Posts tagged "Food"

Blue Heaven

729 Thomas St. - (305) 296-8666- http://blueheavenkw.homestead.com

Why did I wait so long…

You gotta love a restaurant with it’s own outdoor shower.

I can’t believe we’ve been in Key West almost a year and have just now gotten to Blue Heaven over on Thomas Street. It’s not like it’s outside of the walking distance circle from my apartment, not like I haven’t heard from a hundred people how really good the food is, nor like it’s overly expensive. I really have no excuse. But let me tell you, I’m an instant convert.

A longtime friend and ex-colleague of mine Kelly came to town the other evening for a quick visit and some dinner before she had to re-enter the real world after a week-long vacation in the lower keys. We had originally intended to take her to Mangia Mangia (one of our favorite food hangouts), but she had honeymooned in Key West 11 years before and remembered really enjoying Blue Heaven, so hey.. why not! I love new things!

I immediately loved this place when I walked in. You enter through a large gate into a wonderfully overgrown and eclectically decorated courtyard. To the right is a cool outdoor bar area complete with a huge rattly-looking wooden cistern looming perilously above the bar, and a stage. I don’t think there’s a white light to be found in the entire place, it’s very colorful. The bar, stage, and surrounding courtyard patios are strewn with little bistro tables, cats, chickens, knick-knacks, and antiques. There’s even a ping pong table. Cool!

We gave our name to the hostess and were told there was about a 20 minute wait. That’s OK, I wanted to wander around and see the bar area and courtyard anyways. We ordered a couple beers at the bar and did some exploring.

One of the things that hit me right off was the music. There was a guy on stage playing guitar and singing… and the volume was low! Good god in heaven, I have come to mecca! One of my biggest pet peeves with live music (especially the lone, singing-guitar-artist type) is that they seem to always have the need to blast it so loud your ears want to jump from your head and run away. I’d like to be able to have a conversation and enjoy myself, and I just can’t do that when someone’s acoustic guitar is ear-fucking me. Too many restaurants and bars don’t get this simple concept. And it’s not like most of these people are brilliant musicians to begin with. Anyways.. I digress.. that’s a good topic for a future post.

There’s an outdoor eating area just off the bar area, and also a smaller indoor area. When we got the nod from the hostess she asked if we wanted to continue to wait for an outdoor table or just sit inside.. hey. I’m no snob.. I can sit inside too! She took us around to the side of the building and in through an old french door into a small quiet dining room. Air conditioning.. ahhhhh.

Time to eat!

We ordered a few more drinks and perused the menu. We were having a really hard time deciding because everything looked so GOOD. We delayed decision-making and ordered the Caribbean BBQ Shrimp appetizer. It was pretty darned tasty, the girls loved it, but I thought it was a bit salty. Of course I’m kind of a salt nazi anyways; it’s definitely not one of my favorite flavors, but I know there are folks out there who dig it.. so the vote on this one is 2 thumbs up out of three.

When it was time to finally order, Christina got the pork tenderloin with sweet potato, mango chutney and curry butter sauce. I ordered the beef tenderloin with cabernet demi-glace, and Kelly ordered one of the specials, some sort of grilled snapper dish.

Woah.. talk about tasty! My filet was very good.. not the best I’ve had, but certainly a far stretch from the worst. It was perhaps a bit on the done side of the medium I’d ordered, but not too far off. The Demi was very good, and they served it all up with a big chunk of corn bread. Very, very tasty. Christina’s pork was out of this world, definitely not a combination I’d have thought of, but it really worked well. I didn’t try Kelly’s salmon because I’m not much of a fish person, but she said it was really good.

So let me just say this

YES! I want to go back! I imagine it’s not so colorful during the day, but I hear the breakfast is out of this world, so I’m definitely going back for some of that. I can also see going to Blue Heaven just to hang out at the bar, have a few beers, and listen to some music with friends.

All in all a very pleasant experience!

Jack Flats

509 Duval St – (305) 294-7955 – www.jackflats.com/

2nd Gator Football game of the season = trying out another sports bar!

After our trip to The Sports Page last weekend, we were looking for another sports bar to compare it to, so we decided this time we were going to try out Jack Flats on Duval St.

