The Sarasota-Manatee Originals organized in September 2003 with a passionate desire to celebrate and preserve our community’s culinary “sense of being”. A group of 24 independently owned restaurants in the Sarasota-Manatee County region became Florida’s first chapter of the Council of Independent Restaurants of America (CIRA). CIRA has chapters in 18 other cities around the US. The Sarasota-Manatee Originals now boast more than 50 active members!