Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [108]
Despite its location on the road to Bransom, this is a cozy sort of place where locals hang out and discuss things over coffee every morning. We were especially charmed by veteran waitress Lynn Lockie, who, when she came to take our order, pulled up a chair and sat down to write on her order pad. “My legs are tired,” she said. “I’m not; just my legs.” Lynn confided that a few days before, the cook had put too much cornstarch in the pies, but that they were definitely up to snuff today. Yes, indeed, the tall meringues were Arkansas-excellent, and that is saying a lot, for Arkansas is one of this nation’s premier pie places.
Florida
Barnacle Bill’s
14 Castillo Dr.
904–824–3663
St. Augustine, FL
LD | $$
“Best fried shrimp in the world!” promised tipster Meg Butler, to which we would add a dazzling dessert titled Banana Delight, which is like banana pudding but with a crust of crunchy pecans, and excellent Minorcan clam chowder using the hot datil peppers unique to the area. (Datil peppers were brought to St. Augustine by settlers from the island of Minorca, off Spain, when they arrived generations ago. They are very, very hot.)
Barnacle Bill’s is not exactly an undiscovered Roadfood hole-in-the-wall. It is big and popular and in fact there are two, the second location (dinner only) at 451 A1A Boulevard in St. Augustine (phone: 904-471-2434). But these two are no relation to the other Barnacle Bill’s restaurant found along the Atlantic coast.
The shrimp indeed are something special: jumbo butterflies that are firm and juicy with a delicate crust. They are available just like that or with a coconut crust or, best of all, in a crust enhanced by the heat of datil peppers. Shrimp sauce and hush puppies are the shrimps’ companions. When proprietor Chris Way opened the restaurant twenty-seven years ago, he put datil pepper hot sauce on the tables as a condiment. Lore says that customers came to like it so much they began to pocket the bottles. Way created the Dat’l Do-It line of hot sauces, now available at www.datildoit.com. For first-timers and those who have a hard time making up their mind, there are plates of a dozen shrimp, four of each variety.
There are all kinds of other seafood dishes on the menu and even a selection of “landlubber fare,” but we agree with Meg Butler’s recommendation, which was “I can’t say much other than fried shrimp, fried shrimp, fried shrimp….”
Blue Heaven
729 Thomas St.
305–296–8666
Key West, FL
BLD | $$
Off the beaten path in the Bahama Village area of the sunny never-never land known as the Conch Republic, Blue Heaven is a breakfast-lover’s dream. Dining is al fresco on a broad outdoor patio under the shade of opulent banyan trees, where your companions include the café’s flock of hens and roosters who hop and peck around tables and chairs. Their cock-a-doodle-doing is a natural companion for hefty omelets, but our favorite dishes are the tropical-tasting banana pancakes and a luxurious seafood benedict built upon ocean-fresh fish and topped with lime hollandaise. To drink? Who can resist a mimosa made with fresh-squeezed orange juice?
An incredibly colorful place to eat, Blue Heaven has been the home of a boxing ring (Ernest Hemingway sparred here), a bordello (the tiny rooms upstairs are now part of an art gallery), a bookmaking parlor, and a cockfighting pit (heroic roosters are buried in a little graveyard behind the dining area), as well as inspiration for Jimmy Buffett’s song “Blue Heaven Rendezvous.” It is delightfully disheveled, casual in the extreme, and one of Key West’s most evocative dining experiences.
Starting at eight o’clock every morning, when neighborhood