We wandered in about noon and bellied up to the bar. The walls inside were completely covered with projection screens.. this place means business! I ordered a draft blue moon, and christina ordered a bloody mary. The bloody mary was really good, and the blue moon was no slouch. Fresh beer.. a good sign!

We ordered some nachos for an appetizer while we waited for the game to start. There were a couple of big College games on that day so the place was busy, but not obnoxiously so, there were only two bartenders, but those girls were on top of their game.. and much cuter than the dudes at Sports Page.

Not Yo Cheese!

The nachos were pretty darned good, I’d definitely get them again. They fry their own chips there, so they were nice and crispy, and had that yummy flavor you just can’t get with bagged chips. They were smothered with beans, chili, cheese, sour cream, and some lettuce. Tasty.

I stuck with the blue moon throughout the game, but Christina switched it down to Bud Light. (UG), but you know.. who am I to tell someone what to drink, and it was a buck cheaper than the Blue Moon, which was 4.50, average Duval prices. We didn’t ask about a local discount, which most bars have here.. I guess we just didn’t think about it.

The couple sitting next to us at the bar were on their honeymoon, and they were Gator fans too, but weren’t terribly interested in chit chatting, so we let them be. They ordered a few pitchers, and a pizza app which looked really good. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I thought they might think I was wierd, taking photos of their food..

The booth behind us was full of a group of older dudes in full Gator regalia.. banner on the table and all. They had a little boom box with them, and every time the Gators scored (Which was ALOT), one of them would cue up the Gator theme song, and walk up and down the length of the bar with the boom box up in the air a la John Cusack.. hahaha.. good times. Lots of Gator chompin’ going on that day!

The televisions (projectors) were all bright and in focus, and the sound system was in good shape. No distortion here. Near as I could tell they picked a game from each section of the bar and played the sound from that program in that section. They had remote speaker boxes at the bar so you could dial in your favorite game if you couldn’t hear the game you wanted on the main system.

Time for some real food

I ordered a Cuban Mix sandwich, and Christina ordered wings medium. Funny thing, here in Key West, I notice they call it a ‘Cuban Mix’, but everywhere else I’ve been it’s just called a ‘Cuban’. I wonder what – if anything – is the difference. Anyone know?

When the food arrived, I immediately snagged a wing off Christina’s plate. It was really good, more spicy than the kinda bland wings we got at The Sports Page. My Cuban was VERY good, perhaps one of the best I’ve had so far. Of course Key West is much closer to Cuba than Orlando, so that’s to be expected.

It had the usual ingredients – ham, roasted pork, pickles, mustard, swiss cheese, and even bacon! Christina’s eyes lit up when she noticed that.. I had to fend her off by feeding her some french fries, which were also quite good, no funky tasting spices here.. just normal french fries.

This is the first Cuban sandwich I’ve had here in KW, so I can’t compare it to other local restaurants, but I look forward to hunting out the best Cuban down here.

And the score is!

I have to say, that as much as we liked The Sports Page last weekend, I’m going to have to say we both enjoyed Jack Flats more, and plan to go back next weekend for the coming Gator game.

I wish I had the kind of money it would take to really give places I wasn’t blown away with multiple chances, but eating out is expensive around here, and currently I’m a big fat burden on society, so Christina is our only source of expendable income. Hopefully that situation will cease to be an issue soon! There has to be some job I’m qualified to do down here.

I went to Jack Flats’ website, and it was down. What is it with web sites for businesses in this town?? It costs like 8 bucks a month to host a website, surely they can afford that. But hey, I have to give them props for even having a real website, unlike Sports Page which uses facebook. I know, I know.. it’s Key West.. who cares!

Jack Flats.. a fun place to go watch games, eat good food, drink good beer, and get good service.. check it out!

Peace!

The Sports Page Key West

610 Greene St – 305-296-3230 - www.myspace.com/thesportspagekw

College Football Season Begins!

And when that happens, it’s time to search out a favorite sports bar to catch the Gator games. Now I have to come clean here, I’m not a huge sports fan, but Christina is a dyed in the wool Gator, so I find myself a fan by association. We had a favorite haunt in Orlando to go watch the games, but that’s a long way to drive for a football game, so we vetted our first sports bar here in Key West last Saturday; The Sports Page on Greene street.

