Dauphin Island and BBQ!
We got up early, remember? We worked up an appetite walking through the bird sanctuary and exploring the park and environs. One last stop to see those butterflies and we really need to get something to eat.
Fortunately, we passed just the place on the way in . . . Dauphin Island BBQ 🙂
My friends, this is not a fancy place. There is no indoor seating. You order at a window, and grab your plastic utensils, and then you wait for your name to be called. You can fill little cups with condiments, including, of course, Tony Chachere’s special spices, and then you sit at a picnic table and eat out of a styrofoam container. This may not be your style. We like all kinds of styles 🙂
By the time we decided, cars loaded with grandparents, children, lots and lots of children, parents, aunts and uncles, cars and trucks and big RV’s started pulling up and people crowding into Dauphin Island BBQ eager to eat. Clientele lining up:
We got there just in time. We got a good picnic table in the shade. I tried to order oysters, but since Isaac, oysters have been hard to come by. I had fried fish. It was hot and it was delicious.
AdventureMan ordered the pulled pork and said it was delicious:
Not elegant, but tasty, filling, and delicious. As you drive onto Dauphin Island, turn left and watch for this . . . umm . . .lighthouse. Dauphin Island BBQ is located just past this lighthouse-looking building.
If you want to stay on Dauphin Island, there is one Motel, several condominiums, and many rentals. One place to look for beach rentals is Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor also has a few hotel/B&B listings here, but be sure to tell TA to arrange by distance, or you may end up in Gulf Shores or Fairhope, LOL!
The one motel, Gulf Breeze Motel, is nothing fancy, but it is the best there is. Reviewers on Trip Advisor say ‘it’s not the Ritz’ but the prices are reasonable, and people seem to like it.
Ichiban Pensacola – YUMMMM!
We knew we were in the right place – the parking lot was packed. Our son and his wife had told us they like Ichiban for sushi and Japanese food, so we thought we’d give it a try.
As we were seated in our little booth at Ichiban, with cubby holes for our shoes, and a well for our feet, we looked at each other and had the same thought – how is it we have never been here before? We love this place, even upon entering. Friendly greeting, gracious service, full of people eating plates of delicious food, nice atmosphere – how did we miss Ichiban?
There is a stylized salmon design on the tabletop; a sure winner for a gal from the Pacific Northwest. I can hear Japanese being spoken in the kitchen, and the food . . . the food is the closest I have come to food from a little Japanese restaurant in Seattle. They even have salmon teriyaki on the menu, and bento boxes! I am in heaven.
We had a pot of green tea, and we ordered bento boxes.
If I have one tiny complaint, it is this: there is too much food! Each Bento box came with a full sushi roll. This is the California roll:
Here is a menu of all the different kinds of sushi they have available.
I had the bento box with chicken teriyaki. It came with a good sized bowl of miso soup, which I love, cucumber salad, an asparagus salad with shrimp on top, an egg roll and two delicious little fried beef dumplings. Everything was tasty. Each taste was separate and delightful.
AdventureMan ordered the Bento Box with Shrimp Tempura:
There was so much food! We ended up bringing home a lot of salad and our main courses. I’ve never seen so much food in a bento box.
We are impressed that Pensacola has such a great Japanese restaurant. No wonder people are keeping it a secret!
I love it that on their menu, they have Sushi for Beginners. 🙂 If you have never tried Japanese food, Ichiban Pensacola is a great place to start. They can guide you on some menu choices, and make sure you have a delightful initiation. If you already like Japanese food – see you there.
Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach
It’s going to be a rainy morning, but not a problem – we’re going to the Gulfarium in Fort Walton Beach. It’s expensive – even with our senior discount our tickets are $18.95 EACH! But the happy toddler is under three, so he goes in free.
Feeding the Manta Rays:
Feeding the penguins:
Feeding the Turtle:
Gulfarium Bayou Area:
Heron:
After visiting the Gulfarium we left, just as the clouds broke open and deluged us. We took refuge at Big Daddy’s BBQ and Thai Food which serves a large and happy population at Hurlburt Field and Eglin AFB. We had seen the funky looking place every time we take Highway 98, but this is our first time stopping there. It was a great stop on a very rainy day – the food was hot and tasty; the restaurant low key, and fine with children. They had lots to choose from, a buffet or you could order off the menu.
