SOPHISTICATED SARASOTA

SOPHISTICATED SARASOTA – BY WHEELCHAIR

By Steve Wright

Growing up in Ohio, a medium-sized town of 50,000 didn’t automatically equal dullsville. But it virtually guaranteed a care-worn city of decaying factories, a struggling downtown, second- or third-rate cultural institutions and a dearth of fine dining.

There was nothing wrong with those mini metropolises – I enjoyed living in one while breaking into the newspaper business – but what they boasted in terms of small town charm, they lacked in urban activity.

Living in a “B’ or “C” city almost always means a long drive to an “A” city to: see professional live theater, browse unique shops, stay in a luxury hotel suite, marvel at a fine art collection, visit famed attractions or reserve a table at one of many highly-rated restaurants.

Sarasota is one of those rare gems that truly fulfills the expectations of the over-used “best of both worlds” label. The Florida Gulf Coast city has a population just above 50,000, but it has the urban flavor and offerings of a town 10 to 20 times that size.

Reno has staked its claim as the Biggest Little City in the World, but the fading Nevada casino burg has nothing on Sarasota. Blessed with a spectacular subtropical climate and a forever-blue bay, Sarasota has bolstered its natural gifts with manmade art, culture, architecture and other refinements.

Sophisticated Sarasota is a mature city that draws lots of mature residents and visitors. Perhaps that is why it also is one of the most wheelchair-accessible cities in the Sunshine State.

When I travel, wheelchair access is crucial. My wife -- an executive, attorney and author – has used a wheelchair for her mobility for nearly three decades, as a result of rheumatoid arthritis.

When we book a hotel, we want more than simple access to the lobby and room. We want roll-in shower or a tub shower outfitted with a bath bench, grab bars and shower wand. If the room has a balcony, we want to make sure it’s accessible. If the resort has a spa, we want to make sure the treatment tables can lower and raise to accommodate Heidi’s mobility needs when transferring from her wheelchair.

The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota is the perfect blend of upscale luxury and practical accessibility. The property is virtually barrier-free.
There are wheelchair-accessible rooms available in every class. Some have roll-in showers, while others have tub showers with safe and easy to use transfer/bath benches. Restrooms are well equipped to accommodate guests with mobility impairments.

The common areas have plenty of room for wheelchair maneuverability. The pool, workout area and spa are completely accessible, with the spa boasting massage tables that lower and raise to accommodate disabled guests.

The well-trained staff is very good at accommodating a disabled traveler’s every need. When we asked for a particular room for its bay views, the engineering team greeted us upon check-in and quickly built a custom-fitted ramp to provide safe and easy wheelchair access to the balcony. They had completed their task by the time we returned from dinner.

Dinner at the signature restaurant, Vernona, is worth the trip to Sarasota. Very fresh ingredients are used in simply elegant seafood and Mediterranean dishes served in a serene setting inside – or outside on a veranda kissed by gulf breezes, overlooking a marina.

The bayfront hotel is located on the mainland, in Sarasota’s small, but urban downtown. The back-to-the-city movement has taken place here, where it seems like a new fine restaurant and upscale shop opens up every month on nearby Main Street. Several outstanding vintage, rare and discount bookstores are within walking (and rolling) distance of the Ritz.

The Ritz-Carlton’s driveway spills out right onto John Ringling Boulevard, which quickly connects to the barrier island of Lido Key. Lido is home to St. Armand’s Circle, a pedestrian friendly collection of fine shops and gourmet restaurants set among lush tropical plantings, courtyards and patios.

Most of the shops and restaurants on the circle are wheelchair-accessible, but a few have barriers such as one or two steps at the entrance. There are several handicapped parking spaces spread among this high-end retail and restaurant district.

St. Armand’s has several examples of the contemporary design known as the Sarasota School of Architecture. In the middle of the 20th century, a group of creative architects surveyed the land, water and climate and fused them with innovative buildings that used modern materials designed to take advantage of the sand, sea and sun.

