Restaurant company, behind 5-star fun motto, nearly doubles locations in less than a year

The west Bradenton headquarters of Oysters Rock Hospitality, parent of Anna Maria Oyster Bar, has its own version of a curse jar. 

Yet instead of a curse, employees with the fast-growing brand of family-friendly, casual seafood locations, have to drop a dollar in the jug if they say the word “store” instead of restaurants. The difference between the two, says founder John Horne, who doubles as Chief Executive Oyster — that’s a real title — is both symbolic and substantive. And in a real-life example of how much the company is growing, the word store is being dropped a lot: through Dec. 2 there was $68 in the jar, plus five AMOB Bucks, staff currency used for meals and merchandise. The money will be donated at the end of the year to the company’s Dive into Reading fund.