Road Tips

Stinky's Fish Camp - Santa Rosa Beach, FL

With snow and ice on the ground and still homebound due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to reminisce a bit about some of the warmer places we've visited over the past few years.  One of those places was the Emerald Coast of Florida where my cousin and his wife retired to over eight years ago.  My wife and I made the trek down there for our anniversary in 2014 and ate at some great to not so great places while we were there.  This entry was one of the more memorable meals we've had in all our travels - not only for the great seafood, but for the "present" which lived up to the restaurant's name that the valet "dropped" in our car when we left the restaurant.  Please enjoy this look back at Stinky's Fish Camp in Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

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On our first night along Florida's Emerald Coast, I told my cousin and his wife that we really wanted fresh caught seafood for dinner.  They contemplated a number of places that proliferate the area, but decided that we needed to go to a place with a not too tantalizing name - Stinky's Fish Camp.  They said it was one of the most popular seafood restaurants in the area.  That sounded perfect for us.   

Jim Richard is a native of Lafayette, LA in the heart of Cajun country.  Richard came from a family of chefs and food purveyors - his family exported turtle meat, frog legs and rabbit back to their ancestral home in France.  Richard went to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and ended up becoming the sous chef at the famous Commander's Palace in New Orleans.  

Along the way he met a young Mississippi born and raised chef, Brannon Janca, who learned the art of southern seafood cooking from his grandparents.  Janca went off to college, but he eventually dropped out to enter a culinary school in New Orleans.  Janca had previous experience at the famous Gautreau's Restaurant in New Orleans before he moved to Northwest Florida in 2001 to work at the Lake Place, a restaurant that Richard and he bought in Santa Rosa Beach.  

A devastating fire in 2006 wiped out the Lake Place and Richard moved his talents for a short time over to the Harbor Grille in Destin.  Along with chef Todd Meisner - also a graduate of the C.I.A. in Hyde Park - Richard and Janca opened Stinky's Fish Camp in 2007 in a small building that was next to the original Lake Place.  The trio formed the Word of Mouth Restaurant Group and started Blue Mountain Catering.  In 2009, they rebuilt the original Lake Place, but by that time the Stinky's Fish Camp name had stuck.  The called the new restaurant Stinky's Fish Camp and the old place Stinky's Bait Shack.  

Richard said in a magazine article that he never intended for the name Stinky's to stick.  During his days at the Commander's Palace in New Orleans, the kitchen was hectic, cooks came and went quickly, and there were times he didn't even know the names of people that he was working with.  Each chef was nicknamed "Stink", which, according to Richard, was part fun, part meanness, but sort of a camaraderie term of endearment.  When they opened the casual restaurant in the small building next to the old Lake Place property, Stinky's was supposed to be a temporary name until the new place was built.  Stinky's Fish Camp had taken off and they just went with it.  

The other part of the story is that Richard was going through some of his grandfather's things years after opening Stinky's Fish Camp and he found a menu for a restaurant by the name of "Skunk" where his grandfather was the chef.  It featured spicy Cajun food in the front and illegal gambling in the back.  Richard took this to be a message from his long-passed grandfather that he was on the right track.  

Famed chef and television star Emeril Lagasse has a home along the Emerald Coast and he hosted a program on the Cooking Channel called Emeril's Florida.  Stinky's Fish Camp has been featured on one of the show's episodes.  Here's a picture of Brannon Janca, Emeril Lagasse, Jim Richard and Todd Meisner.  (Photo courtesy 30A Eats.) 

Richard recently opened a new restaurant in New Orleans - Trenasse, a Cajun term for a waterway that leads to a fishing hole.  Trenasse is more upscale than Stinky's and features fresh Gulf seafood and traditional Cajun dishes including rabbit.  But some things that he's perfected at Stinky's - including the Stinky's Stew that is a combination of gumbo and cioppino - are on the menu at Trenasse.

Stinky's Fish House is located on the scenic 30A Highway that not only is the main drag through the beach towns along the Emerald Coast, but it also signifies a frame of mind - laid back, relaxing, no worries.  (See map)  After walking along the beach for a bit, my wife, my cousin John, and his wife Bonnie jumped in our car to head down 30A toward Stinky's.  However, the torrential rains that bore down on the Florida panhandle a couple three weeks prior had washed out a portion of the road along 30A.  We had to double back and take a detour up to U.S. Highway 98, then go back toward the beach from the western terminus of 30A.  It was a Sunday night and we didn't expect a lot of people at Stinky's, but the place was packed.  They offer free valet parking at the restaurant and we took advantage of that.  

We walked in the front door of Stinky's Fish Camp and were greeted by a couple young ladies at the hostess stand.  They told us it would be a 45 minute wait for a table.  We went to the bar and my cousin had a gift card for Stinky's and he used it for drinks at the bar.  I was surprised - actually more delighted - to see that they had Kona beers on tap at Stinky's bar.  But not the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale that is my beer of choice these days.  However, I did see that they had Sweetwater 420, a very good pale ale that I fell in love with a few years back.  My cousin was trying to get me to try a beer from the Grayton Beer Company, a small locally owned brewery just down 30A.  He said, "Sweetwater is out of Atlanta.  You can get that anywhere!"  

I said, "Well, I can't get it in Iowa, John."  He understood after that.  (Note - at that time you couldn't get Sweetwater 420 in the Midwest.  But it's pretty much now commonly found in grocery and liquor stores.)

On the wall near the bar were a couple posters for The Steenos, a husband and wife musical duo who are friends of ours that my wife and I met through my cousin when he lived in Milwaukee years ago.  Bob and Lisa Steeno retired about 10 years ago and moved back down to the Emerald Coast as Bob was in the stationed in the area in the late 70's. Accomplished musicians, Bob and Lisa regularly play a number of places around the Emerald Coast and have a standing engagement for Sunday brunch at Stinky's Fish Camp.  (Bob has a once a week solo gig at the smaller and more casual Stinky's Bait Shack next door.)  It was sort of funny and neat to see our friends on posters at Stinky's.  

We hung around outside for a bit before Bonnie made the suggestion to go over and hang out at Stinky's Bait Shack while we waited.  We took our drinks and walked across the parking lot and into the Bait Shack.  The decor was funky, but fresh.  A small area in the corner is where musicians - including Bob Steeno - would set up and play.  There was a bar and a few table set up in the area as you come in.  Toward the back and to the right, a large gift shop was in a spot that used to be a dining room of the original Stinky's Fish Camp before it moved next door.  

We were there for about a half-hour and I was ready for another beer.  I looked in their glass encased beer refrigerator and saw that they had the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale beers in bottles.  I was in heaven.  I immediately fell in love with Stinky's Bait Shack.  

Each year, Stinky's sponsors a pompano fishing contest.  Actually, I didn't know that there was a fish called a pompano, but I had heard of Pompano Beach situated north of Miami.  I was looking at the 2014 tournament results on a board behind the bar in the Bait Shop and it turned out that our friend Bob Steeno got second place and $400 bucks.  "Bobby won't say for sure, but he thinks the guy who won it may have cheated," my cousin told me.  "The guy who won it is a commercial fisherman and he came in a day or two before the end of the tournament (it runs April 1 thru May 15) with a bigger fish than Bob."  First place is $2500 bucks.  

Our buzzer lit up not long after and we were escorted into the dining room to a four-seat hardwood table.  We were given menus and not long after our server for the evening, Billy, came over to greet us.  I was ready for another beer and while I noticed that they had the Kona Longboard Lager and the Koko Brown on tap, I wondered if they had the Big Wave Golden Ale in a bottle like they did over at the Bait Shop.  Unfortunately they didn't and this time my cousin talked me into trying the Grayton Original.  It was a good beer, but not one that knocked my socks off.  

Billy rattled off a couple of their specials that evening.  The first was an appetizer plate of handcrafted charcuterie that featured housemade smoked andouille sausage, morcilla sausage (a Spanish-style blood sausage), and a country pâté jam made with rabbit and served with Creole mustard.  The dinner specials were a grilled Gulf cobia fish with crawfish maque-choux (mock SHOO - a traditional Cajun side with corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions and sometimes with garlic and celery) and pepper jack cheese grits.  (Lots of places had cheese with grits along the Emerald Coast.  I like my grits plain with a little bitter mixed in.)  

The other dinner special that evening was a traditional surf and turf that featured tempera lobster meat with a 12 ounce ribeye steak. It came with roasted red and fingerling potatoes, roasted locally grown squash and served with a bearnaise and portobello demi glace.  Now, THAT sounded damned good.  As did a number of other things on the menu including the Oysters ALL WAYS - 10 different ways to prepare oysters including rare, steamed, with smoked bacon, with garlic, and gratin.  Oysters and shrimp sounded damned good to me. 

When Billy came back to take our order, my wife got one of the catches of the day, the grilled red grouper; Bonnie got the grilled shrimp and angel hair pasta entree; John got the other catch of the day - grilled pompano.  The catch of the day entrees came with stir-fry veggies and Brabant potatoes - also a traditional Cajun side dish that features cubed potatoes - slightly boiled - then finished in a fry pan with butter, oil, onions, parsley, Worcestershire sauce and garlic.    

Me - I ordered a dozen oysters on a half shell and the peel-and-eat shrimp appetizers.  I also got a cup of their gumbo, too.  I wanted to get close to a crustacean and bottom-feeder overload as I could that evening.  

The gumbo came out first and it was a generous size for a bowl.  I like a good gumbo and this was some of the best I'd ever had.  It had a smoky flavor, but not overpowering.  Thick cuts of seafood, chicken and andouille sausage were mixed in.  It was simply outstanding.  

  The oysters were big and meaty, but they weren't from the oyster beds at nearby Apalachicola that are so famous.  Billy told us that they were Louisiana oysters. Years of drought in the Southeast coupled with water diversion upstream on the Apalachicola River has choked out the brackish water in which oysters thrive in Apalachicola Bay.  But it was no matter to me.  The oysters were thick and flavorful.  

Everyone's meal came out including my peel-and-eat shrimp.  There were just a half-dozen in the plate.  I immediately said to Billy, "Bring me another one of these right away."  The shrimp were good sized and boiled precisely.  They were fresh and just wonderful.  

 
My wife's grilled red grouper sat on top of the stir-fry vegetables and the Brabant potatoes.  The fish was light and flaky and had a seasoning on the outer side of it.  My wife declared her fish to be "wonderful".  She traded me a bite of her fish for one of my peel-and-eat shrimp and it was very good. 

John's grilled pompano was similar to my wife's in appearance.  I had never had either red grouper or pompano before, but they seemed to be two popular Gulf coast fish.  Looking back, I wish I would have tried the pompano just once.  

 
Bonnie's grilled shrimp and angel hair pasta was topped with a toasted garlic pesto sauce and shaved pecorino cheese.  A small grilled fish filet came with it.  It was swimming a the sauce and looked excellent.  

After dinner - and I had nearly achieved seafood overload - Billy came back to tempt us with dessert.  I didn't want anything, nor did Bonnie or John.  However, my wife ended up ordering a piece of the key lime pie and asked for four forks.  The key lime pie slice had a small dollop of real whipped cream and was sitting on a squiggle of strawberry sauce with fresh cut strawberry slices on the side.  It was a nice presentation and an even better pie.  The tangy and tart key lime pie was a nice finish, even though I was only able to have a couple three small bites.  I was simply stuffed.

As we were leaving Stinky's Fish Camp, I gave my valet ticket to a young guy who ran over to get our car.  I gave him a five buck tip for bringing the car around and we got in and shut the door.  There was some horrific odor in the car and it was too late before I figured out that the valet had to have just dropped a horrible greasy fart in the car stinking up the environs.  I said, "My God, I think the valet shit his pants in the car!"  Had I known he had just flared out a smelly air biscuit before he gave us our car, I would have withheld the tip.  We all laughed and laughed over that.  I figured that was a signature of a place called Stinky's - to leave an eye-watering smell in your car courtesy of the valet.  

The valet farting in our car aside, we ate in a lot of very good seafood restaurants while we were on the Emerald Coast.  But my cousin and his wife spoiled us by taking us to the best seafood place we encountered on our first night.  I loved the food, the atmosphere, the service - everything about Stinky's was excellent.  We had contemplated going back there for at least lunch at some point - and we did a disservice to ourselves for not going back toward Santa Rosa Beach for dinner on some of our nights.  There were some good to very good restaurants that we encountered during our stay, but I can't think of one that was better than Stinky's Fish Camp.

Whataburger - Miramar Beach, FL

On our trip to Florida earlier this year, my wife took the first driving shift of the Nashville to Florida leg of the journey.  After driving through torrential rains in Northern Alabama and through traffic in Birmingham, she decided she'd had enough and pulled over south of Birmingham to have a bathroom break and to have me drive the rest of the way.  She pulled up to a gas station/convenience store that was next door to a Whataburger.  Whataburger!  One of my all-time favorite burger places!  I hadn't been to a Whataburger in probably 12 years.  We'd had a large breakfast and it was around noon, but I was far from hungry.  But I got to wondering - if there are Whataburgers in Alabama, I wonder if there are any in the Florida panhandle?  The simple answer was - yes.  We found one in Miramar Beach, not far from our hotel.

