We just got back from a week long trip to beautiful Grayton Beach, Florida where we spent the week on the beach and of course eating lots of good food. The week in food….
Friday, April 7, 2012
We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama on the drive down and went to Dreamland for dinner. We saw and smelled this BBQ restaurant when we were on our walk around Montgomery when we first got there to stretch our legs. So being the good Catholics that we are on Good Friday and all we decided to really be bad and have lots of meat. We got a table right away as it was pretty early. It is a chain of BBQ places in Alabama. We split three different plates of BBQ. Ribs, chicken, pulled pork and a bunch of sides and a pitcher of beer for us road weary adults. I also had a small bowl of Brunswick stew. All the BBQ was good but the chicken was especially good. We think it was smoked and was nice and tender. The sauce had a good kick to it with lots of pepper.
Saturday, April 8, 2012
We went to the Pizza Bar in Seaside on our first night to celebrate Graham’s 10th birthday. Seaside is a great, interesting place where there are tons of options for great food…at a high price I should add. We sat at a long table outside across from where everyone was walking to the beach so it was good people watching spot. Us happy to be on vacation adults had Peroni beers. We ordered three salads to split, one of them a really great beat salad with lots of different kinds of beets. We had 5 pizzas and an order of mushroom risotto. The best pizza by far was the simple margarita. Everything was very fresh and the pizza was nice and crispy. The risotto was rich and yummy with lots of good Parmesan. It was a fun dinner and thought the margarita pizza was especially good.
Monday, April 9, 2012
We went to the Red Bar on Grayton Beach for lunch on Monday. This is the third or fourth time going here over the past few years. It’s a local institution and the only place that most people know about in Grayton Beach. We have found that it is way way way to crowded at dinner time so usually go at lunch. It is a ramshackle place layered full of stuff and super laid back. Everyone is nice and casual as all things in Grayton beach. We didn’t get there until 1:30 so got a table right away. The nice and relaxed adults had blue moon on draft. All the girls had grilled cheese – they alway do – big thick pieces of sour dough bread with lots of fries. Courtney had a grilled fish sandwich and I had a cup of seafood gumbo and a cheeseburger. Everything was good as usual. Don’t forget to bring your cash as they don’t take credit.
Wednesday, April 11th
We went to Stinky’s Fish Camp for Dinner on Wednesday night on the way home from our expedition to the outlet mall (the mall was NOT my idea!). Stinky’s is west of Grayton beach, an area we haven’t explored much. John and Alissa told us to try out stinky’s as they were there last week and they liked it. We waited for a table for about a half hour and got a really nice table in the corner overlooking the lake the restaurant is on. The hungry adults were drinking the spring seasonal blue moon which was very good. We split a wedge salad and a house salad both with green godess dressing which was very good. The dressing was a dark green, lots of herbs and very tasty. Need to try to replicate this one when our herb garden is going this summer. I got a dozen raw oysters that we’re wonderful. Big fatties that were very fresh. So happy. I talked Courtney and Claire into trying then. Courtney liked them, and had a second. Claire not so much. I had fried shrimp, Claire and grace had fried fish, courtney had grilled red snapper and Sophie had pasta with cheese. All very good, Courtney’s especially. The fried stuff’s batter was good…was cornmealey and had a bit of a kick to it. Very southern. Was a good dinner and would definitely go back…especially for the oysters and salad dressing!
