who's (on) first?

on Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to CBGB and went home to relax for 24 hours... then on Monday our friends Ron & Mary arrived - they had actually arrived on Saturday afternoon but because we were busy with Forks & Corks and CBGB until Sunday night they headed down to Naples for a couple of days to visit other friends and then returned to SRQ (Sarasota Bradenton) area for four days here...

we met up at 5:30 Monday hoping for a sunset drink but found the Beach House outdoor area closed due to high winds - really high winds... and the sunset was pretty much ruined by low clouds on the horizon - so no good reflection on the water and no great last minute colors in the sky.... because the Beach House had no room for us for more than 45 minutes (read that- "go screw yourselves until after sunset"- we only have one small area open and we don't care if more people show up") we went elsewhere.  The Beach House in our opinion only has the view going for it - the food is mediocre - oh I guess I take that back they do have a lot of good frou frou drinks with umbrellas and fruit in them that are also quite good....

so we moved on and had a drink down the street - we had later reservations for dinner at the Blue Marlin on Bridge Street - across from the Bradenton Beach Post Office (starting point for the Victoria Sterling Historic Anna Maria Family Tour- LOL)- we had a lovely dinner with a couple of good wines - an old Chassagne Montrachet and a new Old Stones Chard from Josh Bergstrom. After dinner we did a quick run from Bridge Street south to the Long Boat Key bridge and back to the Bungalow Beach hotel where our friends were staying... along the way I gave them information about the walking and biking path along the three mile long beach at the south end of the island and a couple of breakfast recommendations -

we made plans for the next day to pick them up for lunch after my arts class and so met about 1 PM and headed to the Star Fish Company- of course they loved it- who doesn't?  Three of us had the grouper sandwiches (yum!) and Phil had the oysters and shrimp combo.... we sat in the sun and basked in the radiant heat even while the day was on the cool side...

in the afternoon we finished the VJS tour of Anna Maria and stopped by the historic Anna Maria Pier for a short walk- there we saw the skyway bridge in the distance and a porpoise close up... after that we headed to our place for a bit of relaxing and to give Ron & Mary a chance to meet Lucy & Penny and see our condo - Mary has bad allergies to cats so they couldn't stay with us and had to limit their time at our place... for dinner we headed to another favorite Waterfront along with a couple of good wines - a 90 red and an 02 white burgundy-

Wednesday brought us to Riverhouse for lunch before spending time in the afternoon with Snooty our resident 66 year old manatee... and a drive by McKechnie Field and somehow the time got away and it was time for dinner before heading to the theater for Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker"- which will have its own post- (I also managed to get to both my classes this week- another post or two) but wanted to FIRST do the post about our visitors-

If you look very closely you can see the Sunshine Skyway bridge out in the distance-

there is a new Snooty book and so we had to get one to support our favorite 66 year old guy!

on Thursday we met Ron & Mary for lunch near the airport and said our goodbyes- had a great time during their visit and we hope they did too... next- What's on Second? second up - this week's classes!

set the way back machine....

The last time I was at the Seafood Shack on the Inter-Coastal Waterway in Cortez Village was some time when my dad was still alive and still going out for lunch.  He died in September of 2001.  So let's just posit that I haven't been there in say- 15 years.  Last year when Tide Tables opened I got to talking with someone about the decline of the place and was told that it had recently been sold and the new owners were looking to bring it up in the world of dockside dining in Cortez.  The location is fabulous: right at the landside end of the Cortez Bridge to Anna Maria Island (AMI) with wonderful water and sunset views (especially from the upstairs "finer dining" part of the place).  So we had decided to give it a try-

Let me digress- we had also earlier in the week decided to give the Cortez Clam Factory a try too - which had been recommended by some folks we met at the Blues Festival last weekend.  I have no photos- which is kind of a shame because the place was a dive dive dive bar - with smokers and gambling machines LOL- I didn't even know indoor smoking was allowed in Florida... and last weekend when we had dinner at the SOB Bar & Grill the smokers had to go outside- but here they all sat puffing away (and all I could think about were the last 18 months of my sisters life as she died from lung cancer- which put me off the place right away.)

The ribs, which were smoked right outside, were pretty good and the service (one guy handling the sizable inside business) was impeccable- friendly and helpful.  But it was definitely my first and last visit there. I don't need to be reminded of my sister's months on a ventilator or her hair falling out or any of the other torture she underwent when the medical/industrial complex failed to give her the realistic picture of surviving Stage IV lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain...  I am really willing to skip that, along with the right wingers loudly arguing about (believe it or not in a public venue) the "negroid president" - I kid you not, this place was an unbelievable step into the world of hate that drives the right-wingers today and one I will not be repeating.

But back to my review of today's choice: we have been trying to check out some new places this winter - and some will be winners and some losers and some in between. Today's place was on its way to being a winner.  They are undertaking a big renovation and the upstairs "fancy" restaurant is closed until February but the downstairs grill and bar are open even during the remodeling. The server was excellent and very helpful in selecting things that they make on the premises.   The food was served fresh and hot.  While we did not stretch the limits of seafood shack type food - everything we had was good. Phil had the grouper sandwich and I had the blackened grouper tacos.  My tacos were at least twice as good as the ones I had the other night at the Sand Bar (when the grill failed at our house and we had to go out last minute and found the Sign of the Mermaid closed and AMOB having a private party.)

So the review is GIVE IT A TRY- they are excited about their new patio (to be completed this weekend) and very very nice as well as having good bar food style seafood...