We get back to our beach place just in time for naps – all of us! Taking care of a 2 1/2 year old is exhausting! By the time we get up, the sun is shining, the surf is up and it’s beach time!
Beach Weather and Crabs: We Got ‘Em on Pensacola Beach
No, it’s not really my kind of beach weather. I’m an Alaska girl, a Pacific Northwest girl, I like a colder breeze, with hot days and cool nights. But Alaska and the Pacific Northwest don’t have Pensacola beaches, with the sugar white sand and the Italian greens drifting into indigo blues, and the shift of sun on the sand and waters making the colors glow.
We are out on the beach for a week, making daily treks the 20 minutes back into town to take care of the Qatari Cat, pick up mail, etc, but we are loving the beach nights.
First night sunset:
A very cloudy sunset:
View of beach from condo:
It’s dinner time, and we get a table next to the beach at Crabs: We Got ‘Em. It is a hot and humid evening, but there is a nice breeze, great beach music, a huge mellow crowd, and all is well:
Our waitress is Chloe, and she is friendly, knowledgeable, nice and also fast 🙂 She brings our she-crab soup almost as soon as we order it.
She also brought fresh hot “honey rolls” which are really sugar beignets and a little pot of honey to dip them in. Yes, I allowed myself one because I NEVER eat beignets and I totally love them.
Both AdventureMan and I had the exact same dinner, the she-crab soup and Beer Batter Gulf Shrimp. There were SO many shrimp we couldn’t eat them all, and SO good. No, I didn’t eat my fries. Well, maybe just one or two, but not more. 🙂
As we were eating, they announced their hermit crab race. This is hilarious, and very cleverly done, and the kids love it. The one who chooses the winning hermit crab wins a Crabs T-shirt:
People were lining up to ride the new Pensacola Beach attraction, which is not called a ferris wheel, but I don’t remember what it is called. You ride in those little pods.
Hopjack’s Filling Station, Pensacola
This is all about the power of the press. This morning, as I checked my news online, I saw an article about a restaurant area in East Pensacola Heights, and it mentioned several restaurants, including Hopjack’s Filling Station, which our son had told us about.
“Today, I want to go to Hopjack’s!” AdventureMan announced after having read the Pensacola News Journal, and off we went.
Hopjack’s Filling Station is all about beer. I wish I had gotten a photo of the 33 taps for their beers on tap. Next to the 33 beers on tap, there is a huge refrigerator case, an entire wall of cold beers in bottles, so many I have no idea how many there are. And across from that wall, on the opposite wall, is another wall of beer.
They also have food. 🙂 There is a cold chest full of hard-to-find cheeses, and not a huge menu, but a very very cool menu, a big city kind of brew-pub menu, with international offerings at reasonable prices:
I ordered the Duck Panini with the garlic aioli (really, a garlic mayonnaise) (“garlic aioli” is like saying “shrimp scampi” or “Vista View” LOL)
And AdventureMan ordered the Caprese Panini, which had a balsamic vinegar reduction that was divine:
And, of course, we both had beer :-). If you don’t know what you like, they have little tasting cups. I had a dark beer, just a tiny bit sweet, called Rogue, and AdventureMan had something he hoped would approximate a good German Pils, but he says we are going to have to go back and keep trying until he finds it. 🙂
Hopjack’s Filling Station will have a grand opening Friday, August 10, with wine tasting as well as beer sampling. Go welcome them to the neighborhood.
(I really want to go back and try their Belgian frites with aioli!)
Taco Rock in Pensacola
AdventureMan has been talking about the Taco Rock for months, and for some reason, we just haven’t made it there until today. I laughed when I first saw it, bright yellow, clearly a family-owned place, the kind of place we love.
“Hey! It’s Taco Buffet Day!” AdventureMan said gleefully. There wasn’t a self-serve buffet set up, that’s not how it works, you tell them what you want, like I said chicken and beef. AdventureMan wanted Al Pastor.
No one hurried us to make our choices. They have a hand printed menu above where you order, and some photos over to the right. The two gals at the order counter were pouring over a couple catalogs. When we were ready to order, they were ready to take our order, but they didn’t hurry us.
Then the cooks went into business; we could see them. They have some of the foods prepped, and then they heat the tortillas, crisp the tostada shells, everything comes hot and fresh to the table.
