Marathon: Key's Fisheries

When I embarked on my new blogging hobby a few months back, I was hoping to be able to post one of these every week.  I built up these great expectations and started having fun with it, then LIFE suddenly smacked me in the face and said, “Remember Me”….deadlines at work, end of the school year activities with the kids, grandma’s in the hospital, birthday parties, funerals, grandma’s in the hospital again…  So I think I’m going to take a step back and commit to once a month.  On occasion you may get lucky though and get an extra post or two.  For now, we will just take advantage of whatever little gems of free time LIFE yields by bringing you some of the really AWESOME food that’s out there.

Last week I made my Keys run, visiting customers in Key Largo, Marathon and Key West.  I love the Florida Keys for many different reasons, but among them are all the really good places to eat.  Seriously, finding good food in the Keys is like finding hay in a hay stack.  The trouble is deciding where to go.  On this trip, I followed the advice of one of my customers and stopped at fun little spot that serves up great food called Key’s Fisheries. 

Like most great spots in the Keys, this one is off the beaten path.  I drove up US1 from Key West, made my way through Marathon, came up on Fishermen’s Hospital, turned left past the Highway Patrol Station and headed down to where the road meets the bay.  I pulled into the gravel parking lot and there she was, Key's Fisheries: Marina, Fish Market and RESTAURANT.

The marina is home to a fleet of commercial fishing and crabbing boats.  Their fish market ranks among the finest purveyors of fresh caught Florida Keys favorites like hog fish, yellow tail, dolphin, conch, lobster and stone crabs, when in season of course.  The restaurant serves them all up for you to enjoy while looking out over the majestic waters of Florida Bay.

Key's Fisheries embodies the laid back lifestyle that most everyone loves about the Keys. There is the casual walk up window for ordering and picking up food.  The perimeter of the white building is shaded and lined with pic-nick tables to enjoy your meal by the bay.  Take a walk around their little piece of paradise and you'll find maps of the Keys, old newspaper articles on their business and pictures of their building sitting under water during the storm surge of a hurricane.   

Look over their menu and you will find a wide variety of great seafood dishes.   There is one item though that stands out from the rest.  It is a sandwich, a Reuben sandwich to be exact.  This Reuben is like no other though.  I am a big fan of Reuben sandwiches.  Many places across Florida will make you one with grouper or dolphin (some refer to it as mahi mahi, but in Florida we call it dolphin).  Key’s Fisheries, however, has the one and only Lobster Reuben.  You know that’s what I ordered.  Boasting that they have served 154,549 Lobster Reubens to date, I knew I could not go wrong.

Now when I walked up to the order window I noticed the specials sign had a line that read “Name: A Island.”  That is Key’s Fisheries way of getting your creative motor running.  When you place your order, be ready to come up with a name.  Not your name, but rather the name of a song, a band, maybe a 70’s TV show, or a cartoon character.  This is how you know your order is up.  Just look for the specials board and you'll see what kind of name Key's Fisheries is looking for today.  I had to come up with the name of an Island.  My Island was Sanibel, though its not in the Keys, it is one of my all time favorite islands.

Another fun thing there is to do here is feed the fish.  Don’t feed them your leftovers though.  Go over to one of the feed boxes, get some fish food, and get ready to watch the show.  As soon as the little pellets hit the water you’ll see what I mean as the the fish come from everywhere to get their lunch.

As soon as I heard Sanibel Island called out over the speaker I went back up to the window, picked up my tray and sat down to marvel.  Wow, this thing looked awesome and tasted just the same.  Tender chunks of lobster, crisp pieces of cole slaw, rich thousand island and warm melted cheese between two golden-brown monster slices of grilled toast.  Phenomenal!

In the middle of a hectic week, filled with life’s many complications, I’m glad I was able to stop by Key’s Fisheries.  Between their awesome Lobster Reuben, cool gulf breeze and beautiful views of the bay….I was definitely Floored by Food.

Feeding Frenzy

Bright & Beautiful

GREASE Burger Bar

May is such a great month!  I mean we have so many great things to celebrate and be excited about in May:  we are well into spring, beach weather starts to roll in, dolphin starts running off Florida’s east coast, baseball is in full swing, NBA playoffs, Mother’s Day….and Floored by Food’s favorite.…May is National Hamburger Month.  This May I am going to take you to four of the best places in South Florida to find ground beef masterpieces.  Kicking off my Hamburger Month honors is a place with a name that is simply irresistible to any self proclaimed food lover.  It’s a place called GREASE Burger Bar….and it is AWESOME!!!!   