Harmon Dobson was a post-World War II entrepreneur in Texas dabbling in diamond trading, shipbuilding and oil drilling.  It was 1950 and Dobson had a vision of a hamburger where people would have to take one of his burgers by both hands, bite into it and say, "What - a - burger!"  He shared his vision with Paul Burton and promised to finance Burton in the new venture.  To get things started, Dobson trademarked the Whataburger name in June of 1950.  

Instead of a two ounce "slider" type burger where the meat was frozen before thawing and cooking, Dobson's and Burton's burgers were 4 ounce burgers - fresh ground beef, never frozen.  Each Whataburger was going to be topped with fresh veggies - chopped lettuce, three tomato slices, four dill pickle slices, chopped raw onions, mustard and ketchup.  And each burger would not be grilled until the customer ordered it.   

Harmon Dobson went to a local bakery to get 5-inch buns (instead of the regular 2.5-inch buns).  Since 5-inch buns were a new concept, the Dobson and the bakery had to find bun baking trays that were able to accommodate the larger buns.  Once that was accomplished, the first Whataburger opened in Corpus Christi in August of 1950.   Burton made $50 the first day and four days later they sold over 550 burgers.  Whataburger was an instant hit.  

Pictured right - Harmon Dobson standing outside the original Whataburger stand.

Because of that, Dobson had to go back to the bakery to see if they could make more buns.  The bakery couldn't afford to get more of the bun trays, so Dobson financed the purchase of more.  

After a year in business, Dobson realized that at 25 cents a burger he was losing money.  He proposed raising the price to 30 cents - something that Burton vehemently resisted.  Burton and Dobson decided that it was best to part ways, but as part of a severance to Burton, Dobson gave him the rights to future Whataburger franchise locations in San Antonio.   Burton eventually put Whataburger locations in San Antonio and ran them up until his death in 1970.  Dobson owned the full rights to Whataburger after the break-up.

Dobson raised the price of the burgers to 30 cents, explaining to customers on a sign in front of his business, "Folks, we priced our burgers too low and we lost our shirts.  Sorry, but we gotta raise our price to 30 cents."  People still came in for Whataburgers at 30 cents each, and they kept coming in a few months later when Dobson was forced to raise the price to 35 cents.  

Dobson was a pilot and he used to fly his plane above Corpus Christi with trailing a Whataburger banner, dropping coupons for free Whataburgers.  He also realized the importance of eye-catching architecture and colors.  He adopted the distinctive orange and white-striped color scheme along with the A-frame structure that would house future Whataburger locations.  The first A-frame Whataburger location opened in Odessa, TX in 1960.  

Whataburger's first franchisee was awarded to Joe Andrews of Alice, TX in 1953.  By that time, Dobson had three Corpus Christi locations and soon opened his fourth in nearby Kingsville, TX.  In 1959, Harmon Dobson opened the first Whataburger outside of Texas in Pensacola, FL.  By 1967, 40 Whataburger locations were spread from Arizona, Texas, Tennesee and Florida.  

In April of 1967, Dobson and a business associate were taking off in Dobson's private plane from a small airport in LaPorte, TX.  Something happened during the ascent and the plane crashed killing both men.  Harmon Dobson's will stated that he wanted the Whataburger business to continue to grow in the vision he created if anything should happen to him.  His wife, Grace, took over the business.  But she wasn't interested in the day-to-day operation of the business and subsequent head executives were from outside the Dobson family.  

While Whataburger grew over the next 25 years, corporate management lost sight of Harmon Dobson's mission.  They introduced breakfast items, salads, soups and sandwiches.  The original Whataburger got lost in the mayhem of the menu.  Finally in the early 90's, franchisees threatened an uprising with the son of the original franchisee, Joe Andrews, Jr., leading the charge.  Sales had dropped over the previous six years, locations needed to be modernized, and many franchisees felt the company had lost focus on its core product - the Whataburger.  

In December of 1993, Harmon and Grace Dobson's son, Tom, was unanimously elected as the president and CEO of Whataburger.  Almost immediately Tom Dobson instituted changes that included going back to making a "made-to-order" family meal at a fair price.  Soon after the younger Dobson took over, Whataburger opened its 500th location.  They were named the No. 1 restaurant franchise by the Nation's Restaurant News in 1995.  

Pictured right - Tom Dobson

Today, Whataburger's corporate offices are located in San Antonio having moved there in 2009 because of a more plentiful talent pool for corporate employees.  Tom Dobson is still the Chairman of the Board of Whataburger with Preston Atkinson serving as the company's C.E.O.  There are over 700 Whataburger locations in about a dozen Southern states from Arizona to Florida.  Over 600 locations are owned by the Dobson family.  Whataburger does over $1 billion in sales annually making them the 8th largest burger chain in the U.S.

The Whataburger in Miramar Beach is right along the main drag, Highway 98, also known as the Emerald Coast Highway (see map).  It wasn't far from the Hilton Sandestin Beach where we stayed for a few nights during our visit.  It was well after the lunch rush when we pulled into the parking lot and went inside.  

This Whataburger location is like many others that I've been to over the past 35 years. It's clean, bright, and comfortable enough for a casual fast food-style restaurant.  The only thing is that Whataburger's food is made to order - they give you a number after you order and bring the food out to you.  

The menu is on the board behind the front counter.  My standard order at a Whataburger is a double-meat with cheese and everything.  That's a 1/2 lb. double cheeseburger with the usual lettuce, tomato, pickles, chopped onions, mustard and ketchup that you find on any Whataburger - and the way it's been for over 60 years.  They have single, double and triple meat Whataburgers as well as a jalapeno cheese Whataburger, a bacon cheese Whataburger, and an avocado bacon Whataburger served on Texas toast.  

They also have a number of specialty burgers at Whataburger including a double meat Whataburger with green chiles, an A-1 Whataburger topped with bacon and A-1 sauce, and a Monterrey-melt double meat Whataburger topped with melted slices of American and Monterrey Jack cheese and a blend of grilled peppers & onions, finished with a dollop of jalapeno ranch dressing.  The also have breaded and grilled chicken sandwiches as well as chicken strips and chicken bites.  

So, I stepped up to the counter and ordered a double meat Whataburger with everything.  Cindy stepped up next and ordered the same thing.  Immediately, I said, "Oh, honey.  I don't know.  That's a big-assed burger."  

The lady at the cash register pretty much echoed the same thing.  "I don't think you can eat a double meat, girl,"  she said.  Then she showed Cindy that she could get the double meat Whataburger Jr. with cheese.  Cindy went with that.  She also ordered some of their fries and a vanilla shake. 

It was about 10 minutes or so before one of the Whataburger workers came out with our burgers.  Double wrapped in yellow paper, the burgers were hot off the grill.  

It had been a long time since I'd had a Whataburger but from the first bite it was exactly the taste that I remembered.  Flat grilled burger patties, toasted bun, a plethora of toppings including the chopped fresh white onions.  It was just a fabulous burger all the way around.

Cindy had to concur.  She really liked her double meat Whataburger Jr.  She said, "Everything is so fresh and tasty.  This would be a great burger even if we were in a regular restaurant.  Heck, this is better than a lot of places we've HAD hamburgers in!"  

Another thing that I love about Whataburger is their spicy ketchup.  When the lady brought out our food she also had a little holder of regular and the spicy ketchup from Whataburger.  The spicy ketchup has a minor kick to it - nothing that is too forward or forceful in taste - but enough to let you know that it's got some zip to it.  They may it with a red jalapeno puree added to the base.  With the fries that Cindy had ordered, I  had to dip a couple into the spicy Whataburger ketchup.  I even ended up putting some on my burger.  It's killer stuff.  (I understand that you can get Whataburger spicy ketchup in some grocery stores in the South and Southwest.)  

Cindy became a Whataburger convert that day.  On our way home through Alabama, we found another Whataburger just north of Birmingham and stopped in there for lunch.  We pretty much had the same thing that we had down at Miramar Beach.  The consistency within the Whataburger locations is what makes it a great place for a quick burger with no frills.  Whataburger is truly one of the most underrated "casual food" burgers in America.  I just wish they had them closer to the Midwest.

Whale's Tail - Destin, FL

One day while out doing some sightseeing up and down Florida's Emerald Coast with my cousin and his wife, we decided to go get some lunch at a seaside restaurant.  We found a place that my cousin was somewhat familiar with, but hadn't ever been to before - the Whale's Tail on Miramar Beach in Destin.  We parked down Scenic Gulf Highway from the restaurant (see map) and walked over to the place.  

For over 30 years, the Whale's Tail has been serving locals and tourists that come to the Destin area.  It is part of the Seascape Resort which is located just across the highway from the Whale's Tail.  It's open to the general public and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There's also a downstairs bar in the Whale's Tail for easy access for people on the beach.

The view from the Whale's Tail is spectacular.  Cindy wanted to go somewhere where we'd get a great view and hear the waves coming in.  You get that and more from the deck at the Whale's Tail.  The gulf waters were about 200 feet from the building.

We were greeted by a young hostess with a thick Eastern European accent who wanted to know if we wanted to eat inside or out on the deck.  We opted for the outside seating.  The deck was nothing more than a series of picnic tables - and not very comfortable at that.  

The inside seating was a little nicer, but didn't offer the view the deck did.  it had a nautical theme and featured stirdy tables and chairs - much more comfortable than the picnic tables on the deck.  There was a small upstairs bar to complement the bigger bar downstairs.  

We were looking through the menu when our server, Miriam, came over to greet us.  She, too, had a thick Eastern European accent - possibly Russian.  I could hear a number of the waitstaff talking in some sort of dialect that sounded like they may have come from that part of the world.  Actually, we encountered a number of Eastern European service people during our trip to the Emerald Coast.   

The menu at the Whale's Tail is pretty basic.  Their breakfast menu features three different types of omelets, French toast, a basic egg sandwich and the standard two eggs scrambled or fried, choice of bacon or sausage patties, fried potatoes or grits and toast.  The dinner part of the menu was also rather boring with crab legs, steamed or fried shrimp, oysters and a choice of three types of fish - mahi, grouper or tuna.  

The lunch menu wasn't much more exciting.  They had a burger, a patty melt, a grilled ham & cheese sandwich, and either fried shrimp or fried oyster Po-boy sandwiches.  The menu looked like it was designed for a 17-year-old kid to handle working as a grill cook for the first time.   

Interestingly, they had grouper fish tacos on the menu and that's what Cindy got.  They were three soft tortilla shells filled with seasoned grilled grouper with chopped tomatoes, lettuce and red onions.  A small bit of cole slaw came on the side.  Cindy thought they were delicious.  

Against my better judgement, I went with the Cuban sandwich.  I have yet to find a great Cuban sandwich outside of the ones I've had in Miami years ago.  The sweet Cuban bread makes the sandwich.  I figured that since we were close to the Cuban sandwich strongholds of Tampa and Miami, they could have a good one at the Whale's Tail.  I was wrong.  This was nothing more than a pressed panini sandwich with ham, cheese and pickles.  It was, well, blah...

Bonnie went with the crab cake sandwich which she thought was pretty good.  John couldn't find anything appealing to him on the menu so he just ended up getting the 1/4 pound hot dog.  We flipped him a small ration of shit about getting a hot dog and he said, "Hey, I felt like having a hot dog!"  Actually, I know what he means as I like to get a good hot dog from time to time.  But the hot dog at the Whale's Tail looked pretty basic.

Cindy couldn't eat her full plate of fish tacos, so she offered me one of hers after I'd finished half of my sandwich.  They tacos were very good - fresh grouper with a bit of a spicy seasoning on them.  The chopped veggies were fresh and went well with the fish.  Once again, Cindy got something that was much better than what I had.  

Other than the spectacular view, I can't really give a glowing report on the Whale's Tail.   The menu was basic, my sandwich wasn't anything special, the service was efficient if somewhat robotic, and the picnic tables were a little uncomfortable. The fish tacos were very good, however. I think the Whale's Tail is a place that you go to in a pinch for a quick and basic meal, or you go to hang out in the bar and watch the surf come in.  Of all the places we ate at on our trip to Florida, this was probably at the bottom.   

The Great Southern Cafe - Seaside, FL

During our stay along Florida's Emerald Coast, we noticed a restaurant that had an outdoor seating area in the same central square in Seaside that housed Modica Market.  (Click here for the entry on Modica Market.)   They were open for breakfast and we took note of that fact.  One morning when we felt like we needed to get out of the hotel to scout around, we ended up at the Great Southern Cafe for breakfast.  

