had been sitting for a while.

I really wanted to think about going back again because of the menu and wine list,  but I don’t think we will simply because everything was overdone.   Hopefully, this is an anomaly and not the norm for an otherwise very nice place.