GREASE Burger Bar is proof that Big Time Restaurant Group knows how to consistently deliver a good product.  They are experts at serving really good food in an environment that is always great fun.  Their portfolio of restaurants includes Rocco’s Taco’s, City Cellar, Big City Tavern and City Oyster Bar.  Most of these are spread out across southeast Florida.  Big Time’s restaurants are the types of places where just the excitement of sharing the overall experience with a group of friends, will keep bringing you back. 

This Place is really easy to find.  As you drive down Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach you cannot help but be attracted to the sight of a full size longhorn steer standing atop an outstretched ledge, behind a big, bright neon marquee that simply reads GREASE.  

West Palm Beach is a good sized city with a nice little downtown area, but it’s no Boston, New York or Chicago.  GREASE Burger Bar, however, transports you into a big city pub right away.  The place is long and slender with a Chicago brick covered wall, adorned by nostalgic black and white photos, running down one side, of the restaurant.  The other side has a long wood topped bar that stands in front of a wall covered in rich fire-engine red columns that frame out mirrored sections of hanging flat screens and well stocked shelves of spirits.  Along the back wall you find a panoramic chalk board that displays the well over 100 different craft beers they serve.  Their bartender Gabriel said it best, “This place has a real northeast-pub type feel.”  Being that Gabriel is from Boston, and I grew up in Miami, I’m going to bow to his better knowledge.

I started to review the GREASE menu while enjoying a pint of Arrogant Bastard, a rich American red ale that is served on tap.  Making a decision on what to have was not going to be easy. GREASE starts off by freshly grinding their beef daily, and hand forming it into perfect 10 oz. patties.  This means even the Classic Burger is going to be a good burger.   They offer a Chili Burger, BBQ Burger, Turkey Burger, even a Veggie Burger.  Then there are the burgers that have a lot going on like the Black and Blue Burger or the PB Illustrated “A-List” Burger that is piled with fresh mozzarella, red and yellow tomatoes, radicchio, red onions and pesto.  I was just about sold on the A-List when my jaw dropped as I read about “The GREASE Beast.”  It was a no brainer at that point.  Give me a minute here and I’ll make your jaw drop too.

Should you be one of those rare individuals (I’m convinced these people are all possessed by aliens) who do not like burgers, there is plenty on the menu to keep you happy as well.   You can opt for a bowl of chili, Greek salad,  Classic Rueben, a Honey-Mustard Chicken Breast Sandwich, or a Blackened Mahi-Mahi Sandwich served with grilled pineapple and a homemade creole mayo.  Truthfully, if I wasn’t honoring National Burger Month I likely would have steered to one of their Bratwurst plates.  These brats are cooked in Arrogant Bastard Ale with onions and butter.  GREASE serves the brats a variety of different ways, but I have to say the “Hey Dere!” Wisconsin Style Brat, plated with bacon, mushrooms, onions and pickles, definitely caught my eye.

Now it was time to order….Gabriel….get back over here, I’ve made up my mind.  I went for the GREASE Beast (was there ever any doubt) and had an order of BBQ spiced chips while I waited for my beast to arrive.  By this time, I had made it to the bottom of the pint and was looking over the long list of beers on the back side of the menu.

 

Most places have a wine list, GREASE has a craft beer list.  Their list includes amber ales, Belgian wheats, fruit flavored beers, IPAs, porters, pilsners, stouts, bocks….the list goes on and on.  I settled on a Flying Dog IPA called Raging Bitch.  I took one sip and thought, “That beer’s F*#@ing Awesome!”  Turns out, Flying Dog, is a small brewer in Maryland that works damn hard at cranking out a wide selection of phenomenal, full flavored craft beers.

  

Moments later my warm BBQ spiced chips arrived.  These are homemade potato chips dusted with Rocco’s secret BBQ seasoning.  Now I’m not really a betting man, but I’m willing to wager it’s the same sprinkling of awesomeness that they put on the tortilla chips at Rocco’s Taco’s.  This stuff will have you fighting your friends for every last little crumb.  GREASE serves these with a side of super chunky and creamy blue cheese dressing for dipping.

Let Me Reinsert My Eyeballs!!!

After a few more sips of my Raging Bitch and downing a hand full of blue cheese dipped chips, Gabriel pulls up with a colossal display of gastronomic beauty.  To quote the late Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich, I simply thought “Let me reinsert my eyeballs!”  Sitting before me was a tower at least 10 inches tall that dared to call itself a burger, but decided to go by the name of “Beast.”   The Beast took one look at a hamburger bun and said in a weekend-late-night-show-skit Austrian accent, “you little girly man, you’re not pumped-up enough to hold up my tower of taste!”  You see The Beast takes two bacon grilled cheese sandwiches and uses them as buns.  Between the two bacon grilled cheeses you find a mountain of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, a perfectly cooked juicy 10oz burger patty, French fries and onion rings.  Wait, we’`re not done yet.  GREASE then takes its own cheese sauce to the Beast, generously drizzles it with ranch dressing and tops it off with a crisp pickle spear.

