For many Sarasota County residents and visitors, Snook Haven was best known as a rustic riverside joint for barbecue, cold beer and live music along the Myakka River.
Now, the longtime Venice landmark is being transformed into the centerpiece of an ambitious 45-acre regional park, with Sarasota County planning an $8.75 million concession and bandshell area with improved views of the Myakka River, expanded river access and new opportunities for camping and ecotourism.
Snook Haven — billed as “Smack Dab on the Myakka River” at 5000 E. Venice Ave., Venice — has been closed since April 30, 2025.
Sarasota County Parks and Recreation Director Shawn Yeager told the Herald-Tribune that Snook Haven should reopen this fall, but an exact date has not been set.
Some of that has to do with the fact that Sarasota County is still negotiating with the new concessionaire.
The SSA Group, a Denver, Colorado-based vendor that operates the food concession at a variety of attractions nationwide, including The Florida Aquarium in Tampa, is currently the front-runner to operate the restaurant.
On July 7, the Sarasota County Commission adopted a resolution that would expand the scope of financial responsibility of the new vendor for improvement and maintenance of the new concession building and dining pavilion.
Once that contract is finalized, it would be signed by the county administrator or his designee.
“The concessionaire will just be focused on the restaurant area,” Yeager said. “That includes the bandshell, it includes the restaurant, it includes the seating area.”
Sarasota County is exploring options for an outfitter to provide canoe rentals and possibly a tour boat similar to what Logan’s River Tours offered out of a dock at Snook Haven.
The county has penciled in an Oct. 15 ribbon-cutting date for Snook Haven but that date is not yet firm.
Nine decades of riverside charm at Snook Haven in Venice
Snook Haven served as everything from a movie set to a bootlegger outpost in the 1930s, before opening as a fish camp in 1948.
In 1931, a movie crew first cut a dirt road connecting River Road to the banks of the Myakka River for a film about a French Indochina prison colony. Then, in 1936, a rich Michigander built a retirement house there.
Snook Haven became a fishing camp in 1948 and the original restaurant structure was built in 1958.
Sarasota County purchased the historic property for $2.6 million from Sandy Alston in 2006 and made it a park.
Alston’s ex-husband bought Snook Haven at auction in 1988 for $400,000.
Portions of Snook Haven frequently flooded. Most recently, after Hurricane Ian in 2022, the Myakka River rose to the point that the park was under four feet of water.
The Venice Pier Group operated Snook Haven for more than a dozen years, from mid-2012 to the end of April 2025.
Notably, the park became the site of the annual Myakka River Blues Festival, as well as regular performances by the Gulf Coast Banjo Society.
For 38 years, from 1987 until 2025, the Gulf Coast Banjo Society performed shows on Thursdays between April and October.
The current plan calls for those shows to resume once Snook Haven reopens.
What will be offered at Snook Haven?
The main offering is access to the Myakka River itself, either as a place to grab a bite while enjoying music, a base of operations for canoe and kayak excursions or for longer stays at the Snook Haven Campground, formerly known as the Camp Venice RV Resort.
“The Myakka, it’s one of my favorite spots in Sarasota County,” Yeager said. “I used to work for the Florida Park Service and DEP and I was on the Myakka quite often.”
A July internal memo from Yeager to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis noted that the park will have more than a mile of protected Myakka River shoreline and “serve as a central amenity hub and trailhead, providing nature-based recreation access to thousands of acres of protected lands within neighboring South County preserves, including the adjacent Sleeping Turtles Preserve South, Deer Prairie Creek Preserve to the east and Jelks Preserve to the south.”
Amenities at Snook Haven Regional Park are designed to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Sarasota County officially acquired the 20-acre Camp Venice property in October 2025 for $14 million.
The purchase was lauded as the 100th one made under the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program, which is funded by a voter-approved 0.25-mill property tax.
The renewal of that tax will be the subject of a referendum on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
The campground is also a key part of a 2023 strategic plan goal to increase public waterfront access and ecotourism.
It will not be open in fall since Sarasota County does not anticipate that the infrastructure at the campground will be ready — specifically new water and sewer lines.
Snook Haven Campground would be operated by Sarasota County in the same fashion that it operates Turtle Beach Campground on Siesta Key.
It could eventually host more than 120 campsites available for RV, tent camping and glamping.
Yeager views the campground as one way for people to experience the area: “To see the wild and scenic river, to go out and enjoy the banjo music and get some food over at the service provider or get on the Myakka in a canoe or a kayak but also to explore what real Florida is and really enjoy it.”
A live oak grove between the restaurant and campground will likely be opened to general visitor use and become part of a natural playground and picnic area. An existing structure near that area may be replaced by an open-air educational pavilion overlooking the Myakka River.
What are Sarasota County’s plans for the historic river house?
Sarasota County is currently forming a plan to restore and use the 1936 river house.
“We want to raise it just a little bit and move it a little further off of the river,” Yeager said. “Once we can do that we would get in and do some improvements to the downstairs.”
One possibility with that first floor of the structure is to turn it into an interpretive center, “So we can better interpret the Myakka Wild and Scenic River and the history of Snook Haven and the natural cultural resources that are out there,” Yeager said.
As they have become available, Sarasota County has also been buying up properties on East Venice Avenue, between River Road and the Myakka River.
Some have been used for offices, others for volunteer housing or storage. A 2,825-square-foot structure purchased in September 2025 from Ray and Mary Westbrook may one day be repurposed as a small event center, available for weddings separate from the campground and former fishing camp.
What’s next?
While Sarasota County is targeting a fall opening for the food concession area, the overall improvement plan for Snook Haven Regional Park will likely evolve over the next decade in three phases, from 2026 to 2028, 2029-2031 and 2032-2036.
Revenue generated from the concessions, campgrounds, events hosted at the oak grove and rental of the environmental education pavilion could also help pay for future improvements as part of a parks and natural resources special recreation fund.
The Snook Haven Regional Park plan will be reviewed by the Sarasota County Commission later this fall.
Earle Kimel primarily covers local governments in Sarasota County as well as land development and environmental issues for the Herald-Tribune. Follow him on Facebook, and X. He can be reached by email at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Iconic Sarasota County destination could reopen this fall
Reporting by Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune | USA TODAY Network