Paul Rudolph, his mentor Ralph Twitchell and a half dozen of their protégées and contemporaries blessed the coastal bayous, sandy keys and mainland of Sarasota with a brilliant collection of architecture. The architects had a magnificent 25-year run, producing more than 100 modernist homes, schools and commercial buildings from 1941-1966.

The Sarasota School style captured the casual lifestyle of Lido and nearby Siesta and Casey Keys. Rudolph’s Umbrella House on Lido Key gets its name from a sheltering parasol that spanned the main body of the house and beyond to create grand entries to the house’s front on its west side and its pool deck to the east. The fragile lattice umbrella-like sunroof was destroyed by a hurricane and never replaced.

Still, the sleek two-story looks spectacular from the street. The private home is not open for tours, but it is worth a visit to Westway Drive to sneak a peek at its spectacular rectangular pool that kisses right against the home’s stunning two-story glass wall. Westway is a quiet street, which makes it easy for wheelers to park on the berm, drop the lift van ramp and conduct a self-guided architecture viewing from the streetside.

Hiss Studio, another classic example of the Sarasota School, is located right next to Umbrella House. Phillip Hiss’s Studio’s habitable space floats above a gravel drive and parking spaces on its first floor. A staircase leads to the über-chic studio space above. Large panes of glass clearly reveal a collection of mod furniture, tear drop lamps, giant glass coffee table and floating bookshelf perfectly preserved from the studio’s 1952 vintage.

Back in mainland Sarasota, there’s a magnificent piece of Venetian Gothic architecture that has little to do with the Sarasota School movement. Ca'd'Zan, the
John Ringling mansion, however, was overseen by a young Twitchell who came to town in the 1920s to work on the development of the circus magnate’s estate.

Wheelchair access is limited inside the historic mansion, because some doorways are too narrow for power chairs. But most wheelchair users will be able to fit through doorways and there is an elevator for upper floor touring.

Completed in 1926, Ca'd'Zan is 200 feet long with 32 rooms and 15 baths. Bricks, terra cotta "T" blocks and poured concrete were the primary construction materials. Terra cotta was the principal decorative material used because the glazed finishes withstood Florida's brilliant sun.

The 66-acre Ringling cultural campus also includes a pair of important museums that are fully wheelchair-accessible.

John Ringling created the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in 1927 for the people of Florida. Collecting for the museum from 1924 to 1931, the Ringlings gathered important works by Rubens, Van Dyck and other major artists who worked primarily from 1500 to about 1750. The Old Master collection, now including about 750 paintings, is considered the most important area of the museum's holdings.

The museum's art collection -- which now consists of more than 10,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts – is fully wheelchair accessible, albeit via some rather circuitous routes that promise to be remedied soon with the addition of lifts. Its Italian paintings are among the rarest and most celebrated in the country, but my favorite spot is the courtyard. Beautifully arcaded on three sides by loggias, its open-air ceiling is painted bright blue by the brilliant Florida sky.

Established in 1948, the Ringling Museum of the American Circus was the first museum of its kind to document the rich history of the circus in the United States. It has a colorful collection of: rare handbills, art prints, circus paper, business records and wardrobes.

The single story museum has a level entrance and wide passageways, making access a breeze. Displays are well arranged for viewing from the height of a wheelchair. The compact museum building is packed with all types of circus equipment, including: intricately carved parade wagons, sturdy utility wagons, tent poles and massive bail rings. Circus fans are treated to 19th- and early 20th-century posters and props used by famous performers.

The Ringling compound isn’t the only Sarasota waterfront cultural institution that cities tenfold its size would envy. The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens are 8.5 acres of verdant bayfront property containing lush outdoor displays plus world renown for orchid and bromeliad collections.

The entire gardens are wheelchair-accessible. The outdoor pathways are wide and gently sloped. The indoor areas, including historic structures and the famed Tropical Display House, feature level or gently ramped access and plenty of room to maneuver between displays.

The Tropical Display House’s humid climate is perfect for its thousands of brilliantly colored, exotic tropical plants such as torch ginger from Indonesia, bromeliads from the Amazon, carnivorous pitcher plants from Borneo, palms from the Seychelles, vanilla orchids from Mexico and dozens of other spectacular orchids from around the world.