The Great Southern Restaurant is a "farm to fork" establishment under the watchful eye of Chef Jim Shirley.  As a youngster, Jim Shirley was the son of a Navy pilot who was stationed all over the world.  He learned to love many of the various local cuisines that he encountered while growing up.  But his family roots were in the South and the staples of traditional Southern foods that his grandma made when he was a young boy were always his favorite.  

Pictured right - Jim Shirley

Shirley opened his first restaurant in 1995 - Madison's Bar in Pensacola.  Two years later, he opened his second place - The Screaming Coyote.  Both restaurants focused on modern and traditional Southern cuisine.  Shirley became famous for his signature dish "Grits a Ya Ya" - which primarily consists of a mixture of bacon, spinach, and mushrooms with jumbo shrimp in a cream sauce served over smoked Gouda cheese grits.  Along the way, Jim Shirley became executive chef and co-owner of the Great Southern Restaurant Group which owns The Fish House, Atlas Oyster House and Jackson's Steakhouse in Pensacola.  Shirley opened the Great Southern Cafe in Seaside in 2006 and earlier this year he opened The Bay - a Southern/Asian fusion restaurant - just off the causeway in Santa Rosa Beach.  In addition to his duties as a chef, Shirley also wrote a weekly column on Southern cooking and is active in both statewide and local restaurant and civic organizations.  

The Great Southern Cafe is on the north side of the Central Square in Seaside, just off 30A.  (See map) Since it was a beautiful Florida morning, we ended up sitting on the patio at the restaurant.  They had a nice bar area, one that I could see myself hanging out at on a warm afternoon.  

We were seated at a table near the bar and we were greeted by our server, Wendy.  We had gotten our menus from the hostess and the first thing that Cindy saw was that they had beignets.  The first thing I saw was that they had a loaded bloody Mary.  We couldn't help but order both.

The beignets came out soft and warm.  A generous amount of powered sugar topped the beignets with a fruit medley off to the side.  Maple syrup came with the beignets, but we didn't even bother adding any.  The beignets on their own were a wonderful start to breakfast. 

And my bloody Mary was a spot-hitter.  The mix was a bit spicy, not enough that it was too spicy.  A long skewer of olives, pickled okra, pepperoncini and spiced green beans were mixed in with the bloody Mary.   I usually get a beer chaser with my bloody Mary, but this was enough.  More than enough.  

The menu at the Great Southern Cafe features a number of "farm-to-fork" items.  Locally grown produce and meats from area farms are a staple at the restaurant as well as a number of fresh catch seafood.  But they also had breakfast staples such as vanilla pancakes, waffles, eggs Benedict, and biscuits and gravy.  They also featured Jim Shirley's Grits a Ya Ya dish (which I almost got), steak and eggs, and a fresh catch of the day entree that was char-grilled and topped with a choice of a house-made salsa, a spicy Creole hollandaise sauce, or olive tapenade.  It came with smoked Gouda cheese grits, scrambled eggs and a fresh-baked biscuit.   

I ended up getting the corned beef hash/eggs Benedict plate.  A side of cheesy grits came with it.  (Cheesy grits were a popular breakfast item along the Emerald Coast.  I sort of just like good ol' plain grits.)  And I got a side of the house-made sage sausage patties.  I didn't care much for the cheesy grits and the sage sausage patties were flavorful, but very dry.  However, the eggs Benedict/corned beef hash was just excellent.  The hollandaise sauce was light and unobtrusive.  The corned beef was somewhat salty, but had a great flavor.  The combination of the eggs Benedict and corned beef hash was a winner.    

Cindy ordered the veggie frittata - an open-faced Egg Beaters omelet topped with zucchini, yellow squash, red onions and red peppers, then all that was topped with Romano cheese.   She said, "This is perfect!"  She said it was very good, but very rich - even with the Egg Beaters.  She made a significant dent in it before she said she'd had enough.  Had she not had the beignets, she probably would have been able to finish it off.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast and our visit to the Great Southern Cafe.  Wendy did a great job taking care of us, making sure that we had everything we needed without hovering over us the whole time.  The food was interesting and outstanding.  And we loved the patio setting of the restaurant.  We had a lot of memorable meals during our trip to Florida, but maybe none more than the one at the Great Southern Cafe mainly for the combination of the ambiance and the excellent and interesting food.  

Callahan's Restaurant and Deli - Destin, FL

There's nothing worse than getting a bug while you're on vacation.  That happened to me during the last portion of our vacation to Florida's Emerald Coast.  I don't know if it was bad seafood - or maybe too MUCH seafood - but one day I had stomach problems that just wouldn't quit.  We had planned on trying a seafood place for dinner that night, but I wasn't really up for it.  We decided that maybe a sandwich or something like that would be what I needed.  Looking through Urbanspoon and a few other local websites we found Callahan's Restaurant and Deli in Destin.  Overall online reviews seemed to be positive, so we took off to find Callahan's. 

Established in 1992, Callahan's has long been a favorite of locals and tourists alike.  It's topped the "best of" lists for deli's and comfort food in both local magazine and newspaper polls a number of years.  Suzanne Chesbro is the current owner of Callahan's.

Callahan's is located off the main drag in Destin - Harbor Boulevard - near the Target store.  (see map)  If you're not familiar with the area, you can drive right past the road that takes you to Callahan's, like we did.  After figuring out that we'd passed it, we pulled into the next opening of a strip mall and doubled back.

A large group of people were milling about the entry way waiting for tables.  We both thought, "Oh, no.  Wonder how long of a wait this will be?"  When we went to the hostess stand, we found out that the group of people were all together and waiting for tables to be placed together in the dining room.  The hostess said that she could seat us right away.  She dropped off a couple of menus for us and our server, Luis (pronounced Lewis) came over to greet us.  

The dining room at Callahan's is well-lit and sort of spacious.  The windows were covered with wooden shutter doors and were still closed well after the sun went down.   Most of the tables were four-seaters that could be easily moved around to accommodate larger groups.  

They have an old fashioned meat counter up front in the restaurant.  Meats and cheeses were available for sale out of the refrigerated cases.  Maybe a good ol' deli-style sandwich is what I needed.  

The dinner menu at Callahan's was quite extensive, and that sort of worried us.  We've found that a restaurant that has such a long menu of different items, they usually do everything just all right, but not very good.  They featured a wide assortment of salads, pasta dishes, seafood, steaks, chicken entrees and sandwiches.  The menu is also quite kid friendly, as well.  It was almost too much to choose from.  

Cindy had pretty much decided on the pot roast - it came with mashed potatoes and gravy with a selected vegetable.  Cindy asked Luis what the vegetable was and he told her carrots.  She sort of said, "Oh...OK."  

Luis said, "I can get you something else.  I know we have a zucchini and squash medley in the kitchen tonight."  Cindy perked up and said she'd take that.   She also got her choice of a salad or soup.  She asked what the soup was that evening and Luis told her it was a potato ham soup.  She went with that.  

I ended up with just getting the grilled pastrami and Swiss sandwich.  Potato chips came with the sandwich and I told Luis that would be fine, even though I probably wouldn't be eating many - if any - of the potato chips.   

After Cindy finished her cup of the potato ham soup, Luis brought our dinners out to us.  Cindy's eyes got big.  There was a lot of food on her plate.  Both the pot roast and the mashed potatoes were covered with a brown beef gravy.  Luis apologized for the carrots on the plate, but Cindy said, "Oh, gosh, that's all right.  I like carrots, but I just wondered if there was anything else other than carrots that you had to offer."  

My pastrami and Swiss sandwich was pretty basic.   It was oozing with a generous amount of Swiss cheese on top of a bed of pastrami.  Tomato slices and lettuce usually come on the sandwich, but I had Luis tell the cook to leave them off.  The sandwich had a nice crunchy outer shell from the grill and the flavor of the Swiss cheese and pastrami was a great combination.  With a little yellow mustard to give it a little more flavor, it was a good sandwich.

Cindy thoroughly liked her pot roast.  She offered me a couple bites of the roast beef and gravy.  The gravy was a bit salty, but it was thick and flavorful.  The roast beef was tender and cut easily with a fork.  It was probably the comfort food meal that I needed more than a pastrami and Swiss sandwich.  But that would have been way too much food for my somewhat uneasy stomach at that point.  

While we have some trepidation with a restaurant that tries to do to much with their menu, we couldn't come up with any negatives with our meal at Callahan's.  The food was fine and basic, Luis' service was impeccable, the place was clean and bright, it hit us just right on a night where we needed to step away from rich seafood or Cajun food.  If you're hungry and can't figure out exactly what you want - or if you're in a large group who can't make up their minds what to have for dinner - Callahan's is good place to go.  

Modica Market - Seaside, FL

While we were on the Emerald Coast of Florida, we stayed a couple nights with my cousin, John, and his wife, Bonnie.  One of their favorite places they like to go to is a small market/restaurant in the planned community of Seaside, Modica Market, not far from their house in Santa Rosa Beach.  Bonnie knew that my wife is big on breakfast and she proposed going to Modica Market for one of their Belgian waffles one morning.

Charles and Sarah Modica operated a small grocery store in Bessemer, AL.  In 1988, the Modica's moved south to the new Seaside development that was being built along the coast.  They built one of the first houses in the planned community and after developer Robert Davis found out that the couple had grocery store experience, he asked them to own and operate the small market that he was building in the city center of Seaside.  Davis envisioned a small market that sold a little bit of everything, a place where people would have to make multiple trips to encouraging a neighborhood feel to the place.  

In 1989, the Modica's opened their market that catered to not only the local population, but to the thousands of tourists who came to the Emerald Coast each year.  Modica Market quickly became a local landmark with Charles Modica, Sr. being one of the area's most loved icons.  Dozens of local kids got their first job working at Modica Market, many of them calling Charles, Sr. as their first and foremost role model.

Pictured right - Charles Modica, Sr.

Charles Modica, Jr., and his sister, Carmel, also helped in the store.  Charles, Jr. worked along side his dad until Charles, Sr. retired in 2006, handing the reins over to Charles, Jr.  Charles Modica, Sr. died in 2010 and part of Highway 30A that runs through Seaside is named the Charles Modica, Sr. Hospitality Way. 

Carmel Modica lives just around the corner from my cousin and his wife and they've become good friends with her.  In fact, when Spring Break hits the Emerald Coast, my cousin volunteers at Modica Market to watch for shoplifting and to help out restocking shelves.   

Modica Market is located in Seaside's Central Square.  (see map)  The Central Square features shops and restaurants with a spoke of streets leading into the center area which features a sloping grassy area with a stage for live music and entertainment.  Due to the heavy rains they had just days before we got there, much of the area near the stage was roped off because the ground was still saturated.  

 
The inside of Modica Market features lively colors and high shelves with gourmet foods and boutique-style goods from both America and abroad.  Rolling ladders allowed for staff to reach for products on the highest shelves, but most of the items on the upper shelves were decorative in nature.  The majority of goods they sold in the store were available by standing and reaching. 

The deli part of the market is in the center of the store.  Breakfast in the morning includes Belgian waffles, breakfast sandwiches and pastries.  For lunch time, the deli will make fresh submarines and sandwiches.  Fresh baked goods are available at Modica Market.  

In 1996, the town of Seaside became a movie set for the Jim Carrey movie, "The Truman Show."  Many of the scenes were shot around Seaside and particularly in Modica Market.  Many townspeople - including Charles and Sarah Modica - were featured in the movie.  Many still shots of the movie were hanging on the wall near the front door.  I've never seen The Truman Show and I'll probably have to rent it at some point to see some of the places we saw in Seaside.

The beer and wine selection at Modica Market isn't extensive, but what they had was pretty impressive.  And, I would say, a tad bit pricey.  Many of the beers that I like and were available in the market ran a buck or two higher per six pack than what I would normally pay for the beer.  Same with the wine.  Bottles of wine that would be $15 to $20 bucks in Iowa were as much as 25% higher at Modica Market.

The deli/meat case at the kitchen area in the center of the store features fresh-cut meats, fresh deli salads and ready-to-eat foods.  The market also had a number of different types of gourmet cheese from around the world.  

It was time to order our Belgian waffles.  Bonnie ordered a Belgian waffle with strawberries.  I asked one of the young gals behind the counter if I could get fresh blueberries on mine considering I saw that they had blueberries for smoothies.  She asked another girl if that could happen and she said it was no problem.  

But the only problem was that the girl thought that both Bonnie and I wanted blueberries, so she made up two blueberry Belgian waffles.  The girl was going to take Bonnie's back and make a strawberry waffle for her, but it took about 10 minutes for a waffle to get made (there were a lot of people in line for Belgian waffles).  Bonnie just decided to take the blueberry Belgian waffle.  

Cindy didn't want a Belgian waffle figuring she could have a bite or two of mine and she ended up getting a spinach and feta cheese croissant that was already made up and wrapped in cellophane and sitting on the counter.  John just got a pastry for breakfast.  We each got fresh squeezed orange juice. 