We saw a lot of customers taking out, there are about 20 seats at small tables inside, and room for maybe 20 more outside. The food is individually prepared. This is not your chain kind of place; it’s a real people kind of place, just where Palafox forks away from Pensacola Highway. Not fancy. No tablecloths. Great authentic tacos, burritos, tamales made and served by people who take pride in their work. 🙂
I could hear AdventureMan laughing when we got home.
“What’s so funny?” I called from my office to his.
“I’m reading the reviews for Taco Rock,” he laughed, “and they are all positive except for one, and it says ‘Horrible atmosphere. Felt like I was in Mexico.'”
We were dying, we were laughing so hard.
McGuire’s For Lunch
“I just have a yen for a steak,” I said to AdventureMan, and since it is my turn to choose, he grins and says “I could use a steak, too.” We don’t even feel guilty. The last steak we had was New Year’s Day this year, also at McGruires. Two steaks a year, not so bad.
It’s a gloomy day, and we are hoping it’s not so crowded we have to wait. We are seated immediately, but upon looking around, AdventureMan said “Does anyone in here know that the economy is suffering? Do they know we are in a downturn?”
McGuires is PACKED. It’s not just old retired folk and tourists, either, it’s young Pensacola families and their children, generations meeting up for a Saturday lunch. The bar is packed, the tables are full throughout and as we leave, there is a line waiting.
The steaks – we like the Molly filet – were fabulous. Erin A, our excellent waitress, warned us that some people find the pepper coating too peppery, and we assured her we like a pepper coating to be very peppery; when our steaks came, they were VERY peppery, and we were very happy. They also had fresh asparagus, perfectly cooked, still just a little crisp. We were really bad, we also had the bleu cheese dressing on our salads. It was a wonderful meal, altogether, and Erin A was attentive without being intrusive. Erin kept our glasses full, swept used dishes away as soon as they were finished, and kept her eye on our table in case we had any needs. Her service added to our enjoyment of the meal. Isn’t that the best?
There are other steak houses in town, where you can get a steak almost as good for a lot less. You can’t beat McGuires for the overall experience, though, and when you only have steak every few months, why not have the best?
We also love it that our out-of-town guests LOVE McGuires, for the overall experience as well as for the food. Live entertainment at night, lots of old Irish ballads. 🙂
As we left, we had to run between the raindrops to get to our car. Big heavy voluminous clouds over Pensacola, and a daily humidity factor of around 100%.
The Mediterranean Plus on a Hot and Humid Day
“What can you say? It’s summer in Pensacola!” my Pensacola friend laughed. We had been talking about the week of rain-bursts and thunder and lightning we’ve been having – with more the same to come. I don’t mind, the cloud cover keeps the temperatures down, even if it makes the air more humid and heavy.
A perfect day for lunch at the Mediterranean Plus.
There isn’t any time of the year that is not perfect to eat at the Mediterranean Plus. In the winter, you can have their lentil stews and heavier main dishes. In the winter, their lentil soup and seafood soup (it isn’t on the menu; the chef has to make it as the soup of the day) are wonderful. In the summer, we love the salads and often order a plate to share, like the Vegitarian Plate or the Mediterranean Plate.
We split an order of baba ghannoush to start.
This time I had Chicken Kabob (known in the Middle East as Shish Taouk):
While AdventureMan had a felafel sandwich:
There was so much Shish Taouk that I brought the rest home and we split it for dinner, too. Nice light eating on a hot Pensacola summer’s evening.
6895 North 9th Avenue Pensacola, FL 32503
(850) 469-9225
(Between the liquor store and Rob’s Cameras; around the corner from Four Winds)
Does the Surf Burger on Pensacola Beach Rock?
AdventureMan and I disagree about the Surf Burger on Pensacola Beach.
I don’t eat a lot of hamburgers. In fact, I eat about one a year, and it has become a sort of tradition that I go to the Red Robin around the Fourth of July for my annual hamburger quota. Like, if you’re going to do it, do it right. (“YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.”) 🙂
But it was close to the 4th of July when our son called and said they were headed to the beach and did we want to meet them at the Surf Burger for dinner. We said sure, there is always something on the menu we can eat at most places, and we’ve never been to the Surf Burger. How can you live in Pensacola and never eat at the Surf Burger?
