Lawn Party ups the ante with return of 50/50 raffle

With more than 30 restaurants on its lineup, the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key Gourmet Lawn Party is bringing a bevy of options to this year’s event.

Recent restaurant add-ons include Amore Restaurant, Tommy Bahama Restaurant and Bar and the Chiles Restaurant Group, including Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub. 

Sea Smoke Smokehouse of Cortez, a first-time participant, will use the lawn party as its debut.

“At the core, this is a food and wine event,” Michael Garey, event chairman and owner-operator of the Lazy Lobster of Longboat, said. “It would not be possible without the generosity of the restaurants who donate the food, their time and their talent and the restaurant suppliers, like Gold Coast Eagle and Sysco and various wine vendors.”

Renamed the “Edith Barr Dunn Memorial 50/50 Raffle” in honor of its founder, the raffle is back after a one-year hiatus. The profits of the raffle, along with the other event profits, will be donated to various area children’s charities and help fund the 30 to 35 scholarships the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key awards each year. Tickets for the raffle will be sold two for $5, five for $10 and 12 for $20.

Lynn Larson offered to help with the event a few months ago, so she was already on board when Garey approached her. The one thing she’s looking for is a Barr Dunn staple: a white Stetson cowboy hat.

“I’m excited because it’s something that Edith always did,” Larson said. “Too bad I don’t have one of those big white hats or I would be wearing that, but nobody could be wearing them as well as Edith did. I may put on my red cowboy boots.”

In addition to the Blues Pig Band, 2015 Edith Barr Dun Scholarship recipient Nick Karpathy will perform with his jazz quartet at the event entrance.

The grand raffle has 250 tickets remaining for purchase at $100 each. The first prize is $20,000 cash. 

Tickets for the event are $50. Tables for 10 are available for $450. Tickets are available at Longboat Key Sun Bank, the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and at the Lazy Lobster. 

Of the 1,100 event tickets, approximately 650 had been purchased as of Nov. 25. Tickets could still be available the day of the event, but Garey said he wouldn’t count on it.