Food....Great places to eat, past and present.....

Restaurants, cafes', diners', drive inns', no stars to five stars. To become a personal favorite they have to touch you in the heart as well as the palate.


These places are not in any particular order. Mostly as memory brings them to surface.


Cabbage Key, Florida....not far off the coast of Fort Myers and near the great tarpon fishing grounds of Boca Grande Pass. It's on the inter coastal waterway. You have to go by boat, place or levitate because there is no road to this tiny island. It is the former residence of a famous but unremembered author from the 1930 or 40's. Rob and Phylis Wells owned in for many years and may still run the place. It is wonderful. The burgers are so good Jimmy Buffett wrote a song called Cheeseburger in Paradise about the place. Seafood, burgers, steaks, billionaires, rock stars, pirates and fishermen, you find them all at Cabbage Key. Oh yes, the beer is really, really cold. Look at the walls. They are papered in dollar bills. No kidding. It's a great place to go grab a beer and just chill. I promise. 


Timmy's Nook...Captiva Island, Florida....I've heard it was closed due to hurricanes or other reasons but if Timmy's is still there..you gotta go. Fresh grouper sandwiches so fresh you see the fish taken off the owner's boats on the back dock and a few minutes later it's steaming on your plate. Great home like atmosphere. The Mom ran the cafe and the sons' were commercial fishermen with the boats tied up out back. Fantastic cheeseburgers but if they're open don't pass up a fresh grouper sandwich with tarter sauce. MMmmmmm.


Candler's Riverside Inn...Annapolis, Maryland.....a local place well hidden from touristas. On a feeder river to the Chesapeake Bay in a developed residential neighborhood of Annapolis. It is formerly a fisherman's dock. It is as good as you would expect of a fishermen's seafood cafe. Everything we had was wonderful including the must have soft shell crab. But the one dish that stands out years later was the bacon wrapped, onion, pepper and horseradish stuffed baked oysters. You might be sitting next to the man who caught your supper. It's that local. 


Tony Roma's ..original...Miami.....I don't remember a great deal about this old place...they spun a chain from it....it's been many years...I do remember the tender ribs and the slight little tangy kick of the dipping sauce. I think it was the first onion loaf I ever saw. Delicious. Over the years and miles we frequented the chain and enjoyed it every time. I don't think we ever reached the level of experience of the original place. Go if it's still there.


Joe's Stone Crab...Miami...it's been many years but as I remember the place sat on the banks of the Miami river in an older part of the city. I felt absolutely tropical sitting in the outdoors section. Joe's Stone Crab is way different from the popular Joe's Crab chain. I don't recommend the super noisy chain. the chain does not serve stone crab. Joe's Stone Crab serves, stone crab! Stone crab is the finest of the crab meat by far. Once addicted to you will always consider other water creepers inferior. Joe's is great fun. You expect to see Tubbs and Sonny Crockett at the next table. Go. Enjoy.


Harry Carey's...Chicago....downtown....easy access by foot...safe area....as a youngster I was a big fan of Harry Carey the St. Louis Cardinals baseball announcer. As an active oldster, I loved his steak house. Get reservations. The place was packed when I went there in the mid nighties. They served a big, thick ribeye cooked absolutely to perfect. The staff could not have been nicer. Go.


The Weber Grill....Chicago.....Supposedly a restaurant owned and operated by the same folks who build the popular kettle type backyard bar bq grills. Downtown Chicago, safe area for evening foot traffic. Great, great steaks. Once upon a time I had to be in Chicago for several days. I ate at the Weber the first and last nights. It was that good. Tender, tender steaks with just the right amount of fire. Man, meat and fire. That's all you need.


Zizikis...Greek ...Dallas....Beltline Rd...fine dining.. upmarket yet casual (jacket no tie). Beautiful, intimate room with warm staff and the great Greek classics..great married couple date night place...put on a jacket and feel a little uptown. This one might be my favorite of all time. Open.


Bob's Chop House....Dallas...one of the finest steak houses in the country. Kinda expensive but good if your on an expense account....The food is wonderful and consistent in both Dallas and Plano. We didn't go there a lot but really loved the food and service. JR could have been at the next table.


The Rainbow Dairy Bar.....Batesville, Arkansas.....closed in the early sixties. Greatest teenage hangout ever. Cool Cats, Pretty Chicks boppin to the best juke box selections ever. Rockabilly, Ray Charles, The Drifters, Jimmy Reed. Open air concrete dance floor with outdoor juke box. Picnic tables, Frito pie, cherry cokes, shakes, onion rings, french fries, and big, big cheezeburgers. A gravel parking lot so forgiving even the weakest of jalopies could spin a tire before hitting pavement. A drive inn theatre was just down the highway a mile or three. There were two orderly rows of cars with a center lane left for cruising. This had to be the place James Dean found his character.  




Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous...Memphis....If you look in the dictionary for ribs..you'll find this place. The best damned pork ribs in the entire universe. It had wonderful ambience for college kids in the late sixties and it's still there. If your broke and can't afford the ribs, like I was many times, order the best salami sandwich you've ever had. The place just feels like home the first time you ever walk in. Hell, it even smells of comfort. If you get to Memphis go downtown and find a little piece of heaven. Hog Heaven that is.


Bar B Q sandwiches.......the best bar b q sandwiches are pork, with slaw on them, and made in just about any bar b q joint in the Memphis area. Period. The rule of thumb is this. At some point you go from the Memphis region into other regions of cooking meat with smoke and fire. Those folks cook meat in other ways. Some do very well but unfortunately are misguided in their efforts. It does not mean you can't get a tasty meal. It simply means there is Memphis and then there is everything else.


The Golden Rule Bar B Q ... Irondale, Alabama.......This is the railroad man's place for bar b q. It is located at the end of the southern railroad yard in Birmingham. Longneck Buds and a friendly face from the old fellow turning the meat on the fire. Other Golden Rules' are sprouting up but they are not the same. But then it always hard to turn back the clock. Great Alabama bar b q. Very similar to Memphis with just a little twist. Good ribs and sandwiches. A working man's bar b q joint.   


Irondale Cafe ...Irondale, Alabama..."The Original Whistlestop Cafe"....where the McMicheals family taught Fannie Flagg about "Fried Green Tomatoes". This place is a neighbor to the Golden Rule. It is along side the tracks where the conductors used to grab the caboose for the night's run. It wasn't unusual to see railroad men come running from the cafe just in time to catch the caboose. Been there. Know the story first hand. This meat and potatoes busy, busy little diner was and maybe still is the finest cooking a fellow could find outside his grandmother's kitchen. Meat and three vegetables, corn bread and a tall sweet tea. They heaped it on. There was no room on the plate, that's for sure.




George's Steak House......Sheffield, Alabama...my first cousin who lives in nearby Tuscumbia...has been a regular at George's for over twenty five years. I have been there on several occasions and have found it to be one of the finest steak places I've ever been seated. Definitely a place to seek out.


Brook's Bar B Q.....Sheffield, Alabama....a different type bar b q, found only in the Shoals area. I don't know how to explain what they do but whatever it is, I hope they never lose the recipe. One of our grandkids, thinks Brooks whenever anyone mentions Pops. We always come with a sack of Brooks when we visit.  They have a hot dog with a hot slaw that is terrific. The bar b q is always pork and always has a hot mustard slaw on the sandwiches. The sandwiches are so damned good I have never even asked if they cook any other items. There is a tiny four table eating area. Brooks is in an out of the way neighborhood location. Most people drop in for take out and the business is brisk. Some say they have the old Dick Howell's recipes. I think they probably do. 


Dick Howell's Bar B Q....Sheffield, Alabama....was a legend in until he retired. It was a wonderful little take out place in Sheffield. Used to eat there two or three times a week. A couple of sandwiches, a bag of chips and a bottled coke. A hot summer day, sitting in your car, windows down, no a.c., wiping hot sauce and sweat off your face and grinning. Muscle Shoals soul banging out of the a.m., maybe a little Arthur Alexander wailing out at you. Good times, good food.


Kreuz Market.....Lockhart, Texas....for best in Texas Bar B Q...it just does not get any better than Kreuz's. They don't change.They don't mess with perfection. They have a new building just north of downtown Lockhart, Texas on 183. The place is as big as a basketball gym. The place never lacks for business and accommodates them well. Lockhart is a misplaced cotton town just outside the hill country and south of the Austin City limits by 30 miles or so. You sit next to who knows who, movie stars, cowboys, truck drivers, bureaucrats and just about anybody passing through central Texas. There are big wooden picnic tables. You just shoulder in with everybody else then chow down. 


They give you the meat on butcher paper. You pay by the weight of what you've ordered. Everything from big slab pork ribs that are far different from Memphis but damned good. Kruez's has prime rib and huge pork chops. The beef is brisket or shoulder. This place is an experience you can't miss if your within a hundred miles. It's that good and yet so, so unpretentious. Nice people. Say hello to the folks at the meat counter. No rubs, no sauces..just salt, pepper, smoke and fire. Good meat is the key. A lesson not always learned by the chain Texas BBQ places. My favorite Texas Bar BQ joint.