After John paid for our food at the front counter with Charles Modica, Jr. manning the register, we found some plastic composite tables and chairs out in front of the place.  John and Bonnie were looking at the tables and said that they were brand new.  "Much more comfortable than the old ones they had," Bonnie said.  Carmen Modica told us later on that the city of Seaside had put the new tables and chairs in front of the market.

The Belgian waffles were served on paper plates and we had to eat them with plastic forks.  But the blueberries were big and juicy, the whipped cream on top was real whipped cream and the waffles were pretty darn good for basic Belgian waffles.  It was a nice simple breakfast.   Nothing fancy and definitely laid back. 

Modica Market caters more to an upscale crowd than just your normal run-of-the-mill grocery store.  Their gourmet items and unique food items sets it apart from a normal grocery store.  Major grocery chains have come into the area over the past few years and that's cut into Modica Market's bottom line.  But given the amount of people milling about and waiting in line to buy something at the register they didn't seem to be hurting.  Modica Market has seemed to achieve what developer Robert Davis envisioned for an old-style grocery store in Seaside - someplace that develops a sense of community within the small town.  And that's a testament to the two generations of the Modica family who have run the place for 25 years.  And it's what keeps the people coming back.

Old Florida Fish House - Santa Rosa Beach, FL

We spent our wedding anniversary in Florida while we were on vacation.  My cousin, John, and his wife, Bonnie, wanted to take us out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary.  Bonnie suggested an upscale restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach by the name of the Old Florida Fish House.  We really didn't want anything fancy, but Bonnie insisted. "This is our anniversary treat for you guys," she said after we mildly protested.  We hopped in the car and made our way to the Old Florida Fish House.  

The Old Florida Fish House was opened in 2005 by partners Charles Morgan and Cary Shahid.  Shahid had another popular restaurant in Destin - the Ocean Club.  But Morgan was sort of an restaurant icon along the Emerald Coast as the founder/owner of Harbor Docks.  

Charles Morgan had moved to Destin in the mid-70's to become a commercial fisherman, but he found that there was really no place for he and his co-workers to go and get a beer and some fresh seafood after work.  He opened Harbor Docks in a small shack in 1979 and the restaurant eventually grew from a one room, six-picnic table restaurant to a large restaurant on Destin's harbor.  Morgan also runs five other restaurants as well as a commercial fishing business that supplies fresh fish to over 40 restaurants along the Emerald Coast.  

Morgan sold his stake in Old Florida Fish House to Shahid a few years ago and we were told on our visit that earlier this year Shahid had sold Old Florida Fish House.  The person we talked to didn't tell us who the new owner was.  

The Old Florida Fish House is located on the east side of East Lake, a small freshwater lake that drains into the Gulf of Mexico.  (see map)  It is located in a small shopping complex just off Highway 30A, the main drag along the Emerald Coast in South Walton County.  

Coming into the place we were greeted by a hostess standing behind a half-circle marble-topped counter.  A curio cabinet was directly behind her with a large fish sculpture hanging above it.  It was a pretty elegant welcome to the restaurant.  

 
The bar area was off to the right of the hostess area.  The bar top was a thick fitted wood slab with multiple coats of clear lacquer.  It was actually one of the nicest looking bars that I'd ever seen.  The small bar area also had a small stage and I understand that they'll have bands and musicians play in there primarily on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  

As the hostess was taking us to our table, we passed a 3-sided sushi bar that looked kind of interesting.  I thought about possibly getting some sushi for an appetizer until I saw the prices.  They were pretty proud of their sushi at Old Florida Fish House. 

 
We were seated at a table along the window that looked out on to East Lake and given menus.  The dining room was rather nice with white table cloths topped with a fabric top.  Pictures of boats and fishing companies from over 50 years ago were on the walls of the dining room.  

Our server, Damien, came over to great us and tell us of a couple off the menu specials they had that evening.  The items on the menu were pretty sparse, but we were told that had a little bit to do with the recent change of ownership and the dynamics of bringing a new kitchen staff up to speed.  In addition to the seafood dishes they had on the menu, Old Florida Fish House also had steaks and chicken dishes.  I was definitely there for the seafood.  

My meal consisted of the catch of the day special that was a blackened red snapper served on a bed of new potatoes and cheese grits along with wilted spinach on the side with three grilled shrimp.  There was something on the top of it, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.  It was some sort of a formed vegetable medley.  I had been getting a lot of Cajun style food when we were on vacation as I figured that we were pretty close to Louisiana.  And it didn't disappoint - the Cajun spices were zippy in taste and went very well with the tender and flaky red snapper.  

Cindy got basically the same thing as I did - the red snapper fresh catch special - only she had hers sauteed in butter.  We were talking about news reports from last year about how an amazingly high number of fish that were labeled as red snapper weren't really red snapper but some other fish.  My cousin said that the restaurants and fisheries around here don't do that.  "If it says red snapper on the menu at any of the good places around here, you can pretty much guarantee its red snapper," he told us.  

My cousin's wife got the seafood pot pie - a flaky shell filled with seafood in a cream sauce.  She said it was very good.  They must have had a lot of spinach and new potatoes in the kitchen because her dinner came with those, too.  

 
My cousin decided that he wanted to get the chicken breasts that were infused with tasso and tomato sauce.  Both breasts were good sized and he knew he wouldn't be able to eat both of them.  He was able to box one up and take it home with him.  He, too, got new potatoes and wilted spinach with his chicken breasts.

I thought my meal was fine enough.  It wasn't outstanding, but it was far from bad.  And the service Damien provided was fine, as well.  I think we went to a restaurant under new ownership that was still trying to find its way.  But as far as a nice and elegant music on our anniversary, we were pleased with what we had at Old Florida Fish House.  I'm sure they'll get their sea legs soon enough and find their way.   

Pompano Joe's - Destin, FL

Striking out on our own during our vacation along the Emerald Coast of Florida, we found a place in Destin that we decided to try for lunch - Pompano Joe's.  Even though it looked a little "touristy", it still looked promising.  So, we gave it a shot. 

Pompano Joe's is part of the group of restaurants that are part of the Southern Restaurant Group.  CEO John Comer is the grandson of Henry Cobb, Jr., one of the founders of the Destin Development Company that began in 1979 when Cobb and his business partner Robert Bonezzi bought a nightclub/restaurant in the area.  They soon bought a restaurant called The Back Porch and later opened more restaurants including Pompano Joe's which opened their doors in 1995.  Cobb and Bonezzi parted ways soon thereafter and Cobb started the Cobb Investment Company which became the Southern Restaurant Group in 1998.  In addition to The Back Porch and Pompano Joe's, the restaurant group also oversees Louisiana Lagniappe (click here to see the entry on Lousiana Lagniappe), Fisherman's Wharf (both in Destin), and Cafe Grazie in Orange Beach, AL.  A couple three years ago, the group opened a second Pompano Joe's over in Panama City.

It was around 2 p.m. when we got into Pompano Joe's.  The bar area was the first place that we entered.  It was a standing bar only, from what I could tell.  The bar area emptied out onto a deck area with the broad white sandy beaches down a few steps.  

 
The main dining area of Pompano Joe's had a very Caribbean feeling to the place.  Brightly colored chairs, sea art and a broad view of the ocean through windows with pastel colored panes were the highlight of the dining room. 

We had a chance to sit on the deck outside the dining room - a narrow deck that featured a number of four-seat tables covered by brightly colored umbrellas that appeared to be even more dazzling under the hot Florida sun.  We were given menus and not long afterward our server Emilie showed up to greet us.  Cindy ordered a mai tai and I ordered a Grayton Beer Company Pale Ale.  

Most of the menu at Pompano Joe's is, of course, seafood oriented.  Executive chef Roberto Hernandez, a 17 year veteran of the restaurant, also features a number of seafood dishes and appetizers with a Caribbean flair. But we were there for peel and eat shrimp and oysters on the half shell.  We ordered up a dozen oysters on the half shell to start out.   

The view from the deck was absolutely fabulous.  We could have very easily just sat there gazing out across the white sand beach onto the emerald colored water with the azur blue water of the Gulf of Mexico on the horizon.  A nice breeze was coming in off the ocean and the large umbrella shaded us nicely from the son.  I really love the ocean.  

The oysters came out and they were big, meaty bivalves from the Louisiana coast.  The weren't gritty nor fishy in taste at all.  I mixed up some fresh ground horseradish with some Tabasco sauce and the taste was just outstanding.  I could have eaten many more, but I wanted to get some peel and eat shrimp.  When Emilie came back to check on us, I ordered up a dozen of the peel and eat shrimp along with a lemonade and vodka.  The Grayton Beach Pale Ale was just all right - like the other beers from the small brewery that I had when we were there.

 
The shrimp were served in glass bowl on top of chopped ice.  They, too, were large crustaceans from the Louisiana coast.  I told Cindy that maybe we needed to go to Louisiana the next time we come south for a vacation given that most of the shrimp and oysters we had while we were in Florida were from there.  The shrimp were as equally excellent in taste as the oysters on the half shell.  

We considered getting another dozen of the peel and eat shrimp, but decided to have drinks instead and just gaze out at the ocean in front of us.  Cindy got another mai tai and I got another lemonade and vodka.  It was a great afternoon along the Emerald Coast.  

For the seafood we had, Pompano Joe's hit the spot.  We didn't try anything else on the menu, but I could tell from the descriptions on the menu that the food had to be pretty good.  Well, you're not in business for nearly 20 years in a place like Destin if your food sucks.  Our experience at Pompano Joe's was very pleasant, relaxing and they had excellent oysters and shrimp.  It was a wonderful afternoon to be on vacation.  

The Marigny - Santa Rosa Beach, FL

Being close to Louisiana on our trip to the Emerald Coast of Northwest Florida, I made it a point to search out Creole/Cajun-style seafood places.  One place that I read about while we were there is a restaurant named after the famed Faubourg Marigny neighborhood in New Orleans - The Marigny.  For lunch one day, we found The Marigny in Santa Rosa Beach.

The Faubourg Marigny neighborhood in New Orleans - simply called The Marigny (mari-in-knee) by locals - is one of the more historical sections of New Orleans.  Brightly colored homes and businesses feature architectural influences from 18th century French and Spanish colonists, as well as elements of Caribbean architecture. The neighborhood is named for an eccentric Creole by the name of Bernard De Marigny, a 19th century renaissance man who was a land developer, a politician and also well-known as a ladies man in early New Orleans.  De Marigny was also a degenerate gambler - actually bringing to New Orleans the forerunner of the dice game Craps (from the local New Orleans dialect crapaud) from his travels to England as a young man.  Due to gambling debts, De Marigny was forced to parcel out the family's plantation and he developed Faubourg Marigny.   The man and the neighborhood named after him influenced owners Chef Chris Mongogna and managing partner Jason Jaume with the Marigny name when they opened their restaurant in 2013.   

Mongogna and Jaume are both natives of New Orleans.  Mongogna began to cook with the help of his mother when he was 13 making the Creole staple of red beans and rice.  With the influences of his mother and two grandmothers, Mongogna began to dabble in Italian, classic New Orleans and Southern-country styles of food.  

Mongogna and Jaume became best friends in high school and both began careers in the restaurant industry after graduation.  Mongogna - who was never formally trained as a chef - began to work in the kitchen of restaurants around New Orleans, while Jaume gained experience as a manager in restaurants, bars and the hospitality industry.  In 2005, Mongogna ended up working in the kitchen at Fire in New Orleans, a restaurant located in an old firehouse.  Of course, the devastating Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans head on later that year.  Fire was not as crippled as other businesses, but owner Brenda Farr found the going very slow for a couple years after.  

In 2007, Farr - along with Mongogna, executive chef Carl Schaubhut and a handful of other employees - made the move to South Walton County in Florida's panhandle to open a new Fire in Grayton.  Four years later, Schaubhut had an opportunity to go back to New Orleans to be the sous-chef at the famed Commander's Palace.  (Schaubhut is currently executive chef at Cafe Adelaide, a sister restaurant to the Commander's Palace.)   Mongogna, who had been the restaurant's pastry chef, was named executive chef of Fire upon Schaubhut's departure.

Fire eventually moved to the Gulf Place condo/entertainment/restaurant complex in Santa Rosa Beach in 2011.  Farr - wishing to be closer to family in Atlanta - made a decision to close Fire a couple years later.  (Fire was eventually bought by New Orleans native Drew Messina and is now Messina's on 30A.)   It was then that Mongogna began to look for an available restaurant space in the area to showcase authentic Creole food.  And to help him out on his venture, he brought in his old high school buddy from New Orleans, Jason Jaume.  

