“They come for the reason that every other person comes to Florida.”
A
t the close of a warm winter day, two couples press the button for the elevator at their Sarasota, Florida, hotel. The men wear straw hats and have long, untrimmed beards. The women, with coverings on their heads, have plain-looking clothes including skirts that cover their legs to their ankles. They are speaking their native tongue: Pennsylvania Dutch, a cousin to German.
Welcome to Pinecraft, a Sarasota neighborhood where the snowbirds are mostly Amish who have headed south to escape the sub-freezing temperatures and drifting snow in states such as Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
“They come for the reason that every other person comes to Florida,” explained J.B. Miller, a Sarasota resident with roots in the Amish faith. “They’re attracted to the beaches. Pinecraft is a draw because it’s an enclave…an Amish and Plain Mennonite community.”
Members of religious communities believe in an often strict lifestyle that keeps them apart from non-believers, the Amish and Plain Mennonites arrive in the hundreds by coach as the weather turns wintry up north. At the Carlisle Inn, the hotel just down the street from Pinecraft, Amish folks make up 60% of the guests at Christmastime.
“During February, often it’s 80 to 90% Amish staying here,” said Jeff Miller, a Mennonite and one of the owners of Dutchman Hospitality, the company that runs the hotel plus an adjoining restaurant and gift shop.
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Pointing to an older Amish couple a few feet away at the hotel’s front desk, Jeff Miller (no relation to J.B.) told me, “They’re here for two-and-a-half months.”
Pinecraft lacks the rolling hills, idyllic farms, and horse-and-buggies of Amish communities up North. It’s a small, urban cluster of about 500 mostly modest homes. For other tourists–those people the Amish and conservative Mennonites refer to as “English”–the lack of scenery is offset by opportunities to mingle with the Plain people who, when at home, are typically more removed from the outside world.
While on Florida’s Gulf Coast, they tend to unwind. They travel about on scores of three-wheeled bicycles (some of them motorized) and in golf carts. Unlike back home, they’re “on the grid,” with electricity and the modern conveniences that come with it.
“Just like many other people, we go somewhere on vacation and we may do some things we normally wouldn’t do at home,” said J.B. Miller, a respected expert on the Amish and a practicing member of the Mennonite faith. “You see that among the Amish and other Plain groups that things may be a little more relaxed here.”
While chatting in the lobby of the Carlisle Inn with an Amish vacationer from Indiana, I asked whether he and his wife would watch TV during his stay in Florida.
His droll, matter-of-fact reply was, “Well, if it’s there, I imagine we might watch it.” The couple, who were in Sarasota for two months, added that, back home, they did not have a television, but that they had solar-powered electricity. That is acceptable because it isn’t supplied by the local power company, which isn’t part of their religious community.
“People who come here would be the more progressive end of the Amish groups,” J.B. Miller added. “There would be some very conservative Amish groups that would not encourage or approve of their folks coming here. It’s ‘worldly’ and it’s ‘vacation,’ which some Amish would not necessarily think about.”
J.B., who returned to his Sarasota roots after retiring, said that most of the “English” who visit Pinecraft come for the food, which he described as simple Midwest cooking. The menus at Der Dutchman and Yoder’s, the neighborhood’s largest restaurants, are heavy on meats such as roast beef, chicken, ham, and turkey, typically served with mashed potatoes and vegetables, all of it often smothered in gravy. The Der Dutchman menu calls it “a taste of Amish country.”
Amish and Mennonite tourists sit side by side with outsiders as they enjoy their meals. Priced at $18.49, the dinner buffet at Der Dutchman is particularly popular. The choices include meats, “real” mashed potatoes, creamed corn, green beans, stuffing, homemade noodles, and a salad bar.
The entrees are similar at Yoder’s, but with the addition of less traditional fare such as shepherd’s pie and shrimp with cheesy grits. And, as the menu points out, “No meal at Yoder’s is ever complete without a piece of homemade pie.”
The wide selection of pies at both restaurants boggles the mind while tantalizing the taste buds. Yoder’s 22 varieties include not only the usual apple, blueberry, and cherry, but also butterscotch, chocolate peanut butter, mom’s egg custard, and shoofly. A slice costs $6.95.
“We’re trying to give a destination experience,” said Jeff Miller.
Up a grand staircase, above the restaurant, a sprawling gift shop includes some homemade Amish goods. Whole pies and other baked goods are for sale on the ground floor.
While most outsiders come for a meal, some make the time to further enrich their visit by driving through the streets of Pinecraft. In wintertime, the Amish and Mennonites in their traditional clothes fill the streets, moving about mostly on foot or by tricycle. Pinecraft Park (1420 Gilbert Ave.) is the primary gathering place throughout the day and into the early evening. It’s a place to catch up on the latest gossip and to play shuffleboard. Speaking both English and Pennsylvania Dutch, these snowbirds expect outsiders to stop by and take pictures.
“My sense is that the Amish who come here understand that they probably are going to face a photographer at some point,” said J.B. Miller. “Having your photo taken is much less a no-no than it was 15 or 20 years ago…That is one of the things that I think has relaxed.”
“As long as you aren’t in their faces or real up close, people expect that to happen here,” he continued. “People can always turn their backs if they don’t want to be photographed.”
Folks who strike up a conversation with the snowbirders should expect to be peppered with questions about their lives in return. That said, women are typically less willing to chat than men.
“There are Amish and Plain folks that would be happy to engage you in conversation, but just like society at large, some people are friendly, other people are not,” J.B. concluded.
INSIDER TIPCatch up on the latest news and gossip from Plain communities in Pinecraft and the rest of America by buying a copy of The Budget. J.B. Miller calls the in-print weekly newspaper “the Amish Facebook” since it shares stories written by Amish people. The paper costs $2.50 and is sold at the gift shops at both Der Dutchman and Yoder’s. In the January 3, 2024, issue, Joe and Mattie Yoder wrote, “People kept saying there are just not as many people here as other years. Well on Sat. the flood gates opened and 8 buses came rolling into Pinecraft. …Sunday morning attendance at [church] was 408 quite a change from last Sun. at 111.”
“Despite the traditional lifestyle of the Amish, money seems to be no object for such visitors. For example, in February, rooms at the Carlisle Inn can run as high as $369 a night.
“They’re phenomenally successful entrepreneurs. Very few of their businesses fail,” J.B. said. “A lot of them are working as furniture makers. These are not just one or two employees but maybe as many as 50 employees in some of the businesses. So many of them have become very wealthy.” To emphasize his point, J.B. said he has cousins who sell their goods to the finest, high-end furniture stores around the country.
An Amish furniture store sits just steps from the hotel. Miller’s Dutch Haus (no relation to J.B. or Jeff) sells hardwood furniture handcrafted by Amish woodworkers. The prices are commensurate with the quality.
A couple of shops away, Plain women in their typical garb can often be seen quilting by hand inside Alma Sue’s Quilt Shop, which sells fabric and other necessities of the craft. Visitors are welcome to stop by and watch the women work.
Sarasota attracts vacationers year-round, but to experience a true taste of the Amish lifestyle requires a visit during the winter. By spring, most of the Plain folks will have left Pinecraft for fields and factories up North.
“I would imagine that probably 75 to 80% of the homes would be vacant in the summertime,” J.B. Miller observed.