There's a fast food restaurant on nearly every corner. That isn't news. But lately, if you take a spin down South Tamiami Trail, University Parkway or Cortez Road, you'll see a newer breed of chains-upscale restaurants with stylish décor and more progressive menus than you might expect.

Independent local restaurateurs in the past few years have witnessed an influx of these polished chain establishments-Fleming's, Ruth's Chris, Stonewood Grill and Carrabbas, to name a few. And with all the new retail coming on board in the region, rumors abound that Roy's, Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang are ready to enter the market. Because corporate chains have multimillion-dollar marketing and purchasing budgets independent restaurants can't compete with, many solo local restaurateurs did the smart thing: They teamed up to form The Sarasota-Manatee Originals, now 60 restaurants strong.

The Originals was conceived in 2003 by Michael Klauber of Michael's On East and Michael's Wine Cellar, and colleagues from Euphemia Haye, the Bijou Café, Harry's Continental Kitchens, Caragiulo's and Pattigeorge's. Both Klauber and Euphemia Haye co-owner D'Arcy Arpke had been members for several years of the Originals' parent organization, the Council of Independent Restaurants of America (CIRA).

"We started to see, as our area was starting to grow, that national chains were starting to look at Sarasota and Manatee counties in a big way," Klauber says. "We're all about educating people to the differences between local restaurants and chains and preserving our cultural heritage."

"It's never been our intent to put down any of the chains," says Arpke. "It's merely to get on a level playing field."

And it's quite a field. As with any tourist destination, the restaurant industry in Sarasota and Manatee is big business. In 2004 more than 1,000 individual restaurants and firms in the two counties employed 20,000 people to serve the 130,000 seats that generated nearly $1 billion in gross sales, according to Labor Market Statistics of the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Florida Department of Revenue and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Klauber and the other Originals members hired CAP Creative, a local branding and public relations group, to help develop a cohesive image and marketing strategy. "We spent the first year doing research and understanding our brand and coming up with a way to present [it]," says Klauber. "We might not be able to buy like the chains, but we realize we can market like the chains. As a group, we're very strong."

Aside from promoting their businesses, members also use the group as a way to publicize job openings and check employee references. A health insurance plan for group members is also in the works.

"The bottom line is, clout counts," says Don Luria, president of the CIRA and an independent restaurant owner in Tucson, Ariz. "The more people you have, the more restaurants in your group, the more buying power."

While other CIRA chapters have formed buying groups to get better prices from food and wine wholesalers, the diverse menus and strong individualism of the Sarasota-Manatee chapter made marketing dollars a more practical contribution to ask of distributors. Since wholesalers are dependent on the restaurants' business, many have agreed to fund marketing tools such as the Originals' dining guide and their Web site, www.freshoriginals.com, which draws several hundred visitors a day.

"We've been more or less branding ourselves as something that people who travel, who know the difference and have regard for independent businesses will look for," says Arpke.

That's a smart tack, says Virginia Haley, executive director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau. Tourists are drawn to areas with a diverse restaurant scene, Haley says. "When we talk to visitors, they want to know that there's fine dining and a variety of dining before they decide on a destination," she says.

Investing an appropriate amount of time and money in marketing is something that many independent restaurateurs overlook, says Judi Gallagher, a local restaurant consultant who works with both independents and chains. "I think that a lot of small, independent restaurants don't understand that it's very important for people to understand who they are, what they are and what they're serving," Gallagher says. "The best investment that any small restaurant can do is for the owner and manager to take a night course in marketing and public relations."

The Originals also frequently participate in local charity events, another extremely effective way to gain exposure, Gallagher says. Catering such events introduces a restaurant's product to a wider audience. By donating gift certificates to charity auctions, for example, auctioneers talk up individual Originals' restaurants as well as the group itself.