They were thinking at first of just having a small shop that served authentic Po-Boy sandwiches since none existed in the area.  But a larger restaurant near Mongogna's house in Santa Rosa Beach was available.  They soon moved into what was the old Love Shack Oyster House in 2013 and opened The Marigny.  (I was told by a friend of mine in Santa Rosa Beach that the Love Shack was a real dive.)  

It certainly didn't look like a dive when we made it inside The Marigny, located down Hewitt Road near the Hogtown Bayou in Choctawhatchee Boy.  (see map)  Elegant woodwork, tables with linen table cloths and subdued lighting gave the room a nice comfortable feeling.  The only problem is that the place looked like it was close, save for a couple televisions on behind the bar.  Cindy finally wandered over to some doors that led to an outdoor seating area.  "Ah ha," Cindy exclaimed.  "There's life out here."  

We went out to the outside patio area and we were met by our server, Micki.  She told us to sit wherever we wanted and brought us over a couple menus when we found a seat.  She told us right off the bat, "We're out of oysters today, just to let you know up front."  That wasn't going to be a problem for us.  

Micki asked what we wanted to drink and Cindy asked if they had mai-tai's.  Micki said, "No, we don't have them."  Cindy ordered something else instead - probably a pina colada.  I saw that they had a number of beers on tap including the Grayton Beer Company 30A Blonde beer.  I hadn't tried one yet, so I ordered one of those.  (I didn't care for it - I ended up getting an Abita Amber for my second beer with lunch.)  

While we were waiting for our drinks we took a quick look around The Marigny's outdoor patio area.  It's part of a condo complex that includes a pool.  The bar area is covered and features a number of flat screen televisions, banners for Louisiana sports teams, and an intricate wood beamed ceiling.  

 
The bar area opens out into the pool area.  We were told by Micki that swimming is free to customers of The Marigny.  But no one was in the pool and there were only a couple other people in the patio bar having lunch.  I could see myself lounging in the bar area at The Marigny eating Cajun food, drinking hurricanes and taking a dip every once in a while.  

When Micki brought out our drinks, she had a mai-tai for Cindy.  "I had the stuff to make a mai-tai.  I just went ahead and made one for you," she said.  Cindy was more than appreciative.  

Authentic Creole/Cajun rules the menu at The Marigny.  Po'Boy sandwiches, a muffaletta sandwich, jambalaya, grillades and grits, crawfish etoufee and crab-stuffed catfish were all on the menu.  They had a number of appetizers including poutine (potatoes with beef debris gravy and covered in cheese), beef or crawfish meat pies, shrimp remoulade and gumbo.  The Marigny had a number of salads both as an opener and as a main entree including the crabmeat ravigote and the blackened chicken Caesar salad.  

Years ago - over 15 years ago - I ate at the famous Mother's Restaurant in New Orleans.  Actually, it was right next to our hotel and I ate there three or four times, mainly because I fell in love with their roast beef Po'Boy sandwich.  I've never found one yet that has come close - mainly because not a lot of Creole/Cajun places I've been to since have roast beef Po'Boys on the menu.  But they did at The Marigny.  Heck, they had ten different Po'Boy sandwiches on the menu including a meatball Po'Boy that came from a recipe from Chris Mongogna's grandmother, a traditional fried shrimp Po'boy, a pulled pork Po'Boy called Cochon de Lait, a poutine Po'Boy with potatoes, beef debris gravy and cheese, and even a hamburger Po'Boy!  Their Po'Boys came in three different sizes - small, medium and large.  The large, we were told, was big enough for sharing between two or three people.  

But they also had a muffaletta sandwich.  I had the one at the Central Grocery in New Orleans, the original maker of the muffaletta sandwich.  Although it is more of an Italian sandwich than a Creole/Cajun sandwich, finding a good muffaletta outside of New Orleans is hard to do.  Just a quick look at the number of Po'Boys they had on the menu at The Marigny, I figured the muffaletta they had was close to the original.  

When it came down to ordering, I was still up in the air.  Cindy ordered the crabmeat ravigote salad - a wedge salad topped with lump crabmeat, fried capers and a ravigote dressing that is more of a French/Creole citrus vinaigrette.  It came down to the muffaletta or roast beef Po'Boy.  Since I've had a muffaletta sandwich many times since I've had a good roast beef Po'Boy, I went with the Po'Boy.  Fries came with the sandwich.  

I thought about getting a cup of gumbo just to give it a shot, but when I ordered it Micki said, "We have a crawfish bisque that's not on the menu.  Our gumbo is great, but I like the crawfish bisque better."  I couldn't say no to her after that.

The crawfish bisque was as good - if not better - than Micki described.  The slightly spicy, creamy and buttery bisque had chopped chunks of crawfish throughout.  It was a generous sized cup - more of a bowl, if you like.  The crawfish bisque was simply outstanding.

 
The lunches came out and Cindy's crabmeat ravigote salad featured a nice sized lettuce wedge with ample amounts of crabmeat and fried capers drizzled with a liberal amount of the ravigote dressing.  Sliced tomatoes - very fresh sliced tomatoes - came on the side.  I took one of Cindy's tomato slices since she doesn't like tomatoes all that much on their own and I have to say that they were the closest in taste to the tomatoes that I had in Hawaii - ones that I still feel are the best tomatoes I've ever eaten.  She offered me a bite of her salad and the ravigote dressing had a slightly citric taste with a slight spicy bite.  I liked it and so did my wife.  

But my roast beef Po'Boy was the highlight of the meal.  I got the medium size Po'Boy (I would have hated to see how big the large would hae been.)  The bread was soft and fresh, but had a slight crunchiness to the outside layer.  The thin sliced roast beef was swimming in its own debris (au jus) and was topped with shredded provolone cheese, chopped lettuce and mayo dressing.  Now, I don't remember much about the roast beef Po'Boys at Mother's, but I've got to bet that the one I had at The Marigny was damn close.  It was so tasty that I'm sure that if I would have gotten a large I would have made a straight forward attempt to try to eat the whole thing in one sitting.  

But the medium was enough.  I had a basket of fries that was about the same size as the basket in which the roast beef Po'Boy was served.  I may have had a couple fries, Cindy too.  But that was it.  I was concentrating on the sandwich.  I was in heaven eating the sandwich.  I was really sad to see it gone from my basket when I had the last bite.  

A couple three nights later, we were going to go back to The Marigny for dinner with my cousin and his wife, our friends Bob and Lisa Steeno, and a friend of theirs who we met that night.  However, we had a dead battery in our car and no one had jumper cables in the immediate area.  The Sandestin Hilton offered to take Cindy and I to The Marigny in their courtesy van, but as I jumped up into the van I popped a calf muscle.  It was so severe that it immediately began to swell up and I couldn't put any weight on it.  The night was then spent in our room with an ice bag on my leg and room service from the hotel.  It was a shame because I was looking forward to going back to The Marigny and trying their jambalaya or some other Creole/Cajun dish.  (My cousin told me the next morning that their food was - also - very good.)  For lunch - especially Po'Boy sandwiches - I can't help but wholeheartedly recommend The Marigny.  If we ever make it back to the Emerald Coast, it will be one of our first two or three places we go for food.  

(Update - Unfortunately, if we do make it back to the Emerald Coast we won't be able to try The Marigny.  As of September of 2015, they've closed the place.  I understand that Chris and Jason are doing some catering work, but the Marigny is no more.)

 

 

Louisiana Lagniappe - Destin, FL

During our travels looking around the Destin area, I kept seeing a sign for a restaurant called Louisiana Lagniappe with a crawfish on the logo.  My cousin had always been intrigued by the restaurant and he told me, "You guys should go so you can let us know if it's good or not."  Always up for some fresh seafood with a Cajun twist, my wife and I did just that one night.

Louisiana Lagniappe (pronounced LAN-yap - a Cajun term for a little something extra) first opened its doors in June of 1984 in what was, at the time, part of the Sandpiper Cove Yacht Club.  Kevin Ortega run the restaurant for 14 years before he sold the restaurant and moved to Baton Rouge, LA to open a Louisiana Lagniappe there.  

The Destin Louisiana Lagniappe was purchased by the Southern Restaurant Group - an entertainment and restaurant corporation that got its start in night clubs before acquiring The Back Porch Restaurant soon after it was formed in the late 70's when the company was named the Destin Development Corporation.  The company acquired four more restaurants and renamed themselves the Cobb Investment Company.  A year later after opening four restaurants in Orange Beach, AL, the company became the Southern Restaurant Group.  In addition to owning Louisiana Lagniappe and The Back Porch restaurants, they also own Pompano Joe's in Destin and Panama City, Fisherman's Wharf in the Harbor entertainment complex in Destin, and Cafe Grazie in Orange Beach, AL.  

Louisiana Lagniappe is part of the Sandpiper Cove condominium community on the east end of Destin Harbor.  (see map)  We had seen the sign for the restaurant while driving by the north side of the walled condo complex along U.S. Highway 98.  I set the GPS for the place and it took me to a guard shack at the entrance of Sandpiper Cove on Gulf Shore Drive.  Pulling up to the guard shack, I asked the guy inside if I was in the right place for Louisiana Lagniappe.  He gave me a sheet of paper to put on my dash and said, "You see where that car is coming out of up on the left?  Turn there and go straight ahead into the restaurant's parking lot."  

The parking lot wasn't all that large, but we were able to find a spot.  Walking in with no reservation, we had no idea how long of a wait it would be.  The hostess asked if we wanted to eat indoors or out on the deck.  We decided upon the deck and she said that we'd have about a 15 minute wait.  It was no problem to us.  

The bar area was well lit and featured comfortable cloth upholstered high chairs around the three-sided bar.  I was going to order a couple drinks while we waited.  Cindy excused herself to go to the restroom.  However, before the bartender could come over and before Cindy got back from the restroom, the buzzer had gone off and lit up on the bar in front of me.  It was a lot quicker than a 15 minute wait. 

 
We were excorted through the main dining room, an elegant setting with linen table cloths and smart looking waiters. The dining room was about half full with diners and it was quiet and classy.  

The outside deck looks out over the bay.  But that was about the only redeeming factor it had going for it.  We were seated at a table that was in the midst of three other tables - each with boisterous people trying to outshout the other table.  The wood ceilinged deck kept all the noise close by.  The din of conversation was only trumped by the unbelievable number of green tree frogs croaking just outside the deck area.  Green tree frogs - when in abundant numbers - can get very loud.

Our server for the evening, a young guy by the name of Alex, came over to greet us after we were given menus by the hostess who seated us.  He brought out hush puppies and placed them on the table.  They were sort of sweet for hush puppies, but a nice little touch to start the meal.  But we both wanted a drink and he hustled away before we could get an order in.  

The menu at Louisiana Lagniappe is mostly seafood and fresh fish with a Cajun flair, but they do have steaks, some pasta dishes and a number of delectable appetizers that included blackened scallops with a pineapple-rum butter sauce, smoked tuna dip with crackers, and lobster rangoon with wontons filled with lobster meat and cream cheese, deep fried and served with a sweet chili sauce.  

Alex finally did come back and he asked us if we'd like to hear the specials for the evening.  I told him that we'd really like to get a couple drinks before we did anything.  He seemed to be scattered - he was waiting on the other tables in our area - and also seemed to be void of any personality at all.  He went off to get a glass of pinot grigio for Cindy and a Sweetwater 420 pale ale for me.  

I was looking at a couple seafood entrees - the blackened redfish entree was topped with lumped crabmeat and medallions of lobster then drizzled with both a hollandaise and a garlic beurre blanc sauce.  That sounded great, but they were also pretty proud of the price.  $37.50 for that made me stop and ponder that decision.  The blackened bay scallops that looked so good as an appetizer were also available as an entree.  And the Grouper Kevin - probably named after Louisiana Lagniappe founder Kevin Ortega - featured a grouper filet topped with grilled shrimp with a beurre blanc and mushroom sauce on a bed of rice.  I almost pulled the trigger on that.

But I was sort of interested in their jambalaya - chunks of chicken, andouille sausage and shrimp all together in a tomato based sauce with rice.  I was also going to get a cup of the gumbo which was an upcharge of $2.50 over the dinner salad that is served with the meal.  

Cindy settled on the Crescent City fettuccine - pasta tossed with a tasso ham cream sauce with spices, topped with grilled shrimp and finished with some parmesan cheese.  It was getting late, we were ready to order, our waiter was nowhere in sight.  

Now, I realize that he had other tables.  The table of four next to us was finishing up their meal and contemplating dessert.  The table of three boisterous and somewhat drunk ladies had ordered their food and were getting their salads.  The other table consisted of five younger adults who were obviously friends getting together for the first time in the summer and they had just ordered their food.  When Alex finally came to take our order I was seriously considering getting up and leaving.  It was that bad.  

Alex had the personality of a limp rag and with a paucity of words he took our order.  I told him that I was going to get the cup of gumbo instead of the salad with my meal.  He didn't acknowledge what I said, but he was writing it down.  