When Big Time Restaurant Group decided to open up their GREASE Burger Bar, the Hamburger God’s were certainly smiling down on them.  I have to say, after being Floored by Food at the mercy of The Grease Beast, I can’t wait to see what other great burgers lie in front of me as I continue to share with you my celebration of National Hamburger Month.

God's Speed Mad Dog

We lost the Mad Dog last night.  Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich was an All American at the University of Michigan and played tight end on the 1972 Miami Dolphins team that owns the NFL’s only Perfect Season.   Jim went on to become a successful business man and the most colorful South Florida sports broadcasting personality on TV and radio (settle down Sid, you are doing a fine job filling the Mad Dog’s very big shoes).  He was also the proprietor of my favorite restaurant in the Florida Keys, Ziggie & Mad Dog’s.

Once a quarter I take a trip down to the Keys to visit my good friends Ray Alvarez and Matthew Vidal at Ray Alvarez Carpets in Key West.  Each time I go, I make it a point to try and stop at Ziggie & Mad Dog’s.  It was tough at first, but since they started opening for lunch, it has made it much easier for me to stop in on each trip.  My wife and I will drive down from Miami every now and then just for dinner.

We can all remember the Mad Dog for a lot of different things.  I will certainly miss his calls on the Dolphin’s radio broadcasts in the years to come.  However,  I will always remember Jim when I order a The Mad Dog Salad at Ziggie’s.  Prepared with what is quite possibly the best dressing you will ever taste, their super rich and creamy home made blue cheese. Topped with monster pieces of crispy, fresh bacon.  This is the best rendition of the wedge salad anywhere, period.  I know Jim was proud of everything at his beloved Ziggie’s but his namesake salad is as perfect as the Dolphin’s record in 1972.

There are so many fantastic things on the menu at Ziggie’s.  You’ll find some the best steaks, a monster burger, bacon wrapped shrimp named after legendary coach Don Shula, and phenomenal seafood.  Yet each time I go, along with a Mad Dog salad, I have to get an order of the best damn Mac-n-Cheese in the State.  Ziggie’s famous Truffle Macaroni and Cheese is outstanding.  One fork full of this masterpiece will make you want to get up and yell “All Riiiiggghhttt!!!!” This dish alone will leave you Floored by Food!

A few years back, while driving up from visiting Ray and Matthew, I turned on 560 WQAM and heard Jim broadcasting his afternoon show from Ziggie’s.  As I came up on mile marker 83, I pulled in and parked next to Mad Dog’s Chevy Silverado.  I walked past the tiki torches, in through the tinted glass door and on to the polished, original terrazzo floors to find Jim sitting in the corner, broadcasting live.  I walked over to the bar and sat down with Kevin, their bartender, to order myself an ice cold Green Lizard, (a Heineken) Mad Dog’s favorite beer.  After the show, Jim came over to say hello and bought me a round.  Though it was the first time we met, he made me feel like we were lifelong friends.

 

Mad Dog….you will always be loved by your fans.  I will certainly miss hearing your voice on the radio, but I look forward to supporting Ziggie’s and carrying your legacy on for many years to come. 

God’s Speed Mad Dog!

Almost Ready

I'm always telling my friends and family about some great place I recently ate at.  So much so, that a family member of very near maternal ancestry (mom) recommended that I begin to keep a journal.  I thought, why not write a blog.  And here we are....April 26, 2011 at 1:13 AM with the first entry of Floored by Food.  

But what the hell is Floored by Food?  It is a play on words based on What I Do and What I Love, and what What I Love does to me.

Actually it is my way of being able to share with you some of the best restaurants that I have found while on the road selling floors.  My boss, my coworkers, my customers, my friends all say "If you want to eat good food, go to lunch with Danny."  They all know, I eat good food often and I know where the good places to eat are hidden.

They know because when I'm not talking about deals on laminate or wood or porcelain, I'm talking great food, how to make it or where to get it.  Going to be in Islamorada this weekend, let me tell you about a place that is awesome.  Driving through Jupiter, you have to stop at the best restaurant in the state.  Looking for a good burger in Coconut Grove, done!  How about all-you-can-eat lick-your-fingers-clean crab legs on Sanibel Island, I got you covered.    

I'm new to this blog, twitter, website thing so give me some time to gather my bearings......but don't wander off too far.  flooredbyfood.blogspot.com, flooredbyfood on twitter, and flooredbyfood.com will all be here with some awesome eats very soon.