We walked into the Sports Page about 6:30 Saturday and bellied up to the bar. The first thing I noticed was that it felt like any good sports bar should, crowded, lots of big screen TVs, a few projection screen TV’s, a pool table, lots of pennants, neon beer signs, and cheerleader photos.. So far so good!

It was an interesting transition from the atmosphere of Key West to inside of the Sports Page, I wasn’t expecting it to be such a typical sports bar, but it almost felt like we were sitting in Orlando or anywhere else enjoying the game. I appreciated the familiarity of it, it made me feel comfortable right away.

Time for some beer!

There were two bartenders working the bar that night, Robert and um… someone else. (God I’m bad with names) They were both very good, and handled the entire place very efficiently. It’s a pretty big place so that’s no small feat.

We ordered a couple of Blue Moons. Supposedly they have 2 for 1 happy hour between 4 and 8, but we didn’t get any of that.. oh oh.. strike one. We ordered up some cheese sticks to get us rolling, and settled in. I switched to Key West ale for my second beer.. love that Key West Ale! The draft was cold and fresh.. bad draft is one of my big peaves, so I’ll give points for that!

The beers were pretty expensive, 4.50 I think for the KW Ale, and the Blue Moons were about 4.75 – about average I guess for Duval area beers. (I could be off on this – man, I make a horrible restaurant critic, I can’t even remember exact prices!) Their myspace web page states that they have incredible prices.. um yeah.. incredibly high! Maybe they’re trying to make enough money to get a real website.

They don’t have pitchers, but they do offer buckets, and I’ve recently learned that they offer 2 dollar Bud Light drafts, so if you can stomach that crap, you’re in luck. Maybe that’s the incredible pricing they speak of. But hey, not hatin’, I understand it’s expensive to run a business downtown Key West. If the prices were out of line, it sure didn’t show in attendance, the place was packed.

Bring me a bucket..

I’d done a little bit of research online before heading in, and read good reviews about the food so I had pretty high expectations.

The cheese sticks arrived in a basket with a cool newspaper-looking liner, and they were very good as far as cheese sticks go.. and before you say it’s hard to fuck up cheese sticks, let me tell you that I’ve had many a basket of total shit cheese sticks, overcooked, greasy, undercooked, you name it. I’ve even had an entire basket of them that somehow, magically, all the cheese was gone out of them, like they sprung a leak in the fryer and the cheese escaped.

I’d read in one review online that the ‘cleveland paninis’ were to die for, so I looked for those on the menu. I noticed they had a cheesesteak version.. oh yeah, I want to go to there! Christina ordered a basket of chicken wings medium. Alright! Food is ordered, time for a couple more beers while we wait.

We were sitting right by the service bar so I had a front row seat to all the food coming out of the kitchen, and I saw some very delectable delights pass me by.. one in particular had to be a calzone of some sort, I almost snagged that sucker as it sat there waiting for Robert to take it to it’s rightful owner. Next time I’m getting that!

After a little while the food arrived in some more baskets with the cool newsprint. The wings were big and juicy looking, and my panini looked really good! I immediately stole one of Christina’s wings.. hey, it’s the price she has to pay. It was cooked perfectly, but it definitely wasn’t what I’d consider medium.. the sauce for sure could have used used some help from Emeril. All in all a good wing, but quite bland. If this was medium, I wonder what the mild tastes like.

My Panini was piled high with sliced, tender roast beef, coleslaw, tomatoes, melted swiss, and french fries! On the sandwich! How odd. It looked fabulous.

If only it had tasted as good as it looked. Where the wings were under-flavored, the panini cheese steak was over-flavored. You know that salty red shit they pour on ‘spicy’ french fries? I don’t know exactly what it is, it’s like Mrs. Dash or something.. well it was on the fries, and all over the roast beef too. I did some surgery and removed the fries from the sandwich, but the flavor was overpowering. I mean, you have all these yummy flavorful things already on there.. why smother it with all that salty crap. Now, I realize this is just me, I don’t like spicy fries to begin with – other people may love it, but it’s definitely not my bag. I could tell that the sandwich surely was cooked well, the meat was tender, the focaccia bread was crunchy, it had so much potential! ARGH! I won’t let this stop me from going back though, the other things I saw flying past me on the bar looked really really good. And there’s always room for more food in my life.