My gumbo came out and it was a nice sized cup topped with parsley and rice.  The gumbo was a little fishy in taste - it was not the best gumbo I've ever had.  Still, I was able to finish it by mixing in copious amounts of Tabasco.   

 
After finishing the gumbo, Alex brought out salads for both of us.  I sort of looked at the salad and then up at him.  He wordlessly walked away and I was sort of dumbfounded that he brought me a salad after I told him I'd substitute my salad for the gumbo at an upcharge.  Cindy also pointed out that he didn't offer fresh cracked pepper for either of us.  The salad was fine - it was pretty basic with fresh lettuce greens, some crumbled cheese and an oil and vinegar dressing.  

We were ready to eat when Alex brought the entrees to the table.  My jambalaya was thick and covered with shrimp, chicken and bits of andouille sausage.  Somewhat bland to my spicy-craving taste buds at first, it had a sneaky spicy kick on the back side.  I zipped it up considerably with some Tabasco and made it much more to my liking.  The jambalaya was thick and filling.  It was good jambalaya - not great, in my book.  But I was happy enough with it.  

 
As it always seems to happen, Cindy's Crescent City fettuccine was the best of the two entrees.  Large grilled shrimp were mixed with the fettuccine pasta and the somewhat spicy tasso ham cream sauce.  She offered me a couple bites and I thought it was outstanding.  It wasn't overly spicy - just enough to get your attention.  And it was very rich.  Cindy was having trouble finishing the dinner.

We finished our meals and Alex came over to entice us with some dessert, but we were full enough from the dinner.  He left off the check and disappeared.  And he never came back. 

I had my credit card out with the dinner check.  We waited 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and finally 20 minutes passed before I said, "Well, this is ridiculous..."  We both got up and walked toward the hostess stand with the bill.  The hostess was nowhere in sight, either.  But it was technically past the closing time of the restaurant so they weren't seating anyone any longer.

We walked to the bar and I asked the bartender if he could take care of us.  "Our waiter disappeared on us," I explained.  He told me that only the waiter could cash us out.  I said, "We've been waiting over 20 minutes on the guy to come back to our table.  This is completely unacceptable for a place like this!"  Actually, it was unacceptable for ANY restaurant.    

With the help of the hostess who appeared from a room near the stand, the bartender was able to track down the waiter to give him our bill and my credit card.  We waited patiently at the bar and he finally brought it back to us and said, "Here you go, folks.  Have a good night."  He was completely oblivious to his horrible short comings on the service end of things that evening.  And he got a pretty small tip in return.  

The food at Louisiana Lagniappe was good to very good.  The outdoor seating area was too loud - thanks to the acoustics compounded by Mother Nature.  The service was absolutely horrible - some of the worst service I've EVER encountered at any restaurant I've ever dined at.  I don't like to call anyone out, but Alex's service was completely horrid that particular evening.   The next day when my cousin asked how our experience at Louisiana Lagniappe was, I said, "Good food, horrible service."

Stinky's Fish Camp - Santa Rosa Beach, FL

On our first night along Florida's Emerald Coast, I told my cousin and his wife that my wife and I really wanted fresh caught seafood for dinner.  They contemplated a number of places that proliferate the area, but decided that we needed to go to a place with a not too tantalizing name - Stinky's Fish Camp.  They said it was one of the most popular seafood restaurants in the area.  That sounded perfect for us.   

Jim Richard is a native of Lafayette, LA in the heart of Cajun country.  Richard came from a family of chefs and food purveyors - his family exported turtle meat, frog legs and rabbit back to their ancestral home in France.  Richard went to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and ended up becoming the sous chef at the famous Commander's Palace in New Orleans.  

Along the way he met a young Mississippi born and raised chef, Brannon Janca, who learned the art of southern seafood cooking from his grandparents.  Janca went off to college, but he eventually dropped out to enter a culinary school in New Orleans.  Janca had previous experience at the famous Gautreau's Restaurant in New Orleans before he moved to Northwest Florida in 2001 to work at the Lake Place, a restaurant that Richard and he bought in Santa Rosa Beach.  

A devastating fire in 2006 wiped out the Lake Place and Richard moved his talents for a short time over to the Harbor Grille in Destin.  Along with chef Todd Meisner - also a graduate of the C.I.A. in Hyde Park - Richard and Janca opened Stinky's Fish Camp in 2007 in a small building that was next to the original Lake Place.  The trio formed the Word of Mouth Restaurant Group and started Blue Mountain Catering.  In 2009, they rebuilt the original Lake Place, but by that time the Stinky's Fish Camp name had stuck.  The called the new restaurant Stinky's Fish Camp and the old place Stinky's Bait Shack.  

Richard said in a magazine article that he never intended for the name Stinky's to stick.  During his days at the Commander's Palace in New Orleans, the kitchen was hectic, cooks came and went quickly, and there were times he didn't even know the names of people that he was working with.  Each chef was nicknamed "Stink", which, according to Richard, was part fun, part meanness, but sort of a camaraderie term of endearment.  When they opened the casual restaurant in the small building next to the old Lake Place property, Stinky's was supposed to be a temporary name until the new place was built.  Stinky's Fish Camp had taken off and they just went with it.  

The other part of the story is that Richard was going through some of his grandfather's things years after opening Stinky's Fish Camp and he found a menu for a restaurant by the name of "Skunk" where his grandfather was the chef.  It featured spicy Cajun food in the front and illegal gambling in the back.  Richard took this to be a message from his long-passed grandfather that he was on the right track.  

Famed chef and television star Emeril Lagasse has a home along the Emerald Coast and he hosted a program on the Cooking Channel called Emeril's Florida.  Stinky's Fish Camp has been featured on one of the show's episodes.  Here's a picture of Brannon Janca, Emeril Lagasse, Jim Richard and Todd Meisner.  (Photo courtesy 30A Eats.) 

Richard recently opened a new restaurant in New Orleans - Trenasse, a Cajun term for a waterway that leads to a fishing hole.  Trenasse is more upscale than Stinky's and features fresh Gulf seafood and traditional Cajun dishes including rabbit.  But some things that he's perfected at Stinky's - including the Stinky's Stew that is a combination of gumbo and cioppino - are on the menu at Trenasse.

Stinky's Fish House is located on the scenic 30A Highway that not only is the main drag through the beach towns along the Emerald Coast, but it also signifies a frame of mind - laid back, relaxing, no worries.  (See map)  After walking along the beach for a bit, my wife, my cousin John, and his wife Bonnie jumped in our car to head down 30A toward Stinky's.  However, the torrential rains that bore down on the Florida panhandle a couple three weeks prior had washed out a portion of the road along 30A.  We had to double back and take a detour up to U.S. Highway 98, then go back toward the beach from the western terminus of 30A.  It was a Sunday night and we didn't expect a lot of people at Stinky's, but the place was packed.  They offer free valet parking at the restaurant and we took advantage of that.  

We walked in the front door of Stinky's Fish Camp and were greeted by a couple young ladies at the hostess stand.  They told us it would be a 45 minute wait for a table.  We went to the bar and my cousin had a gift card for Stinky's and he used it for drinks at the bar.  I was surprised - actually more delighted - to see that they had Kona beers on tap at Stinky's bar.  But not the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale that is my beer of choice these days.  However, I did see that they had Sweetwater 420, a very good pale ale that I fell in love with a few years back.  My cousin was trying to get me to try a beer from the Grayton Beer Company, a small locally owned brewery just down 30A.  He said, "Sweetwater is out of Atlanta.  You can get that anywhere!"  

I said, "Well, I can't get it in Iowa, John."  He understood after that.  

On the wall near the bar were a couple posters for The Steenos, a husband and wife musical duo who are friends of ours that my wife and I met through my cousin when he lived in Milwaukee years ago.  Bob and Lisa Steeno retired about 10 years ago and moved back down to the Emerald Coast as Bob was in the stationed in the area in the late 70's. Accomplished musicians, Bob and Lisa regularly play a number of places around the Emerald Coast and have a standing engagement for Sunday brunch at Stinky's Fish Camp.  (Bob has a once a week solo gig at the smaller and more casual Stinky's Bait Shack next door.)  It was sort of funny and neat to see our friends on posters at Stinky's.  

We hung around outside for a bit before Bonnie made the suggestion to go over and hang out at Stinky's Bait Shack while we waited.  We took our drinks and walked across the parking lot and into the Bait Shack.  The decor was funky, but fresh.  A small area in the corner is where musicians - including Bob Steeno - would set up and play.  There was a bar and a few table set up in the area as you come in.  Toward the back and to the right, a large gift shop was in a spot that used to be a dining room of the original Stinky's Fish Camp before it moved next door.  

We were there for about a half-hour and I was ready for another beer.  I looked in their glass encased beer refrigerator and saw that they had the Kona Big Wave Golden Ale beers in bottles.  I was in heaven.  I immediately fell in love with Stinky's Bait Shack.  

Each year, Stinky's sponsors a pompano fishing contest.  Actually, I didn't know that there was a fish called a pompano, but I had heard of Pompano Beach situated north of Miami.  I was looking at the 2014 tournament results on a board behind the bar in the Bait Shop and it turned out that our friend Bob Steeno got second place and $400 bucks.  "Bobby won't say for sure, but he thinks the guy who won it may have cheated," my cousin told me.  "The guy who won it is a commercial fisherman and he came in a day or two before the end of the tournament (it runs April 1 thru May 15) with a bigger fish than Bob."  First place is $2500 bucks.  

Our buzzer lit up not long after and we were escorted into the dining room to a four-seat hardwood table.  We were given menus and not long after our server for the evening, Billy, came over to greet us.  I was ready for another beer and while I noticed that they had the Kona Longboard Lager and the Koko Brown on tap, I wondered if they had the Big Wave Golden Ale in a bottle like they did over at the Bait Shop.  Unfortunately they didn't and this time my cousin talked me into trying the Grayton Original.  It was a good beer, but not one that knocked my socks off.  

Billy rattled off a couple of their specials that evening.  The first was an appetizer plate of handcrafted charcuterie that featured housemade smoked andouille sausage, morcilla sausage (a Spanish-style blood sausage), and a country pâté jam made with rabbit and served with Creole mustard.  The dinner specials were a grilled Gulf cobia fish with crawfish maque-choux (mock SHOO - a traditional Cajun side with corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions and sometimes with garlic and celery) and pepper jack cheese grits.  (Lots of places had cheese with grits along the Emerald Coast.  I like my grits plain with a little bitter mixed in.)  

The other dinner special that evening was a traditional surf and turf that featured tempera lobster meat with a 12 ounce ribeye steak. It came with roasted red and fingerling potatoes, roasted locally grown squash and served with a bearnaise and portobello demi glace.  Now, THAT sounded damned good.  As did a number of other things on the menu including the Oysters ALL WAYS - 10 different ways to prepare oysters including rare, steamed, with smoked bacon, with garlic, and gratin.  Oysters and shrimp sounded damned good to me. 

When Billy came back to take our order, Cindy got one of the catches of the day, the grilled red grouper; Bonnie got the grilled shrimp and angel hair pasta entree; John got the other catch of the day - grilled pompano.  The catch of the day entrees came with stir-fry veggies and Brabant potatoes - also a traditional Cajun side dish that features cubed potatoes - slightly boiled - then finished in a fry pan with butter, oil, onions, parsley, Worcestershire sauce and garlic.    

Me - I ordered a dozen oysters on a half shell and the peel-and-eat shrimp appetizers.  I also got a cup of their gumbo, too.  I wanted to get close to a crustacean and bottom-feeder overload as I could that evening.  

The gumbo came out first and it was a generous size for a bowl.  I like a good gumbo and this was some of the best I'd ever had.  It had a smoky flavor, but not overpowering.  Thick cuts of seafood, chicken and andouille sausage were mixed in.  It was simply outstanding.  

  The oysters were big and meaty, but they weren't from the oyster beds at nearby Apalachicola that are so famous.  Billy told us that they were Louisiana oysters. Years of drought in the Southeast coupled with water diversion upstream on the Apalachicola River has choked out the brackish water in which oysters thrive in Apalachicola Bay.  But it was no matter to me.  The oysters were thick and flavorful.  

Everyone's meal came out including my peel-and-eat shrimp.  There were just a half-dozen in the plate.  I immediately said to Billy, "Bring me another one of these right away."  The shrimp were good sized and boiled precisely.  They were fresh and just wonderful.  

 
Cindy's grilled red grouper sat on top of the stir-fry vegetables and the Brabant potatoes.  The fish was light and flaky and had a seasoning on the outer side of it.  Cindy declared her fish to be "wonderful".  She traded me a bite of her fish for one of my peel-and-eat shrimp and it was very good. 

John's grilled pompano was similar to Cindy's in appearance.  I had never had either red grouper or pompano before, but they seemed to be two popular Gulf coast fish.  Looking back, I wish I would have tried the pompano just once.  

