For Ella Menke, Southside Village has always been more than a neighborhood. It has been home, a backdrop to childhood, a gathering place for family and friends, and, perhaps most importantly, a place where almost everything she needs has always been just a short walk away.

 

“I have lived in the neighborhood almost my whole life,” Ella says. Originally from Sarasota, she grew up surrounded by family and the familiar sights, sounds and people of the Village. Today, she is a student at Florida State University, where she is majoring in exercise physiology with a minor in child development. She is also in her fourth year as a collegiate athlete, a role that has become a defining part of her college experience.

 

“I love running,” she says. “We have the best team and I couldn’t imagine a different college experience.”

 

While Tallahassee has become home during the school year, Sarasota remains the place that shaped her. And Ella admits that one of the things she misses most while she is away is something wonderfully simple: walking up to her family’s restaurant, The Serving Spoon.

 

The restaurant is, naturally, a neighborhood staple, and for Ella, it has been part of everyday life for as long as she can remember.

 

“I grew up spoiled with waffles, bacon, and chia seed pudding at any time of any day!” she says.

 

It is easy to imagine a childhood in which The Serving Spoon wasn’t necessarily thought of as a restaurant at all, but simply another extension of home. Now, when Ella is away at school, those familiar meals and the ability to casually walk over to the Spoon are among the little things she finds herself missing.

 

That sense of familiarity is one of the things Ella loves most about Southside Village.

 

“One of my favorite parts about Southside Village is that it feels like living in a bubble,” she says.

It is a particularly fitting description. Within that “bubble,” she has The Serving Spoon, Morton’s, the Compound and Southside Deli, all close enough to become part of the rhythm of daily life. And when the bubble needs a little more room, the beaches are only a short drive away.

 

For Ella, that combination of convenience and community is hard to beat.

 

“It’s rare,” she says, “to have so many things so close.”

 

But Ella’s life has expanded well beyond the familiar boundaries of the Village. At Florida State, running has taken her to cities she might not otherwise have experienced, including Philadelphia, which became one of her favorite destinations after competing there during this past track season.

 

“I loved exploring the city and how we took the train to get to the track venue downtown,” she recalls.

The experience seems to capture something about Ella at this stage of her life: she is comfortable with where she comes from, but curious about what lies beyond it.

 

Her interests outside of running are similarly active and social. She enjoys studying at coffee shops, swimming at the springs and spending time with friends. And her academic interests point toward a future in which her love of athletics and her interest in people may intersect.

 

Studying exercise physiology while also pursuing a minor in child development gives Ella a broad foundation, but her summer experience at Sarasota Memorial Hospital gave her a glimpse of what it means to put that education into practice.

 

This past summer, she worked as an employee in the rehabilitation pavilion.

 

“It was such a great summer job that gave me insight into the ‘real world’ and working in healthcare,” she says.

 

For someone who has spent much of her life in Southside Village, the experience was another step outside the familiar—and another opportunity to see what the future might hold.

 

Still, no matter how far Ella travels or where her education eventually takes her, there is something reassuring about having a place that has always been home.

 

Her family remains a large part of that connection. Ella’s family includes Natasha Menke, Dan Miller, Christopher, Jordan, Spenser and Parker, along with her sister-in-law Libby and nephews Luke and Liam. The Village has been the setting for countless family memories, everyday routines and the kind of spontaneous interactions that happen naturally when life is lived close together.

 

And perhaps that is what Ella appreciates most about the neighborhood: it has given her both roots and room to grow.

 

She is no longer the little girl who could wander over to The Serving Spoon for waffles and bacon whenever she wanted. She is a college student, a fourth-year collegiate athlete and a young woman beginning to imagine what comes next. But when she returns to Sarasota, the familiar rhythm is still there. . . the restaurant, the coffee shops, the beaches, the people and the streets she has known her entire life.

 

Ella also appreciates what Stroll brings to that sense of community.

 

“I love the Stroll publication and how it creates a small community from the ever growing Sarasota area,” she says. “It’s a nice way to keep up with the locals!”

 

And if Ella could offer one piece of advice to someone who has just moved into Southside Village, it would be simple: get outside.

 

“Make sure to get outside and enjoy the little things about Southside Village,” she says.

It is advice that sounds less like a suggestion from a longtime resident and more like a philosophy

Ella has carried with her as she has grown up: appreciate what is right in front of you.

 

After all, there is something pretty special about growing up in a place where so much of life is just a walk away, and even more special about realizing its value once you leave it.