The Taste of the Key

Published - August, 1, 2007 by the Pensacola News Journal

Taste of the Key

Perdido's restaurant culture has delicious mix of cuisine

Brian Kellybkelly@pnj.com

Pensacolians already know that Pensacola Beach and the downtown area feature some great dining establishments, but just minutes away, Perdido Key has a few secret and not-so-secret eateries of its own.

With more than a dozen establishments, honky tonks, juke joints, down-home-inspired Southern eats and upscale restaurants, the Key serves all the classic Gulf Coast dishes — and something more.

From Triggers Seafood Restaurant on Gulf Beach Highway to the Flora-Bama at the state line, Perdido Key and the surrounding community promises a taste for every palate.

Here are a few gems worth checking out:Tasty basket food and the sporkFine silverware and imported plates are not what most people will discover when patronizing any one of the outstanding restaurants on Perdido Key. Ordering from a menu out here often translates into chowing on superb food from a woven basket with a package containing a plastic fork and knife, and in some cases, the bizarre spork.

Sure, there are few eateries that serve their Friday evening dinner rush on fine plateware, but the places we're bringing you combine atmosphere, view, cuisine and yes, basket food and plastic silverware. Bon apetit!Po'boy, crab, Bubba N' ThemIf there's a signature sandwich on the Key, it'd have to be the celebrated po'boy — and most places do this dish fairly well. Blackened, grilled or deep fried, the po'boy is a Gulf Coast staple.

At Sunset Grille at Holiday Harbor, you can pull up your watercraft, refuel at the ship store and they'll bring you out one of the best shrimp or grouper po'boys on the Key.Offering a breathtaking view of Perdido Bay, Sunset Grille is quickly becoming a favorite hangout for locals and out-of-towners, too.

This Key eatery is a favorite of the Radcliff family of Mobile."We've been coming here every Sunday since they opened," Kathy Radcliff said. "The kids love the food, we love the view and the food — it's really the perfect place if you just want to pull up on your boat. It's just the perfect mix of atmosphere and food."Sure, the po'boy will always do the trick, but sometimes cuisine around the Key means indulgence.

The oyster — raw, broiled or baked — is a delicacy around these parts. Whether it has aphrodisiac qualities matters little to those who love the oyster.

In the shadow of the Theo Baars Bridge — also know as "The Hump" — rests Fisherman's Corner Seafood Grill and Pub. Once a bait and tackle shop, "The Corner" is seasonal, but when they serve, they really serve."Our signature dish is Tim's Spicy Oysters," said Fisherman's Corner's Donna Montgomery. "It's a very secret recipe and I don't know of anyone doing them like we do. Let's just say their name is not deceiving. They have a kick."When it comes to Gulf of Mexico fish with mystical aura and ancient history, the mullet is king. There are hundreds of species, and you can find many Innerarity Road folks tossing a cast net at Galvez Landing near dawn, hoping to pull in these delicious fish.

But most mullet lovers will leave it up to their local chef, such as restaurant owner David Lively. His official motto at the Original Point Restaurant is "In Mullet We Trust."While the restaurant is known for mullet, the storied Innerarity Road eatery does more than that. Recently, their Friday night menu included Dungeness crab, a dish Eric and Linda Mueller ordered."They do great mullet here, but it's hard to find something exotic like Dungeness crab. It was very good," Linda Mueller said. "Plus, this place just has such a friendly neighborhood feel to it. Our favorite thing is enjoying dinner here while listening to Bubba N' Them do their bluegrass."For the undecided, If you're one of those finicky patrons who doesn't know what you want and always wants what the other person ordered, the classic fried platter is the way to go. It's a heart-clogging, mouth-watering mixture of seafood cuisine created for that family member who samples from every plate at the table except his or her own.

Within the heart of Perdido Key, The Reef serves up a heaping mound of delicious fried seafood. The Reef's seafood platter contains a fried fish such as grouper, mullet or red fish; shrimp; hush puppies; and buried under all that batter, seasoned fries. It's a creation that Chef Jim Martin said is one of the most popular on the menu."You really can't go wrong with this plate," Martin said. "Usually, two or three orders will take care of everyone at the table. And we also offer our own line of hot sauce, which you don't need, but it's on the table just in case."Not everything on Perdido Key has a seafood theme.

Like Hub Stacey's in downtown Pensacola, Hub Stacey's at The Point along scenic Innerarity Road features enormous sandwiches, including their signature creation, the Innerarity. It's a monstrosity of a sandwich with everything except the kitchen sink.

Fortunately, many of the sandwiches at "Hub's" can be ordered as a half only.It also offers the Johnson Beach, a delicious tuna melt and the traditional New Orleans plate, the mufalatta.Raw fish, pizza on the KeyWhen most folks head out for dinner on Thursday night around Perdido Key, they'll typically have a hankering for a good Gulf of Mexico dish, maybe some oysters on the half shell, mahi mahi, red fish — the great cuisine of the Alabama Gulf Coast.But the menus at several Redneck Riviera eateries are adding a new kind of fish — sushi. And they're doing it well, too.

But to serve a good sushi roll, you have to have a good sushi chef. Just ask Joe Tillery, sushi chef extraordinaire from Pensacola to Orange Beach, Ala."To do sushi well, you have to use good, fresh sushi and you have to know what you're doing," Tillery said. "I trained under a guy at Triggers, which used to serve sushi. For me, it was a way to get out of the kitchen. I'm pretty good at it, especially since I'm doing sushi at two places."Legends Bar and Grill at Perdido Bay Golf Club on Doug Ford Drive rolls fresh sushi every Thursday night."That continues to be one of our most popular nights. We're pretty much packed on sushi night," said Legends bartender Terri Martin.

Along Perdido Key Drive is Lillian's Italian Style Pizza, which has long been known by locals and tourists as the premier pizza parlor on the Key.Topping selections run the gamut, and there's pretty much no limit to what you can add to your pizza. Some of their most popular pizzas are the Hot Hawaiian Pizza, Margarita Pizza and the Birmingham Exchange.Other places to keep in mindJust up the road from Lillian's, another Perdido Key eatery to keep in mind is The Crab Trap, with its view of the Gulf of Mexico and children's play area.Also, Shrimp Basket serves great po'boys and an outstanding gumbo.

And for upscale (and real plateware) dining with a stunning view of Perdido Bay, the Oyster Bar Restaurant and Marina is a local favorite for fine steaks and seafood.Whether you visit for Bay shrimp, po'boys, cheeseburgers or a dozen raw oysters with Louisiana Hot Sauce, Perdido Key's many restaurants offer traditional Gulf of Mexico cuisine and a few surprises — all surrounded by the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico.

For Brian Thompson, a downtown Pensacola resident, Perdido Key is the perfect short trip for good food."I go to Pensacola Beach a lot, but people often forget that Perdido Key is right in our backyard," Thompson said. "It's right here, and it offers so much in the way of food. It would take the whole summer to eat at every place."