 
Bonnie's grilled shrimp and angel hair pasta was topped with a toasted garlic pesto sauce and shaved pecorino cheese.  A small grilled fish filet came with it.  It was swimming a the sauce and looked excellent.  

After dinner - and I had nearly achieved seafood overload - Billy came back to tempt us with dessert.  I didn't want anything, nor did Bonnie or John.  However, my wife ended up ordering a piece of the key lime pie and asked for four forks.  The key lime pie slice had a small dollop of real whipped cream and was sitting on a squiggle of strawberry sauce with fresh cut strawberry slices on the side.  It was a nice presentation and an even better pie.  The tangy and tart key lime pie was a nice finish, even though I was only able to have a couple three small bites.  I was simply stuffed.

As we were leaving Stinky's Fish Camp, I gave my valet ticket to a young guy who ran over to get our car.  I gave him a five buck tip for bringing the car around and we got in and shut the door.  There was some horrific odor in the car and it was too late before I figured out that the valet had to have just left a horrible greasy fart in the car stinking up the environs.  I said, "My God, I think the valet shit his pants in the car!"  Had I known he had just flared out a smelly air biscuit before he gave us our car, I would have withheld the tip.  We all laughed and laughed over that.  I figured that was a signature of a place called Stinky's - to leave an eye-watering smell in your car courtesy of the valet.  

The valet farting in our car aside, we ate in a lot of very good seafood restaurants while we were on the Emerald Coast.  But my cousin and his wife spoiled us by taking us to the best seafood place we encountered on our first night.  I loved the food, the atmosphere, the service - everything about Stinky's was excellent.  We had contemplated going back there for at least lunch at some point - and we did a disservice to ourselves for not going back toward Santa Rosa Beach for dinner on some of our nights.  There were some very good restaurants that we encountered during our stay, but I can't think of one that was better than Stinky's Fish Camp.

4C BBQ - Defuniak Springs, FL

My wife is one of those creatures of habit when it comes to eating food.  I learned long ago that she needs three square meals a day.  It doesn't matter how much she had at breakfast, she needs lunch and dinner - even if it's just a little something.  As we were driving through Alabama to get to Florida for our vacation, I kept asking her if she was hungry.  After the breakfast we had early in the morning at the Loveless Cafe outside of Nashville (click here to see the entry on the Loveless Cafe), I certainly wasn't hungry and she really wasn't either.  Well, that is until we got into the deep southeastern part of Alabama around 2 p.m.  The only problem is that we didn't find anything worth stopping at.  We passed into Florida and we were going through the town of Defuniak Springs.  By this time my wife was crawling up the windows because she was so hungry.  It was around 2:30 and I happened to look over at a strip mall along the road and saw a sign that simply said "BBQ".  I turned around and went back to get something to eat at a place called 4C BBQ.  

4C BBQ calls themselves an authentic Texas barbecue joint.  The owners - Robin and Teresa Ford - are from Texas and got into the barbecue business when Robin, who was a deputy sheriff in Williamson County in Texas (just north of Austin), bought a smoker and would cook barbecue for co-workers, friends and family for these sort of "stress relief" parties.  Ford was a deputy for 10 years before packing his wife and two kids up and heading up north to Pennsylvania to help out some family members there.  The Ford's bought a convenience store in the small town of Claysville and set up his smoker one day for a local celebration.  He ended up selling just short of a couple hundred pounds of brisket that day and he was hooked as a barbecue entrepreneur. 

In 2006, the Ford's moved to the Florida panhandle opening a small place in Ponce de Leon.  The "4C" name comes from their devout Christian faith - 4C stands for "4 Christians for Christ".  In the heavily religious bible belt of the Southeast United States, they'd found a home.  Business got so good that the Ford's decided to move to nearby Defuniak Springs (a town I'd NEVER heard of until I drove through the place) in 2013 opening in a strip mall toward the south side of the town, not far off Interstate 10.  (see map)

The inside of 4C BBQ is a rather large and well lit place with a series of tables and booths throughout.  There's a stage on one end for bands and live events.   

 

The bar is located in the back of the space with the kitchen behind it.  Video games, dart boards and other games are back in this area, as well.  

We took a seat at a booth along the wall and a girl came over to drop off some menus.  In addition to barbecue, 4C also had a number of burgers, pork or beef steaks, grilled or blackened fresh seafood, and slew of appetizers.  

For barbecue, they had ribs, brisket, pulled pork and smoked chicken breast.  I found that they had a sampler platter consisting of 2 ribs and a 1/4 lb of both brisket and pulled pork with two sides.  I still wasn't overly hungry from breakfast, but I thought I could eat something.  When I proposed getting the sampler, Cindy asked, "To share?"  Absolutely!  She said that would be perfect.  We also got a choice of two sides that included a baked potato, seasoned fries, fried okra and something called corn nuggets.  Cindy decided on baked beans and cole slaw for the sides.  That was fine with me.  

I also decided to order up a beer for the meal.  After I found out that the owners were deep Christians I was sort of surprised that they sold beer in the place.  And on top of it, it was two for one "Happy Hour".  We only had about another 30 minutes of driving until we got to my cousin's place in Santa Rosa Beach, so a couple beers wouldn't be bad.  

The young waitress brought out the barbecue sampler and it featured two meaty ribs, a couple slabs of brisket and a small portion of pulled pork.  Two half slices of Texas toast accompanied the barbecue and the sides.  

The ribs were meaty, but I also found them to be a little fatty.  They had a nice smoky flavor and the thick housemade tomato-based with a nice sweet flavor was a nice complement to the ribs.  Not the best I've ever had, but certainly not bad.  

I tried some of the pulled pork and it was moist and tender, easy to consume.  With the barbecue sauce, it, too, was very good.  

But I liked the brisket the best.  It had a nice smoke ring on the outer edges with a spice-rubbed bark on the outer shell.  The beef was tender and had a wonderful texture, easily pulling apart with little effort.  The brisket was the highlight.

The baked beans were all right on their own, but were helped with a little bit of the barbecue sauce added.  The cole slaw was "Meh!"  It was pretty bland.  

For a quick find on the side of the road, 4C BBQ was a good choice.  It was reasonably priced and you can't beat two for one beer specials.  There didn't seem to be a lot of barbecue joints in the area, but I thought 4C BBQ more than held their own against other barbecue places I've been to.  

Boshamp's Seafood and Oyster House - Destin, FL

While staying at the Hilton Sandestin Beach during our trip to the Emerald Coast of Florida, we went to see the concierge to pick his brain of places to get fresh caught seafood in the area.  While he said that most fresh caught places had limited hours, one place he recommended was Boshamp's Seafood and Oyster House along the harbor in Destin.  One evening for dinner, we decided to go give Boshamp's a try. 

Allen and Dee Phillips were long time members of the local restaurant scene in Destin opening their Flamingo Cafe in 1986 along the docks of Destin Harbor.  For about 20 years they ran the popular seafood place until they decided to retire.  The building became the Fish Bar and was in business until about 2011 before it shut down. 

The restaurant business was in the blood of the Phillips children helping their parents out in the old Flamingo Cafe for years.  Miller Phillips graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in restaurant and hospitality management and opened a franchised location of Another Broken Egg breakfast restaurant in Mountain Brook, AL.  His younger sister Ashley was the general manager and their mother helped with the decor.  When the Fish Bar shut down, Miller Phillips decided to sell his Another Broken Egg location and move back to Destin to achieve his lifelong dream of running his family's restaurant.  Ashley followed him back home. 

For over a year, the Phillips family transformed the building from a tired old building into a vibrant restaurant that paid homage to the older days of Destin when it was primarily a fishing town.  They put in new docks for boaters and jet skiers to gain access via the harbor.  They built a nice outdoor eating area overlooking the harbor and completely redesigned and refurbished the inner dining area of the restaurant.  They reopened the new Boshamps Seafood and Oyster House in April of 2013.  

Boshamps head chef Andi Bell has long been associated with the Phillips family.   Bell, an Alabama native, used to come to the Emerald Coast as a child with his family and moved there in 1991. Bell - a top honors graduate of the then Florida Culinary Institute (now the Lincoln Culinary Institute) - ended up as the chef at the Flamingo Cafe in 1996 and was named a "Rising Star of American Cuisine" by the James Beard Foundation in 2001.  When Miller Phillips opened Boshamps in 2013, Andi Bell was in place as the executive chef. 

With a dog in the logo, I figured that the name had something to do with a dog that Miller Phillips owned.  Actually, the name of the restaurant comes from the Phillips family's three Labrador's - Bobo, Otis and Shug.  Ashley Phillips added Miller Phillips initials and the restaurant became Boshamp's.  (When I first saw the name of the restaurant, I figured that the family's name was Beauchamp and that the name of the place was the American-ized phonetic spelling.  That's what I get for over-thinking.)  

Boshamps is located right along US Highway 98 in the heart of Destin.  (see map)  The parking lot was full when we pulled in around 7:30 and we ended up using valet parking.  Not having a reservation, we knew we'd probably have to wait at the bar for a bit.  We were greeted by a couple young ladies at the hostess stand who wanted to know if we wanted to eat inside, outside or first available.  Although we both wanted to eat outside, we knew that we'd have better luck if we said first available and if we had to sit inside, so be it.  We ended up going to the bar to get a drink.  

The bar is the centerpiece of the restaurant when you walk in.  It was a rectangular shaped bar with seating on three sides.  A young lady was one of the bartenders and she came over to take our drink order.  My wife said  that she wanted a rum runner - one of our favorite Caribbean-themed drinks that has, well, a ton of alcohol in it.  I decided to get the same thing.  

 
The main dining room had large windows that looked out on to the harbor area.  Rustic wooden planks adorned the walls along with dark walnut floors and a wooden ceiling.  The wood decor made for a pretty loud dining and bar area in the place.

We took a quick look outside and found out why everyone wanted to eat out there.  There was a large open air dining and bar area that looked out over the harbor.  A gentle breeze was coming in off the water and it was a great night to eat outside.  But looking at the number of people in the outdoor dining area we had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be eating inside sooner than eating outdoors later.

 
We went back in to sit at the bar to wait for a table.  Our bartender struck up a conversation with us asking where we were from.  We told her we were from Iowa and she said, "Oh, hey!  I'm from Indiana.  Columbus, to be exact."  I asked her why she ended up here and she said, "I came down for vacation and always thought it was a nice place.  I just ended up moving down here awhile back. I miss Indiana, but I don't miss the winters."  After the winter we just had in Iowa, I know what she means.  

Our buzzer went off and we went over to the hostess stand.  One of the hostesses took us to a table opposite one of the large windows and dropped off some menus.  I was finished with my rum runner and I ordered another one when she asked me if I needed another drink.  It wasn't long before our server for the evening, Douglas, came back with the rum runner and greeted us.  

Douglas told us of their "Catch of the Day" specials that night, it was a red snapper with soft shell crab on top. He also had just a regular red snapper that could be cooked in various ways.  Red snapper has made a strong comeback in the Gulf after almost being fished out of existence a few years ago.   

We almost ordered some oysters on the half shell at the bar, but waited until we sat down.  Douglas said, "I'll get those going and let you two look over the menu."  

We noticed a lot of the red snapper/soft shell crab going by our table.  Cindy was eyeing that entree pretty heavily.  "That looks pretty good," she said as a server placed four of the special entrees on a table near us.

While the menu wasn't extensive, it featured - of course - seafood entrees, steaks, fried chicken and a lobster/mac & cheese entree.  The nightly special sounded good, but I was leaning toward getting a blackened red snapper.

  Douglas brought out the oysters that came with fresh ground horseradish, shrimp sauce and something that was called a "PBR mignonette".  "It's the chef's own concoction," he told us.  "He takes the regular mignonette (vinegar, minced shallots, cracked black pepper) and puts a little Pabst Blue Ribbon in it.  It's really good."  

These were some of the biggest and meatiest oysters that we had ever seen.  Cindy asked if they were local oysters and Douglas replied, "No, these are from Louisiana.  We used to get our oysters locally, but the oyster beds ran dry and the states of Florida and Georgia are in a lawsuit about it."  We had mentioned that we heard about this earlier during our stay in the area and he said, "Yeah, it's a real mess."  

He told us that he'd let have some time to take care of the oysters before he took our order for dinner.  That was a mistake.  During the time we were enjoying the oysters, they ran out of that night's special with the red snapper and the soft shell crab.  Cindy ordered that after we finished our oysters and when she was told that wasn't available any longer we both groaned.  We had seen a LOT come out of the kitchen as we were sitting there and Douglas was a little slow getting back to us as he was busy with other tables.  "Yeah, I was just told that we ran out," Douglas told us. "Sorry about that folks."  He later told us that they would have it again as a special on Saturday night, but we would be leaving on Saturday morning.  Oh well...

