A new restaurant is ringing in its grand opening this week. Beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. Masō in the Merchant’s Pointe shopping plaza on Clark Road will officially begin service after several weeks of soft opening.

Masō shares ownership with adjoining DoughBoy Swift and Dive Wine & Spirits, both in the same plaza. Its co-owner, Broc Smith, also owns the Liquor Locker, which he opened in 2010 and which became the unexpected catalyst for him to slowly build his food and beverage empire in Sarasota. Dive opened in 2021 and Dough Boy Swift, a pizza place, opened last year.

Smith says he was inspired to open Masō as a small restaurant where he could offer excellent wine pairings at a good value.

“I want to provide luxury wine and food at a price point that makes sense, instead of gouging our customers,” he says.

Smith, who's developed his palate over the past few decades while running his retail liquor businesses, has traveled throughout Europe over the past few years, sampling wines from France and Italy to determine the varietals offered at Masō. 

The restaurant's kitchen is run by local chef Rich Demarse, who cut his culinary teeth at the Chiles Group of restaurants—which included Mar Vista, Beach House and Sandbar—before owner Ed Chiles sold the group to Beachside Hospitality Group in 2024.

Sample menu items include fresh oysters sourced from Demarse’s other business, Gulf Coast Crab and Seafood, a fish market in Gulf Gate, as well as crab and herb-crusted grouper. In another dish, Calabrian hot honey adorns thick-cut Nueske's bacon, and items can be accompanied by sides like truffled creamed corn and bulgogi lion’s mane mushrooms from local mushroom grower Petrichor.

“The priority at Masō is elevated service with a fine dining feel, but friendlier and more personal," Smith says. "We know we’ll have so many regulars from the other businesses and we know exactly what they want.”

Smith co-owns the 26-seat restaurant with local firefighter Jeremy Rice and says Rice excels at handling the back-end tech elements so that Smith can focus on providing top-notch experiences for their guests—like a several-course wine pairing menu in the eight-seat private dining room that Smith calls “a taste of Masō.”

“We’ll do an Iberian pork secreto that is amazing. It's like a skirt steak that's inside underneath the shoulder of this pig that only eats acorns," Smith says. "When paired with Romesco sauce and almost any high-end pinot noir, whether from the Russian River Valley or Burgundy, it’s just phenomenal.

“My staff and I are excited to have the opportunity to share things that we love with people in a way that’s either completely new for them or something they know exists but have been missing here in Sarasota,” he says.

Masō will be open Wednesday through Saturday at 2881 Clark Road, Unit 22. For more information, click here.