Selby also has one of the first wheelchair-accessible canopy walks in the world. The ramped walkway climbs up into coastal trees, where disabled visitors can see the view from above as well as an up close and personal look at the treetops.

Out on City Island, off Lido Key, families love to get up close and personal with local sea creatures at Mote Aquarium. The barrier-free complex is home to more than 200 varieties of fish and invertebrates. Hugh and Buffett, two West Indian manatees, are big favorites at the Marine Mammal Center – a part of the Mote complex connected by a smooth, accessible pathway.

Families also flock to Siesta Key Beach, which is 99 percent quartz and recognized in an international survey as a having the “whitest and finest sand in the world.” Siesta Key Beach also offers free beach wheelchairs, which are located near the main guard tower.

Sarasota and its barrier islands offer sophisticated fine dining that goes far beyond the seaside fish shacks of most coastal areas. Vernona at the Ritz-Carlton is emblematic of the refined cuisine found all over town.

But since man cannot live by Mediterranean Bouillabaisse, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, fine chocolate tortes and champagne alone, I offer a trio of casual joints – all with excellent wheelchair access -- to refuel oneself while exploring Florida’s cultural coast.

The Blue Dolphin, on St. Armand’s Circle, specializes in gourmet breakfast items such as pancakes with fresh berries. The Hob Knob Drive In, on a busy mainland main drag, is an open-air shrine to juicy burgers, smothered chili cheese dogs, greasy fries and ice-cold soft drinks. Turtles Restaurant, on Siesta Key, is a casual seafood spot with outstanding grilled grouper sandwiches.

No sophisticated city would be without its independent bookstores and Sarasota has at least a half dozen. Main Bookshop is the most wheelchair accessible of several downtown indies. It has hundreds of thousands of discount books covering every category. I especially love the art, architecture, design and Florida-related books.

A freight elevator provides access to the upper two floors of its historic structure.

My Sarasota weekend getaway didn’t even provide time to attend the city’s professional symphony, ballet, or opera. Nor did I fit in time for its more than 10 theaters and 30 art galleries, or the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall -- renown for its architecture and great acoustics. To drink in more of the big city amenities in a small town setting, I’ll have to keep coming back to sophisticated Sarasota.

Wright is an award-winning journalist based in Miami. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com

RESOURCES (all phone numbers within 941 area code):
• The Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, 1111 Ritz-Carlton Drive, is the best property in the city. All 266 luxuriously appointed guest rooms have private balconies – with sweeping views of Sarasota Bay, a marina or the city skyline. The 11-acre downtown property has a spa, heated pool and gourmet restaurant. The plush hotel has outstanding wheelchair access in its guest rooms and common areas. Phone: 309-2000. Website: www.ritzcarlton.com/hotels/sarasota

• The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Museum of the Circus and Ca'd'Zan, 5401 Bay Shore Road, 359-5700, www.ringling.org Mary Selby Botanical Gardens, 811 South Palm Avenue, 366-5731, www.selby.org Mote Marine Aquarium, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway, 388-4441, http://www.mote.org Siesta Key Beach, 948 Beach Rd., 941-861-2150. Web: http://siestakeychamber.com/beaches.htm Main Bookshop, 1962 Main Street, 366-7653.

• Hob Nob Drive In, 1701 North Washington, 955-5001; Turtles Restaurant, 8875 Midnight Pass Road, 346-2207; Blue Dolphin Café, 470 John Ringling Blvd., 388-3566.

• The Sarasota County Government’s website has a fabulous Sarasota School of Architecture page, with links to architect bios, photographs of buildings, addresses and more information at: http://scg.co.sarasota.fl.us/historical_resources/School_of_architecture/index.asp

• For the standard visitor propaganda and helpful information, contact the Sarasota Convention and Visitor’s Bureau at: 941-957-1877 or toll-free at: 800-522-9799. Visit them online at: www.sarasotafl.org