Friday, April 12th
For our last night we went to Seaside for dinner and did a mini-progressive dinner around the different food trucks and food stands. Earlier in the week at Seaside we had BBQ for lunch from one of the trucks, the aforementioned pizza extravaganza and three mornings two of us biked to the brazilian coffee shop for awesome coffee. For dinner this evening we started at Pickles and got an order of fried pickles. Claire and Sophie snuck up here one afternoon and got them and said how good they are so we had to try them. They are quartered dill pickles, breaded and deep fried that you dip in ranch dressing. How can you go wrong? They were delish. I got 1/2 dozen oysters (yeay) from the Shrimp Shack and Courtney and I split a 1/2 lb. of steamed Royal Red Shrimp. This is the only place we have seen them and they are AWESOME. SO GOOD. MMMM. Really. I wish they didn’t cost so much as we would eat them every day. The girls got tacos and burritos from the taco truck. We ate behind the shrimp shack in a pavillion overlooking the ocean during sunset. Truly a great place. We decided to get another order of fried pickles….just because. We wrapped the night up with a stop at the ice cream place on the square where we had some gelato and ice cream. Perfect way to end our great trip.
We did a quick errand run out to Legacy Village Saturday afternoon in-between Big Shows and stopped at Brio for a quick dinner. We have been there several times and always have a nice meal. We sat at a table at the bar and had the wedge salad with blue cheese, bacon and tomatoes. It is delicious and I always get this when we go here. 
(Why does salad taste so good at a restauraunt and it just doesn’t taste the same at home?) I had penne with a blue cheese sauce, chicken and asparagus. Sinful and tastey. Courtney has pasta with sun dried tomatoes and spinach in a white wine sauce. Claire had similar with chicken and mushrooms. The food came too fastwasn’t that was ok as we had to get back.
Lo and behold there was some sort of kid festival going on and there were a million kids running around. The building was built around the Civil War and has a huge open atrium with humongous columns filling it. This is where all the kids were but we were still able to check it out. We decided to buy admission and check out some of the exhibits. The exhibit on plans for building monuments and museums that never got built was very interesting as well as the original plans for the famous ones and the competing drawings that didn’t make it There was also a cool exhibition of lego buildings and the gift shop had lots of cool stuff. We then trucked down a few blocks to the mall in pretty steady rain and went to the modern wing of the National Gallery. I don’t think I have been in there since I was a kid so it was fun to explore.
Well we woke up really late this morning and it was our car pool week which means I ran out the door without any lunch. The good news is that I had nothing scheduled at noon and the sun was shining so I headed out to Presti’s for lunch. I have been there probably dozens of times over the past 5 years and always get the same thing: a piece of artichoke pizza and a piece of pepperoni and sausage pizza. Today was no different but was a bonus in that I got to sit outside in the sun all by myself and enjoy the tasty treats. Life is good and pizza makes it even better.
Marvin
the night: chicken and waffles. It was a boneless piece of crispy fried chicken over a belgian waffle over collard greens with a thing of syrup on the side. I have always been scared to order it but will definately next time. Along with the good belgian beers and the atmosphere I would definately recommend as a nice place to go. Stephanie was off to meet friends after and Jack and I went in search of a bar to watch the NCAA games going on. We couldn’t find anywhere on U street as everywhere was packed so we hopped back on the Metro and went to somewhere across from the Verizon center…and could not resisting stopping at 
Matchbox
as Ellen and Wally arrived. Hot and delicious. I had a waffle with fresh fruit, Ellen and Wally each had the banana bread french toast with raspberries and rum spiked syrup and Jack ordered off the regular menu and got a chicken pesto pizza. Everything was great. The place was hopping and by the time we left it was totally full and a there was a small jazz group playing in the background. Very nice. Actually the whole block was full of people doing Sunday brunch and lots of different restaurants. It was nice to be able to spend time with Ellen and Wally. (
You name it and it happened…plus it was happening everywhere, the runners kept bringing stuff out to tables and people told them they didn’t order it, or they already had it…someone gave us a plate of fries for no reason. On the plus side the food was very good. I love raw oysters and the ones I had were super fresh and wonderful. I could have sat there and ate oysters all night. I also had a crabcake and old bay fries…two orders :). Jack got fried chicken with side of potatoes and mac and cheese (he’s on his own for the next two months so needed to load up on the carbs). I had a couple of tasty Grolsch’s and enjoyed the scenery. The parade of people outside was great to watch. It was a good thing we weren’t in any rush.
Eat On Edgecliff 