Maybe I’m an audio snob, but come on..

Being someone who’s built a good deal of loudspeakers, and set up some pretty complex audio systems, I’m probably a bit of a gear-snob. That being said, I don’t think I’m too far off base by saying their sound system in this place sucks. There are a few small loudspeakers hung around the room, and they are driven far past their acceptable capacity. Actually the larger problem is the input gain to the amps from the television is waaaaay to high, in effect creating a situation where the amplifiers are outputting a distorted signal into the poor speakers, which themselves are too small for the room they are in.  That signal had no chance man, it was hamstrung out of the gate. Probably something that a bit of tweaking by someone who knew what they were doing would fix. This could be something that just was happening that night, I won’t know until a couple more visits.

All in all, I really can’t complain too much, the place is warm and inviting, the service is good, the bartenders are friendly and efficient, the crowd was fun, the beer was cold, and the food didn’t kill us. What else could you want from a sports bar. I’m holding off on final judgement on the food until I have some more of it. I’ve read nothing but good reviews from other people, so there has to be something to that.

I’ll have to hit the other sports bar down on this end of town, Jack Flats and see what the comparison is..

OK.. 4:30.. happy hour time here.. Cheers!

Coffee Plantation

713 Caroline Street – 305-295-9808 – www.coffeeplantationkeywest.com/

Ahh heavenly coffee, the third member in the holy trinity of vices

The priority is as follows: booze-to-the-food-to-the-coffee. (Notice that food is sandwiched in there like the creamy filling of an Oreo cookie, it’s a necessary part of the equation.)

Occasionally you can get away with combining the booze and the coffee – Irish coffee for example, but traditionally nothing brings home the warm fuzzies the day after like a good strong cup of joe. And for me, the best kind of coffee is caffe mocha, like a gallon of it. Injected right into my veins.

Now, I’m not a Starbucks hater, and historically when given a choice I’d hit the Starbucks over the mom and pop show just because I knew what I’d be getting. I guess when it comes to my coffee I don’t like to be surprised. But since moving to Key West and deciding to search for a life of freedom from ‘the man’, I’m opening up to the understanding that things can be better on the other side. Way better.

Coffee Plantation sits on caroline Street, just stumbling distance from Schooner Wharf and the Historic Key West Marina. It’s housed in a cool old Conch house built in the 1890′s. The porch holds a few comfy wicker chairs and tables. The inside is very inviting.. the smell of coffee.. sweet, sweet  coffee, lots of cool old antiques sitting on cool old tables, chairs, and couches.

There’s a back corner where they have some computers set up to rent for 20 cents a minute. You can also bring in your own laptop and the wireless is free with any purchase. I could definitely see myself sitting in here quaffing gallons of coffee blogging my day away.

All of this coolness would be for naught if the coffee wasn’t great. And it is.. it’s it’s nice and strong.  Not Cuban strong, but respectably strong nonetheless. Christina got a normal coffee and commented that it was better than a couple of the other coffee shops in town – that it wasn’t quite as strong. She doesn’t like super strong coffee like I do, but I thought the coffee here seemed just right. I’m going to have to check out those other places now to see how strong is too strong!

My Caffe Mocha was super yummy, perhaps a tad on the sweet side for me, but I’m sure that’s something I can rectify next time with a request for a bit less syrup.

We tried sitting out on the porch, but the morning sun was careening right out of outer space, and burning holes in my retinas, so we moved our operation inside.

We situated ourselves on a couple of comfy wicker chairs, and commenced chugging. There are all sorts of books and newspapers lying about to thumb through, and the walls are covered in knick-knacks and local art. The furniture is eclectic and comfy, the clientele is kitschy blend of locals and touristas.

Christina ordered a strawberry croissant, it looked really good, and judging by the way she guarded it from me, it was. There’s quite a selection of yummy-looking breakfast munchies at the counter; croissants, muffins, fruit parfaits, etc. And they sell bags of their fabulous coffee and some implements of coffee construction as well.

All in all I love it. I look forward to heading back and quaffing more of the yummy coffee! Visit the Coffee Plantation website for more info, and some amusing and interesting blog posts from the owners. They sound like an interesting bunch, I look forward to running into them some day.

