Foodie Trip to Sarasota

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Food was the main reason for a day trip we took to Sarasota last Tuesday. We left around 8:30 a.m. because we wanted to stop for the breakfast buffet at Der Dutchman in the Pinecraft section of Sarasota. Der Dutchman in Sarasota is part of a group of 6 restaurants, the other 5 of which are located in Amish Country in Ohio. The flagship restaurant is the one in Walnut Creek where we have gone numerous times when we have stayed in Berlin, Ohio.

Pinecraft is a predominantly Amish and Mennonite neighborhood that has a few year round residents; but thousands of Amish and Mennonites from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other areas go there in winter to escape the northern cold. Most Amish arrive by bus, so there are no buggies. Their preferred mode of transportation in Pinecraft is by foot, by bicycle or by tricycle.

We pulled into the parking lot a little before 10:00 a.m. The breakfast buffet is only served until 10:30 at the restaurants in Ohio; but here in Florida things are a little more relaxed, so the buffet goes until 11:00 on weekdays and 11:30 on Saturdays. They are closed on Sunday.

Der Dutchman Restaurant, Sarasota

We had samplings of all our favorites - scrambled eggs, bacon, cheesy potato casserole, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, ham, fried mush, frozen fruit slush, bacon, and sausage gravy and biscuits. Did we mention the buffet has bacon? Of course, we also had another favorite of ours - cream sticks (cream-filled, long-john donuts) with caramel icing.

Margery with her cream stick

We stopped in the restaurant's bakery on our way out looking for shoo-fly pie. Paul loves shoo fly pie, but shoo fly pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing that normally isn't available in the Amish Country of Ohio where we used to spend so much of our time in summer. However, since Amish and Mennonites from Pennsylvania come to Pinecraft, the Der Dutchman Bakery sometimes has shoo fly pie. There was none on display: but we also found out they had some in the freezer, so we bought a small, frozen one to take home with us.

Our next stop was Detwiler's Farm Market located about 5 minutes away. Detwiler's is a Mennonite-owned market that sells produce, meats, seafood, cheese, and other grocery items.

Detwiler's Farm Market

Just a small part of the produce at Detwiler's

Detwiler's has three locations. The one we went to is the one which is closest to Der Dutchman and is their original location. The building is rather small, as is the parking lot, but it's crammed with all kinds of goodies. We bought some Alaskan salmon, a flank steak, a tomato, and a key lime pie.

Our next stop was Nothing Bundt Cakes located nearby. Friends of ours from the Co-op brought us a chocolate/chocolate chip cake back from their recent trip to Sarasota, and we loved it. The larger cakes are a little pricey ($34 for 10" and $24 for 8"), but they have what they call "bundtlets," which are just about right for two people to split, for $4.50. In addition to the chocolate/chocolate chip our friends brought us, there are numerous additional flavors such as vanilla, red velvet, white chocolate/raspberry, carrot, lemon, and pecan praline. We took home a lemon bundtlet.

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Selection of bundt cakes in display case (top row - 8" cakes, middle row - 10" cakes, bottom row - bundtlets

Our last food stop was at Sam's Club to pick up some cheese and cooking supplies. After an additional non-food stop at a nearby Kohl's, we headed back home. We put the shoo fly pie and the bundt cake into the freezer and enjoyed our first piece of key lime pie later in the evening. It was outstanding!

So that was our foodie tour to Sarasota. We are still busy with Co-op activities, but they are starting to wind down just a bit. We have some errands we need to run in the near future, so means there will probably be more eating out in the near future. Stay tuned.