We got there first. There’s a part of me that felt comfortable there right away. It’s a lot like the old Red Robin used to be, the one we used to go to when I was in university, kind of a dive. There is a bar, and semi-sloshed looking people dressed in not-very-much trying to pick each other up, and a very basic menu, mostly hamburgers. And beer. And those mixed drinks with cute names you find at most beaches with 7 or more potentially lethal kinds of alcohol – in each drink.
It is both family friendly and pet friendly. If you are not wearing beach gear, you are overdressed. Service can be slow when they have a lot of customers, and often, they have a lot of customers. It’s very very hard on a Sunday night to find a parking place.
I knew just what I wanted – a Firecracker Burger. When it came, on two slices of toasted bread, I was disappointed, until I bit in. Once I tried it, I was happy. The burger tasted like 100% real meat, none of these chain burgers that you’re not sure how much is meat and how much is ‘special ingredients’ you really don’t want to know. It was SPICY; it was a Firecracker. I enjoyed every bite, and that is a good thing when you only eat one burger a year.
AdventureMan was not so happy. He ordered a SurfBurger. He hated the French Fries. He found his burger not that great. He thought it was greasy.
Our Vegan ordered a VeggieBurger, and she was happy, too. She said it tasted like meat, and had a great texture, but it wasn’t meat.
Surf Burger is probably not your destination kind of restaurant. It’s a burger joint. You go there for a hamburger because you are at the beach and you are hungry. You go there maybe to drink and hook up with a new friend. You go there because it is easy and comfortable and you don’t want to get cleaned up or dressed up. All those are good reasons to go to the Surf Burger.
Surf Burger
500 Quietwater Beach Blvd
Pensacola Beach, FL
850-932-1417
TO GO ORDERS WELCOMED
Mon – Thur: 11am – 10pm
Fri: 11am – 11pm
Sat: 8am – 11pm
Sun: 8am – 10pm
5 Stars for Bonnie, at Pensacola’s Fish House
It’s another rainy, stormy day in Pensacola, and we decide we want to have comfort food for lunch. That narrows our selection down to three places – Tudo’s, 5 Sisters, and The Fish House. We decide this is a good day for The Fish House – maybe we can get in without a wait, with all the people heading out to Pensacola Beach.
We have to wait in the car, once we get there, because the rain is coming down in buckets, and the wind is blowing it sideways.
Our windshield looking at the Fish House:
Once it abates a little, AdventureMan gets his umbrella, runs around to my side of the car, and covers us both as best we can as we run up the steps and inside the restaurant.
Things can change in a heartbeat, we think, watching out the window next to the table where we are seated. Today is the Blue Angel’s Day at Pensacola Beach, but with all this thunder and lightning and we can’t imagine how this can work.
“There is always a bubble over the beach,” Bonnie, who has a sweet smiling face, informs us. Even when it is raining in Pensacola, most of the time it is fine out at the beach.”
That’s a comfort, because the rain is really coming down.
We order, and when our order comes, AdventureMan’s pizza is covered with cheese. That is a good thing, if you are a normal American, but not such a good thing if you are us. We’ve eaten pizza for so long overseas that we aren’t used to the gooey layers of cheese covering most American pizzas. AdventureMan scrapes it off, and eats the pesto and tomato topping underneath. (My Grits a Ya Ya are divine.)
Bonnie is dismayed.
“Can I take it back and have it done the way you like it?” she asks.
“No, no” we assure her, it’s our fault, our idea of pizza is different and we just forgot that momentarily, we are fine.
She couldn’t let it go. She felt so badly seeing all his piles of melted cheese.
“Let me buy you dessert,” she tried.
“No, No, Bonnie, this isn’t your fault or the Fish House fault; it’s our fault for not remembering that pizzas here come with more cheese. It’s not you’re problem, we are happy with this nice table and a great waitress. We don’t fault anyone for this.”
She brought the bill. As we handed the payment to her, she handed us a small take-away box.
“I want you to have this,” she insisted. We opened it when we got to the car. It was a piece of their special blueberry cheesecake, garnished with a flower.
You know me. I complain about bad customer service. It’s only fair that when we get superb customer service that we tell you about that, too. Bonnie was superb. She has mastered the art of customer service. She is a reason people come back to The Fish House. 🙂
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