You don’t need to wait for a hurricane to eat at Hurricane Hanks in Holmes Beach.
In fact, you’d do yourself a favor to get over there ASAP and order a house margarita, a grouper sandwich, or shrimp and scallop risotto. Make your way to the beautiful beaches on Anna Maria Island before or after your meal.
The folks at Hurricane Hanks want you to think of their restaurant as a comfortable, neighborly hangout, whether you’re a year-round local, a snowbird, or just visiting. Their focus on great food made with fresh, high-quality ingredients is evident by their glowing reviews online.
Although Hurricane Hanks has been around since 2000, current owners Brian Mathae and Jason Blomme visited the area in 2016 from Vancouver, British Columbia. They fell in love with Anna Maria Island and had the idea of purchasing Hurricane Hanks and adjacent Hurricane Liquors for what Mathae imagined would be his semi-retirement.
“I’ve never worked harder in my life,” says Mathae, who worked in restaurants early on but then had careers in accounting and sales.
The new restaurant owners were hit with challenges, like 2017’s Hurricane Irma, followed a few years later by other “I” storms Ian and Idalia. Then, of course, there have been red tide outbreaks along with the challenging pandemic years.
“Each of these events has only strengthened our resolve to be the best we can be for our customers,” Mathae says.
Like everyone else on “the island,” as Anna Maria is often called, the folks at Hurricane Hanks have their own Helene and Milton hurricane stories to tell. Some Hurricane Hanks customers have chosen not to return to the island since the hurricanes, and that’s affected some of their business. “Our staff definitely miss these customers. About half of our staff have been with us for five years or more, so our regular customers are more than customers to them,” Mathae explains. “They are their friends.”
Still, he remains positive.
“We aren’t a big restaurant, but we often have a line at the door, and we manage to get everyone in as quickly and as efficiently as we can. And we just like to have some fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he says.
One way that’s evident is with a re-creation of their plywood sign from 2017’s Hurricane Irma. The sign says “Go Home Irma, You’re Drunk.”
In addition to Hurricane Hanks and Hurricane Liquors, the team also owns LBK Liquors and Chubby’s Lounge on Long-boat Key as well as Fifty Three Fifty: The Pourhouse—a coffee bar by day and wine bar in the evening located in the same shopping plaza as Hurricane Hanks.
Hurricane Hanks also takes an active role in supporting the local community, such as sponsoring the tagging of a sea turtle and raising money for the local group Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, Mathae says.
Hurricane Hanks
5346 Gulf Dr, Holmes Beach
941-778-5788
HurricaneHanks.com
