Andy Harris speaks with Executive Chef Horacio Eagan on the flavorful recipes featuring sustainable foods at Sandbar. General Manager Brandi Craig joins to discuss the history of Mar Vista on Longboat Key, FL.
PodcastsHear From Our People
Seth Kondor and Ted Louloudes detail operating Anna Maria Bake House, an in-house bakery, and what to expect when you visit Chiles Hospitality restaurants. Dive into their discussions about Florida restaurants as tourist attractions, popular dishes, and hosting weddings and banquets in Anna Maria Island, FL.
Meet the people and culinarians behind our brands
Ed Chiles, Founder
Ed was born in Lakeland, Florida, to the late Governor Lawton Chiles and Rhea Chiles. A passion for all things Floridian was instilled in him at an early age. An avid outdoorsman, his favorite childhood memories are roaming the Northern Florida woods hunting with his father. The family always had...
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Ed Chiles
Founder
Ed was born in Lakeland, Florida, to the late Governor Lawton Chiles and Rhea Chiles. A passion for all things Floridian was instilled in him at an early age. An avid outdoorsman, his favorite childhood memories are roaming the Northern Florida woods hunting with his father. The family always had a passion for cooking, especially when it came to the local game, seafood, and favorite southern fixings. They are still known to spend meals “talking about what they are going to eat next.” He also carried on another proud Chiles family tradition by graduating from The University of Florida.
Ed owned and operates three restaurants under the Chiles Hospitality umbrella on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key, Florida. The historic flagship, Sandbar, opened in 1979, followed by Mar Vista in 1990 and Beach House in 1993. He has become a staple in the sustainable tourism industry, with each restaurant menu featuring locally sourced Florida fare from a network of specialty producers that share in his vision. In 2021, Ed acquired Gamble Creek Farms, located in nearby Parrish, FL. A leader in permaculture farming, Gamble Creek Farms grows and provides unique strains of produce to the restaurants, as well as the local community through its Farm Market.
An internationally recognized leader in sustainability, Ed Chiles has been a driving force for best practices in his local community, gulf region, state of Florida and around the world. He works closely with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on sustainability initiatives, as his hospitality group has been designated as the first Global Observatory for Sustainable Tourism. Ed lends his expertise and resources through his involvement in several community and regional organizations. He serves on the Gulf Seafood Foundation board to promote tourism and the historic culture of the coast. He is also a founding member of Solutions to Avoid Red Tide (START), and board member of Gulf Shellfish Institute. The latter includes leading the recent creation of the All Clams on Deck initiative, which encourages the use of hard-shell clams to continuously filter the waters of Tampa Bay while absorbing harmful excess nutrients and algae responsible for Red Tide.
An avid fly-fisher and hunter, Ed resides with his wife Tina in Anna Maria. His two daughters, Ashley and Christin, and new grandson, Chiles, continue to fuel his emphatic support of immediate and decisive action to ensure future generations can enjoy our environment and natural resources.
Chuck Wolfe
CEO, Chiles Hospitality
Will Manson
General Manager, Gamble Creek Farms
Zack Rasmussen
Farm Manager, Gamble Creek Farms
Chuck Wolfe
CEO
Chuck Wolfe leads the executive team and directs the company’s efforts to broaden its strategic vision and develop new projects.
Before taking the helm of Chiles Hospitality in December 2018, Wolfe was a co-founder and partner of Wolfe/Kinkennon, a strategic planning and leadership consulting firm. His career includes an impressive 12-year run (2003-15) as CEO of Victory Fund, a national Political Action Committee supporting LGBTQ candidates. Under Wolfe’s stewardship, Victory Fund’s budget grew by 500 percent while 63 percent of the candidates it endorsed won their races for offices at all levels of government across the United States. Wolfe was twice named to OUT Magazine’s list of 50 most “powerful” LGBTQ Americans.
A native Floridian, Wolfe worked on political campaigns in his home state in the 1980s and ’90s. Only months after joining then-Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles’ administration as an aide in 1992, the 31-year-old Wolfe was tasked by the governor to lead the state’s relief efforts after Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 Atlantic storm, had cut a swath of destruction across South Florida. Wolfe’s handling of the aid operation earned him a reputation for getting things done under difficult circumstances. Wolfe went on to become operations manager for Chiles’ 1994 re-election campaign, a successful stint that led him to run the logistics and financial management of Chiles’ inauguration.
In 1996, Chiles appointed Wolfe as executive director of the Miami Financial Emergency Oversight Board, a panel entrusted with helping the city avoid bankruptcy. The following year, Wolfe, at Chiles’ behest, led the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program, an anti-tobacco media initiative created in the wake of Florida’s $11.3 billion settlement with four major tobacco companies. The FTPP developed the provocative but highly effective “Truth Campaign” targeting youth aged 12 to 17.
Florida’s Truth Campaign became a template for other states combating teen smoking and its success propelled Wolfe to the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer of the newly created American Legacy Foundation in 1999. (The Washington, D.C.-based group changed its name to Truth Initiative in 2015.)
He attributes his successes as a leader to his formative years in the Boy Scouts of America. An Eagle Scout, Wolfe was elected National Explorer President of the Boy Scouts of America (1981-1982) and served on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America (1982-1984).
In the late 1980s, while still active with the Boy Scouts of America, Wolfe came out as gay and began advocating for an end to the Scouts’ discriminatory policies toward gays and lesbians. In 2001, he appeared on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program in a segment titled “Boy Scouts: No Gays Allowed.” He was portrayed as an example of an “ideal Boy Scout” — until coming out as gay.
Wolfe serves on the Stetson University Board of Trustees and chairs the Committee on Trusteeship. He previously chaired the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board.
Travel, hiking and horseback riding are among his favorite leisure activities.
Will Manson
General Manager
Will Manson has been Executive Chef of the Beach House since 1999, moving over to General Manager of Gamble Creek Farms in 2022.
He received his first classical training from Chef Jean Pierre Knaggs, owner of the popular Bijou Cafe in downtown Sarasota. Will was given the opportunity to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.
His experience in boutique restaurants combined with the discipline of large restaurant companies like the Outback Steakhouse Corporation and Darden along with the immense responsibility of serving thousands of guests at a time through the Orange County Convention Center makes Will in a word - "seasoned".
Zack Rasmussen
Farm Manager
As a young artist deeply interested in the natural world and travel, Zack found himself in South India where he got his first taste of ecological farming.
These South Indian farmers built complex food laden ecosystems out of what they had locally. This experience inspired him to dive fully into the world of agro-ecology. Zack has spent the last 10 years studying permaculture design with a specific interest in Agroforestry, Korean natural farming and syntropic farming systems.
His journey with Chiles Hospitality began with the installation of multiple self-sustaining gardens at our restaurant, Sandbar Seafood & Spirits, for the culinary team. Unique varieties of herbs, spices, vegetables, fruits, and flowers being grown with organic practices and permaculture principles have become a staple for all three restaurant locations.
Since designing and installing countless ecological food systems for individuals, commercial clients, restaurant owners, chefs, and integrative physicians, some of Zack’s current goals at Gamble Creek Farms are to build cohesive plant relationships. This will in-turn decrease pest pressure and disease, bring permaculture perspective, ramp up native plant species, transition from using traditional organic fertilizers to onsite blended and fermented bio-available fertilizers, increase farm profitability and expose people to really unique heirloom varieties of food. There is potential for to discover forgeable culinary items in Florida and he is excited to bring unique flavors to the palettes of our patrons. It's all about the food!