Shanna Key Pub

1900 Flagler Avenue – 305-295-8880 – http://shannakey.info/

It’s not much from the outside..

.. but we’d been wanting to hit this place for a while, and because it’s on the other side of US1 in new town it required getting in the car and driving. Well, OK.. it didn’t require driving.. we could have ridden our bikes I suppose, it’s only like a mile and a half away.. but we were in the car anyways because we’d been to the East Martello Museum to visit Robert the Doll. It was just after lunchtime, and hey, it was time for a beer or two.

We wandered in, sat at the bar and ordered up a couple Smithwicks. The young lass behind the bar looked at me strange and asked if we knew each other. Oh oh.. think, think, think… my mind scrambled to recognize her… I got nothing. I told her I was pretty sure we didn’t. She didn’t look convinced. Neither did Christina.

“Where are you from?” she asked. I noticed her irish accent now. “Orlando” I blurted feeling guilty already for whatever it was my doppelganger may have done to her. “Well, we live here now, but originally from Orlando”. She looked at me a little cautiously to see if maybe I was trying to pull one over on her. “Hm, she said, you look just like someone I know. You guys hungry?” She handed us a couple menus and wandered off to take care of a group of folks a little bit down the bar. I have to say that I get this more often than I think I ought to.. Do I really look that much like other people? I certainly don’t think so.. but what do I know.

They have a pretty good menu at Shanna Key, and we’d heard from more than a few people that the food was good. Neither of us was terribly hungry, so we tried to order light. What we really wanted to get were some scotch eggs, but they didn’t offer them. Christina ordered the Smoked Fish Dip, and I ordered the Corned Beef and Swiss sandwich. I’d just made corned beef and cabbage for dinner a couple nights before, and just that morning had used the leftover corned beef and potatoes to make corned beef hash, so I don’t know what possessed me to order corned beef again, but the stomach wants what the stomach wants.

Atmosphere

While waiting for our food, we finished our first beers and ordered up a second round while I checked out the decor. Shanna Key will certainly win no competitions for traditional Irish Pub furnishings. No heavy wood beams on the ceiling, no intricate wood work on or behind the bar, the walls sported no fancy-framed beer mirrors, relying mostly on sports posters to fill the space. Shanna Key calls itself a sports bar, so I guess the posters are de rigueur. Maybe I’m just not familiar with Irish sports bars, are they typically less-decorated than Irish pubs?

In the bar area up front, there are a few large, round, wooden bar-height tables to sit around, Some televisions hanging on the walls, and a few stools and such. There’s a sit-down dining room near the back of the place, I didn’t see anyone in there, but being 2:00 in the afternoon I wouldn’t expect it.

All in all, it’s pretty boring inside as far as the decor goes, so if you’re looking for a traditional dark Irish pub, this isn’t the place for you. What it does have, (and this is based solely on our one visit) is a healthy dose of interesting regulars. One of my favorite haunts back in Orlando; Casey’s on Central was the same way. No gimmicks, no fancy decoration, just good food, cold beer, and interesting conversation. The gentleman sitting next to Christina had just made a batch of home made salsa, and he’d brought a tupperware bowl of it and a bag of tortilla chips in to share with the people at the bar.  Very cool.. and the salsa was good!

Shanna Key is definitely a locals neighborhood sports bar first and foremost. I like it. I can see myself going back often.

The Food

The food was very good. My sandwich was made with shredded corned beef (Not sliced deli processed crap, but real boiled corned beef brisket), melted swiss, and Guinness mustard piled onto a toasted soft hoagie roll. It came with a big pile of yummy french fries. It was very tasty… very.

Christina’s Smoked Fish Dip was superb, and I don’t even like fish. I’m going to have to go back and order up some more food when I’m hungrier to see if everything else stacks up to these initial delights.

I give this bar  3 out of 5 beers, only losing one beer point because it’s really not decorated like an irish pub ought to be, but in all honesty, who the hell cares! The food is great, the beer is cold, and the people are great.. you couldn’t ask for much more. Well except maybe some some strippers, but that’s a story for another time….

If you’ve been to Shanna Key, let s all know what you’re experience was like!