The King's Crown....South Seas Plantation....Captiva Island, Florida. I don't know if still exists. I haven't been to SSP for thirty years. I know during the formative years of this beautiful resort, before two hurricanes, before time share was king, this five star restaurant was one of the finest in Florida. I was fortunate enough to entertain at the King's Crown on a fairly frequent basis. I am talking about a three year period and sometimes as many as three client evenings per week. The place was always fantastic. I am talking great chefs year in and year out. I entertained a lot of clients, a good many of them were European, and as far as I know, no one ever had a complaint. It was that good and that consistent. Cuisine ? I would say European and American. Pricey ? Yes. But it didn't seem to bother the clientele.


The Tune Inn...Washington, D.C....the hill.......Best danged Cheezeboogies in the Northeast. Great atmosphere..the only stuffed heads I ever saw in the even then politically correct D.C. area. Wooden booths with initials carved in the table tops and a juke box with everything from Hank Sr. to current rockers. The unusual thing about the burgers was the thick slab pickle slices. I have never seen hamburger dills sliced an eighth of an inch before or since. I understand the place is still operating. I haven't seen it since 1977. Our gang ate there many times in the few years I lived in the area. Excellent as well as fun every time. The cold beer might have had something to do with it. Can't be sure. Isn't that what eating out is supposed to be about ?


The Liberal Club....London....England....United Kingdom....smoked salmon...capers....salad of some sort...a fancy desert...a glass of Sherri or two...maybe a Bloody Mary mixed just the way Prince Phillip likes his....."that's him, the Prince, four tables down". Talk about innocents abroad. Between the booze, the royalty, the waiters (very formal sir), the huge rooms with massive marble columns, the library, my host and and the heady scene, it was hard not to imagine Holmes and Watson at the next table. The food was wonderful as you would expect, but my gosh, I have never been as moved by a simple luncheon as I was this one. Lord knows, I miss the Skal club and those old, old traditions of the travel industry. The could have served Happy Meals and I would never have known it. It was that damned impressive an atmosphere. 


One note. I don't have a clue how the British get anything done after lunch. I know I wasn't the only one feeling a little tipsy when I left the place. But the "gentlemen" members marched out into the marketplace like they had been drinking green tea or something. They went back to work and I went in search of my hotel bed. Long Live the Prince.


dough's...San Antonio...a new favorite...it's a pizza joint with a hell of a flare. Salads to wake up even the laziest of palates. A super duper menu that is so exotic I was lost and had someone else do the ordering. We've only been there one time but the little place in a little strip shopping center totally blew us away. We will be back many times I hope. No we didn't have Pizza. 


Doc Ford's..... Sanibel Island, Florida....named after the main character of the owner's series of books...my daughter  swears by Randy Wayne White's island eatery. She's a pretty darned good cook so if she says a place is good, I'll go with it. She says get the Yucatan Shrimp. Says it's amazing.


The Main Street Cafe..... Madison, Alabama....recommended by at least two of my daughters and possibly and ex wife or two. This is a little cinder block building right downtown and immediately adjacent to the railroad tracks in Madison, Alabama. It might have been the depot at one time it sure looks like it's in the right place. I have eaten there and loved it. Wide array of cuisine and a packed house each and every lunchtime. Go enjoy this Huntsville area jewel. It is great food from an unassuming source.


Ray's Cafe....Batesville, Arkansas...circa 1962....probably the finest late night cheeze boogies, hot dogs, fries and steaming bowls of red hot chili with lots of crackers...known to man kind. Thanks to Ray McSpadden, Heavy and all the other men who understood late night, teenage boys. Best chili in a town of chili champs. Good pinball machines. Great late night coffee for those who were in dire need before curfew. And thanks for the "man talk". We needed it. Ray's, gone for many years, will live forever in the "Boomer boys" hearts. 


Known by many names loved for them all. Ray's the crossroads. The juke box was strictly hard core country. Even the hardest of rockers loved that old juke. It was honest. No pretenses. Ray's juke box. The Blue's boys couldn't get enough of something they ridiculed by day and thrived on at Ray's. Who knew ? 


Ray's was so much more than a greasy spoon. It was a way of life teenage boys were privileged to witness. Like the pot bellied stove country stores it was an institution that would go away sooner than we realized or expected. 


note:  E.R. if you ever read this please excuse me for not putting this one first.










This list will be updated from time to time as I can remember great places of the past or find new ones.




                                 John Boykin


                  The Boomer Magazine


http://boomermag.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-introduction.html


                         John@commimage.com


                       "The Hard Hat Photographer"


                       http://www.commimage.com/