For years, Sarasotans have been making the trek out to Sean Murphy's tiny Beach Bistro, perched in the sand of Holmes Beach by the Gulf of Mexico; the culinary thrills and Murphy's high-spirited hospitality make even the long, dark drive home worthwhile. The restaurant has won statewide recognition, too, racking up eight of Florida Trend's coveted Golden Spoon awards and earning the highest Zagat ratings in Florida. But several months ago, Murphy and his creative team took their show on the road, heading to New York's James Beard House, the Greenwich Village townhouse where the late, great gastronome lived. There they presented a six-course dinner to one of the world's most discriminating audiences.

We followed them every step of the way, chronicling the weeklong preparations in New York that culminated in a Florida-themed feast. But before we get to that hectic week in New York, a few words about the James Beard dinners.

To be chosen to cook at the James Beard House is both an honor and a challenge. An honor because these dinners, which are organized by the James Beard Foundation, showcase only the top regional chefs around the country. The selection process is rigorous, and simply to be invited can be a crown jewel in a chef's career.

And it's a challenge because the sophisticated diners who attend come with high expectations, and the townhouse itself is small and oddly configured; guests who arrive for dinner must walk through the kitchen to get to the enclosed garden, where they're served champagne and appetizers. The kitchen is ridiculously small by today's standards, even with recent appliance upgrades from Beard Foundation supporters.

Formal dining tables are scattered through the narrow, vertical house, including Beard's former bedchamber on the second floor. Beard, who topped 300 pounds, loved his outdoor glass shower on the second-floor terrace, and he routinely scandalized his neighbors by scrubbing away in the buff. Now that area is used for wine staging.

Above the fireplace in Beard's library-sitting room hangs a large portrait that captures the gastronome's robust style. The third floor is used for administrative offices, but the boardroom doubles as a dining room when there's a sellout crowd, as for the Beach Bistro dinner.

Between the invitation and the grand dinner itself (18 months in Murphy's case), the chosen chefs have time to plan and perfect the menu and figure out logistics. They also need to start saving money, because it's a costly honor to cook dinner for 100 at the Beard House. Expenses for the visiting restaurant include menu ingredients, wine travel, New York accommodations, shipping costs and transportation costs from hotel to the Beard House, which in Manhattan can be substantial. Typically, chefs spend an average of $20,000 to $25,000 of their own on the event.

Although he had a year and a half to get ready, Murphy says in many ways he's been preparing for this meal for 20 years, ever since he and wife Susan bought a little shack on Holmes Beach and opened the Beach Bistro, the same weekend a major hurricane hit.

"This Beard event has been like the Olympics for me," says Murphy. "We've been pursuing perfection since day one at the Beach Bistro, and this was our chance to demonstrate what we've learned and how good we are. We had three head-banging sessions about the menu as well as a test meal a month before going to New York, and we continued to adjust methods of preparation right up to getting on the plane."

The final menu (see below) represents what Murphy and his crew believe is the best of Southwest Florida's coastal cuisine-and of their kitchen. It includes such locally famous specialties as Bistro bouillabaisse-with Nova Scotia lobster tails, Key West shrimp, and fresh fish, clams, mussels and calamari swimming in a rich broth-and Florida spiny lobstercargot, which features Key West lobster baked with shallots, spinach and garlic butter.

"Everything we've learned comes together in this menu," Murphy said a few weeks before the dinner. "I know how good our food is; the challenge is to make our food 2,500 miles away from home."

The team that took on that challenge includes chefs Mac DeCarle, Peter Arpke and Seth Groseclose; Robert (Bobby) Valentino supervised the wine; and Beach Bistro manager Annette Walden served as tour leader for a group of local customers who decided they wanted to travel to New York for the dinner.

Murphy describes his role as team coach. "There's always a snake or two under a rock," he says. "My job was to eliminate snakes and ensure that the event went off smoothly."