What makes a Sunday brunch cost $55 a person? Come with me to Sarasota's Ritz-Carlton hotel, where personal service, ambience and presentation have as much to do with the bill as the creative cuisine on your white plate. The hotel's luxury brunch is suitable for an important celebration, a first-day-of-the-honeymoon-meal, or that important "hey, we're on vacation in Florida" unhurried breakfast and lunch combination before you bliss out on the beach.

The Ritz brunch is all about elegant abundance. The buffet is organized in the main lobby (where tea is served in the afternoons) and guests take their plates back to the formal Vernona dining room, where your primary server and several helpers see to everything but the food gathering. Juice, coffee or tea, and jellies are on the table for you. Every time you leave the table for another round of tastings, used dishes are removed and silverware and napkins are replaced. The napkin is folded into a pristine mountain peak. Of course, there are snowy white tablecloths, flowers everywhere, and the room itself is plush and perfect in an Old World European way. You'll even be offered a guided tour of the brunch stations by your server if you desire the assistance.

The Ritz stages this brunch like culinary theater. Your eyes "shop" different elaborately decorated tables, each with its own theme. For instance, there's the caviar station offering three types (all of them American) along with blinis, minced hard-boiled egg, chopped onion, and capers. Another station tempts with Mediterranean fare such as eggplant, grilled peppers, and a lovely salad of cold black-eyed peas and marinated quail. Goat cheese and fresh tomatoes, Caesar salad, portobello mushrooms-it's all there.

Then you can browse the sushi and sashimi bar, as artistic an exhibit as you're likely to see outside of an Asian museum. The bread table uses long baguettes as art; and baskets are heaped with fresh mini-Danishes, croissants, brioche, rolls, muffins, whatever. The seafood station includes an intriguing salad of octopus and seaweed (unfortunately, the day we visited, the octopus was tough) as well as crab claws, jumbo boiled shrimp, mussels and plump (and delectable) raw oysters displayed on ice. At this station you'll also find about four smoked fish preparations, including the obligatory salmon.

Hot stations are on one end of the room and combine breakfast items such as custom omelets and eggs Benedict with luncheon fare, such as carved prime rib and baby lamb chops. A standout at this table is the ravioli (a large one) stuffed with ground venison and slathered in a huckleberry sauce. Soups are nearby. A lone chef rules the crepe table near the dessert exhibition. Discover individual ramekins of bread pudding, crème brûlée or strawberry cream pie. Hazelnut tiramisu is offered in champagne flutes, or take a piece of pear tart that's already been sliced for you. At least different 15 desserts are spread out.

In addition to the glorious food, each stations offers opulent visuals. Tables gleam with heavy hotel silver bowls, platters and tongs. Fresh, fat roses and ferns are tucked in among folds of lavish fabric. Bowls sit atop columns, platters rest on pedestals, baskets are on risers cleverly draped to hide the mechanics. The classic silver serving pieces are juxtaposed with other textures, such as rough-hewn basketry (a basket holds tender shards of Romaine lettuce for your Caesar salad) or thick, modernistic square glass plates that are delicately tinted.

This stylish brunch delivers food, theater and service in a grand manner yet keeps the surroundings relaxed and comfortable. Then why do so many regulars wait until noon to show up instead of arriving at 11 a.m. when the brunch doors open? Simple. You can't get your glass of champagne or your mimosa until after the noon hour on Sunday. It's the law. If an alcoholic beverage is an important part of your brunch experience, time your visit to the Ritz accordingly.

Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota

111 Ritz-Carlton Drive, Sarasota

309-2008

Sunday brunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Reservations suggested

Valet parking

More Than Moo

A charming historic bungalow on Palm Avenue that was Noah's (and Carmichael's before that) has been transformed into a sophisticated steak house by New York restaurateur John Zakarian and his partner, Lori Perkins. While the menu is certainly beefy, the descriptor "steak house" doesn't disclose the depth and breadth of the kitchen; nor does it convey the formality of the surroundings. Zak's is more than a traditional steak house. Careful attention is paid to a variety of seafood, fowl, and lamb choices. Given the extensiveness of the appetizers (which could convert into entrées) and the meal-type salads, a vegetarian could spend a pleasant evening at Zak's.