Thursday, May 8, 2014

THE PLACES YOU FIND TO EAT

One of the nicest things about travel are the places you find to eat.  But first a word about hotel breakfasts.

If all it takes for you to get on with your day is some dry cereal and milk, then you're covered.  It's when the hotel thinks it can do up an egg or a piece of sausage that it gets to the gag level.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in a couple of places and they served the same little omelette-like creation with a slice of faux cheese in it that was so uniformly made that it had to be machine made.  If dropped, I'm pretty sure they will bounce.  With enough Tabasco and black pepper it almost resembles the taste of egg. 

The sausage scene is not much better.  First of all, sausage is, ideally, ground up meat that is seasoned.  This was turkey sausage.  Perhaps it was.  I have to say it tasted not only bland but it required great leaps of imagination to come up with the idea that you were actually eating meat.  OK, it got the job done but only minimally.  And I tasted the whatever it was for several hours after.  I'm quite sure my system is still trying to figure out just what it was I ate.

Twice there was cream sausage gravy and hot biscuits.  Whoa there, I shouted.  I love the stuff as it fosters wonderful memories of that same menu at my great aunt Ora's kitchen table as a child.  I would go out and run it off quickly, but driving all day to the day's destination is not going to run anything off.  Biscuits (very likely made with lard) slathered ladles of hot cream gravy becomes a brick in one's digestive tract if sitting on it is the plan.  It was the plan.

Dinner was another story.  We were in Ft. Myers and were in a Pier 1 Imports looking for real glasses for our evening libation.  Why hotels provide those awful Dixie cups is beyond me.  No it's not: it's cheap and that's that.  After finding this pair of excellent and cheap $3 glasses that I was sure were more money, we chatted up the person waiting on us and asked her where we could go for a good meal with some atmosphere.  Without batting an eye, she said Bonita Bill's.  She said it would not be fancy, the food is great and inexpensive and there is no better atmosphere.

Hmm, a local recommendation like that is hard to ignore.  She was right on every count.  Here are a couple of shots from our table.

As the sun faded the evening turned gold.

Check out the napkin holder.

A sampling of the crowd.

To get here you went like you were going over the bridge/causeway to Sanibel Island but you turn off at the last minute and meander through this back street neighborhood and then drive under the bridge and find a huge parking lot with not a parking place to be had.   As I made the loop - as luck would have it - and I don't know what I'd do with out luck - a guy pulled out of an ideal spot just as I approached.  I parked and CA was saying things like, "This is it"!

The place was packed.  We strolled in and I saw this table right down on the water and it was empty.  I said, "What's wrong with that one?" and a guy standing nearby said, "Not a thing.  Go get it."

That was about it.  We hung out there for the better part of two hours.  Everybody there seemed to know ten other people.  I truly think we were the only patrons from "away" so to speak.  These people locals.  There was music and dancing too.  Well, a good time only goes so far.  I couldn't hear the music and I passed on the dancing but the beer was cold and the food was great. . . . .  Go there.

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