Restaurant Recommendation

Here's something you don't see me do everyday -- recommend a restaurant. There's a lot of good restaurants I really like, but they tend to fall into one of two categories; individual restaurants (in which case I'm wasting the time of 99.9% of my audience), and chains, which frequently are good, but not good enough to wholeheartedly recommend. Red Lobster restaurants are consistently good enough to eat at anywhere you go, and to recommend. So are Carrabba's Italian restaurants -- best Italian -- Ever.

The Islamorada Fish Company Restaurants are my new favorite as of this morning. They currently have 10 locations across the U.S. in Bass Pro Shops, and are soon to open their newest location in . . . Portage Indiana! (So all you Valpo folks can go check out that new Bass Pro Shop in the Ameriplex this spring and have dinner at the Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant.

Based on the Snack Bar in the Florida Keys made famous by Ernest Hemingway's writings, the restaurant features the kind of stuff you'd expect from a "Fish Restaurant: -- fish, shrimp, oysters, and calamari. But they offer it fried, baked, and deep fried, as well as raw on the shell. Their portions are reasonable if not ample; and the prices reasonable as well.

The menu runs the gamut for the outdoorsman with some of the most exotic fare you'll find in a restaurant anywhere, and certainly exotic for any chain. Calamari Fritti is hard to find outside of Italian or seafood places and hard to find then (it's one of my favorite foods, so I know whereof I speak here). But breaded and pan-fried alligator is downright impossible outisde of a few rare places in Florida. And the only place I've ever seen Buffalo Burgers was in the famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. They open the meal with a loaf of "Bimini Bread", which is a freshly-baked loaf with a sugar crust and real butter. The waiter said it was the only reason he worked there, and it was an excellent reason. I had the Buffalo Burger and Calamari, while Julian had the Conch Chowder and Mahi-Mahi and Ariane had the Grouper, and everything was absolutely delicious. For dessert I had the Key Lime pie from an original recipe from the Keys -- which was a bit weird for my tastes, but still very good.

(Note to my cousin Jon if Florida: they have two of these places in Florida and a third under construction -- it's worth the trip. The fish tank in the middle of the restaurant should keep the kids entertained through the meal, too.)

~~JD~~