Cindy went back to the menu and found something called the "Original Snapper Destin" - jumbo lump crab meat, steamed Gulf shrimp, mashed red potatoes, locally grown braised greens and topped with a bearnaise sauce with honey roasted pecans.  She said, "Actually, that was going to be my other choice."  

I ended up getting the red snapper - blackened, of course.  I even told Douglas that the chef could "stomp on" the Cajun seasonings for me, if he wanted.  With the red snapper, it came with cheesy grits and locally raised tomatoes and okra in a Cajun maque choux.   I also got a cup of their housemade gumbo and I switched from the rum runners to a beer.  I selected one of the locally brewed Grayton Brewing Company beers - the pale ale.  I found their beers to be all right, but nothing that I had to take back to Iowa with me.

The gumbo had a very forward and smoky flavor.  Chunks of chicken and shrimp made for a fine complement to the gumbo broth.  I zipped it up with some Tabasco and it was pretty good.  Not the best I've had, but it worked for that evening.  

 
Douglas brought our food out to us and - as I asked - the chef covered the red snapper in Cajun seasonings before the blackening process.  It had a nice crust of seasonings on the outside and inside the fish was tender, moist and flaky.  It was very good. 

The cheesy grits (found that a lot of places we ate at in Florida had cheesy grits - I like just the regular good ol' grits) were all right as was the tomato/okra/maque choux.  Quite honestly, after the big oysters and the gumbo, I was pretty stuffed before the main entrees showed up.  I concentrated almost wholly on the delicious blackened red snapper.  

Cindy's dinner entree was very interesting - and very rich.  The lump crab meat, shrimp and everything was sort of piled on top of one another with the bearnaise sauce drizzled over the top.  She loved it tremendously.  We exchanged bites of our food and I had some of the crab meat.  It was very, very good.  She said, "Well, if I couldn't get the other dinner, this worked out fine."  

We were fully stuffed after the dinner was over and Douglas tempted us with dessert and this was one of the few times that we refused on our trip.  I was fully satiated and couldn't have even begun to think about having anything else at that point.

Things were winding down for the evening when Douglas brought us our bill.  Cindy asked him if he was from somewhere else and he told us that he had been in the Marine Corps for 20 years and retired to St. Louis after he got out of the service.  "My brother is the catering and beverage manager at the Hilton Sandestin (which was a coincidence since we were staying there) and I brought my family down here for Christmas about five years ago."  He said that while it was cold and snowy in St. Louis that day, it was 66 degrees in Destin and they were out walking along the beach in shorts.  "We moved down here not long after that and it's been great for my family," he told us.  "My son is high school age and he's more active here than he was in St. Louis, he was always playing video games.  He's always outside down here."  

After I paid Doug I thanked him not only for his fine service that evening, but for his service for our country.  "Thank you on both counts," he said as he bid us farewell.  "I appreciate it deeply."  He was a good guy and a good server.  

About the only problem I had with Boshamps is that we didn't get to eat outside.  Well, that and the special that evening had sold out by the time we were ready to order.  But the food was very good, Douglas' service was above average (although he did forget some Tabasco for the oysters and was a little slow getting back to us causing Cindy to miss out on the special that evening), the atmosphere was perfect as a laid back place to get some very good and very fresh seafood.  Boshamps was not our best meal during our trip, but it was a close second.  And that's saying a lot.   

The Emerald Coast of Florida

We just spent a week along the Emerald Coast of Florida relaxing, hanging with family and friends, and eating copious amounts of fresh seafood.  My wife had never been to Florida and I had never been to the Panhandle area.  My cousin and his wife retired about four years ago and moved down to Santa Rosa Beach.  They moved about two blocks away from friends who had retired and moved to the area 10 years ago.  We decided to head down to see everyone and hang for a few days.  

First of all, we drove down.  It was expensive to fly from Moline to Panama City.  Coupled with renting a car for a week, it would have cost us over $1500 for transportation.  My wife wasn't happy doing the 1000-mile drive one-way, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be considering we broke up the drive into two parts.  We spent the night going down in Nashville and made it to Paducah, KY coming back.   And we went at the right time - just before the Memorial Day holiday.  Things began to get crowded along the beach on the Thursday before the Memorial Day weekend and by the time we left on Saturday, well, we were ready to get out of there and away from the crowds and traffic.  

The Emerald Coast gets its name from the emerald green and blue waters that hug the white sand beaches along the coast. The beaches were - arguably - the finest beaches we'd ever encountered on our trips to seashores and lake sides around the country. There were little to no seashells to be found on the beaches, much to the consternation of my wife.  We were told that the continental shelf drops off rather quickly - the deepest drop along the Gulf of Mexico - and that's one of the reason why there's not a lot of shells on the beach.  Well, that, and probably too many people looking for them, as well.  

And speaking of going to the Emerald Coast at the right time, we had gorgeous "Chamber of Commerce" weather the whole time we were there.  Skies were clear (a little coastal haze in the morning quickly burned off) and temperatures were in the mid to upper 80's (30-32C).  The winds were refreshing coming off the Gulf of Mexico and while it was humid, it wasn't overly oppressive.  A couple three weeks before, the area was drenched in "500 Year" rainfall.  The Destin area got over 14 inches of rain in a 24 hour time period, while Pensacola - about 60 miles to the west - got nearly 2 feet of rain over the same period.  There were some washed out roads and watersheds that we encountered.  The week after we left, they had more rain - 6 inches of rain over a 48-hour period.  My cousin said, "When it rains here, it RAINS!"  

Thanks to my cousin and his wife, they were able to show us around the area.  The main road along the beach towns of Walton County is County Road 30A. 30A is more than a roadway, it's sort of the signature of the region - the slow pace and laid back way of life that locals and vacationers enjoy along the Emerald Coast.  Driving along 30A is a deliberate process - vehicles usually don't get much above 25 mph and when the tourists show up in the summer months, the gridlock along 30A can be maddening.  Especially for the locals who use the road to get to and from work.  

The tourists from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Eastern Louisiana who funnel into the region give the area a somewhat disparaging nickname - the Redneck Riviera.  Some people also refer to the area as L.A. - as in "Lower Alabama". While the region thrives on tourist money - and the locals love that - they also have to put up with some tourists who think they are "entitled", so to speak.  

Getting to know some of the locals during our stay, it turned out that most of the disdain they have for tourists centers on those from Georgia - primarily the Atlanta area - many who come down and act like they own the place. We ran into a couple situations that documented this - one occurred on 30A on evening when a car was literally parked the wrong direction stopping eastbound traffic.  The car was just stopped facing on-coming traffic while the people inside non-chalantly got out of the car.  The car had Georgia license plates with Cobb County plates (Cobb County is the northwestern suburbs of Atlanta).  

There was another instance where we had to go through a neighborhood to turn around due to 30A being washed out from the torrential rain storms a couple three weeks before.  We went around the block and encountered a car parked in the middle of the street, next to another car along the curb.  The guy standing beside the car in the street made the motion for us to "go back around" from where we came.  The car had a Georgia license plate, this time with Fulton County plates (Atlanta proper).  

Now, I'm certain that not all people from Georgia are like that.  But it was interesting that we'd heard of instances of a supposed entitlement that some people from Georgia believe they have along the Emerald Coast and actually encountered a couple of them.  

But probably the biggest bone of contention the people along the Emerald Coast have with the people of Georgia is over the diminishing oyster beds in Apilachicola Bay near Panama City.  The oyster beds in that area have supplied 90 percent of the oysters consumed in Florida and 10 percent of the ones consumed by the nation.  

Water usage by the citizens of Georgia - primarily from the Lake Lanier reservoir on the Chattahootchee River that feeds Atlanta's water supply - has cut into the water flow of the river which also feeds the Apalachicola River downstream.  With the recent drought suffered throughout the Southeast, the State of Florida sued the State of Georgia directly in the U.S. Supreme Court last year to limit the amount of water usage by Georgia residents.  The drought now appears to be over - especially with the rain they've had lately - but marine biologists have said it will take three years of normal water levels to bring back the oyster beds to their previous harvest levels.  Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has sort of just sat on the case.  

In the meantime, most oysters consumed along the Emerald Coast come from Louisiana - including these meaty little mothers pictured at right.  The Gulf Coast has come back strong after the devastating BP Oil spill in 2010.  (My cousin's wife told us that every once in a while some tar balls will still wash up on the beaches.)   We can attest that the shrimp and oysters we had were contaminant free.  

We had considered staying over in Panama City for a couple nights, but after a drive over to the area with my cousin and his wife we're certainly glad we didn't.  It seems to be more "touristy" than the Destin area and catered more to the younger crowd.  Spring Break is a big deal in Panama City and I understand that city officials have begun to crack down on college students - especially underaged drinking and rowdy behavior - all along the Emerald Coast.  In Walton County - the county in which Destin is located - the county jail is located over 30 miles north of the city near the Alabama border.  When kids are arrested in Destin they have to go to the Walton County Jail and it's a haul for their friends to come and get them, fully interrupting a good portion of one or more days of Spring Break to get a friend out of jail.  

The population of the Emerald Coast swells from Memorial Day through Labor Day.  Traffic tie-ups and gridlocks along 30A are common during that time.  The locals usually hang low waiting for the tourists to go away in September and then enjoy the wonderful fall weather with lower humidity and comfortable highs in the 70's.  Temperatures in the winter time can get down into the 30's along the Emerald Coast and my cousin's wife told us that she lost a number of tropical plants this past winter due to sub-freezing temperatures that affected a good portion of the Eastern U.S.

We stayed at my cousin's house in Santa Rosa Beach for a couple nights before heading over to the Hilton Sandestin Beach to blow a bunch of my Hilton Honors points on a top-floor room in the main tower of the hotel.  We enjoyed great views along the coast as well as spectacular sunsets with the sun appearing to set in the bay north of Destin.  The Hilton Sandestin Beach has been around for 40 years with a good portion of the property getting upgraded within the past few months.  We had access to three pools and ocean front beaches.  Cindy and I did a number of walks up and down the beach during our stay.  It was a great place to chill out for a few days.  

And these tall buildings that you see are the only ones that are found in Walton County.  County officials passed a law a number of years ago that limited development of high rise condos and hotels in the county.  The buildings in the immediate area around the Hilton Sandestin Beach were grandfathered in before the law was passed .  This is not the case over in Panama City where Bay County has no such restrictions on how high a building can be built.  Because of that, the views along the coast in Walton County are nicer than over in Bay County.  And probably less crowded, too.  

And one thing that also didn't find much of was big box retailers.  There was a Walmart near our hotel, but it seemed to be smaller than the vast majority of Walmart's around the nation.  There was shopping - including the upscale Baytown Wharf shopping and entertainment complex located just across US 98 from the Sandestin resorts.  But we didn't do much shopping - except for looking for a new pair of flip-flops for me.  We looked in a lot of beach shops - there are tons of them to be found up and down the coast including a number of Alvin's Island stores that seemed to proliferate the area.  We finally found a pair at an upscale shoe store in a strip mall very close to the hotel.  They suddenly became my most favorite footwear.   

Another interesting aspect about the Emerald Coast - we found that a drive to anywhere was about 20 minutes from anywhere.  It's just so spread out along the coast that if we wanted to go to the grocery store, it was about a 20 minute drive.  A particular restaurant?  A 20 minute drive.  Of course, it wasn't always like that, but we just learned that to get anywhere, most of the time it took 20 minutes.  My cousin pretty much concurred with my findings after I told him that.  He said, "Double that in the summertime.  This place is overrun with people."

I also found that it was expensive to live along the Emerald Coast.  Prices were high in grocery stores, restaurants and at the gas pump.  There are a lot of retirees in the area, which sort of shocked me at the higher cost of living.  Tourism - of course - is the No. 1 industry along the Emerald Coast and unemployment runs from about 3.8 percent to 6.5 percent in the five counties from Pensacola to Panama City.  We encountered a number of Eastern European service people in restaurants and the hotel - mainly younger kids.

With all the tourists in the area, we saw only three cars from Iowa - all of them from Eastern Iowa around where we live.  We passed a car with our home county of Scott along Highway 98 one day.  We saw a Muscatine County (just to the south and west of Scott County) license plate the first day we were there.  And we passed a car with Johnson County license plates (Iowa City) one day.  And the guy was picking his nose.  Figures... 

We ate a lot of seafood and I probably got sick because of it.  There's nothing worse than having the flu while you're on vacation.  We lounged around the pool looking out over the emerald green and blue Gulf Coast waters.  We had our annual vacation encounter with AAA due to a dead battery in my wife's car.  And we had a valet literally cut a smelly fart in our car just before he delivered the car to us after dinner one night.  I would have withheld the five buck tip I gave him had I smelled it before we got into the car.  All in all, it was a nice vacation and in the coming weeks you'll be reading about some of the places we ate at up and down the Emerald Coast while we were there.  Stay tuned!