T-Rays Burger Station, Blue Water Bay, Chopstix and Francesca's

The summer certainly seems to be flying by.  I still can't believe we've lived in Gainesville for a year now, although this place certainly has felt like home for many months.  As you might expect, over the past few weeks we've revisited several restaurants we've been to before, as well as tried some new ones.  Below are quick reports on several of them. As always, drop me a line with Gainesville area restaurants to check out.

• On a bit of a whim, we took a day trip to Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach last week.  Before hitting the road, I looked up restaurant recommendations on Chowhound and came across T-Rays Burger Station.  It sounded like the kind of local diner/dive that would be right up our alley.   From the outside T-Rays still looks very much like an old gas station because it is or was (the pumps don't seem to work anymore).  We arrived as T-Rays was changing over from its breakfast to lunch menu.  Locals sitting patiently waiting was a good sign.  Once T-Rays opened for lunch, I ordered a special of the day, shrimp salad on a hoagie roll. Traci had a burger.  Our meals were tasty, the price was right, and for being first-timers, the service was certainly friendly.  Chalk it up as a good little find. The picture below is of T-Rays (impressive, huh?).  

• The weekend before last, we decided to celebrate Traci's new job by driving out to Blue Water Bay in Melrose for dinner. Our one previous visit for brunch a few months ago had been very enjoyable.  This time I wanted to check out their well-known seafood buffet and Traci was in the mood for a steak.  To speed up our wait (I'd guess we spent at least 30-40 minutes waiting for a table), we decided to grab the first two available seats at the bar (we actually like the feel of this side room with its rustic Florida decor more than the main room).  Next thing we knew, we were accidentally chatting with Byron Terwillegar, the owner and head chef at Blue Water Bay, who was sitting a few seats over.  Needless to say, we had a great meal and I enjoyed talking food with Byron. For special occasions or when you just want to treat yourself, Blue Water Bay and Mark's Prime are tops on my list.

• Now on to a not so stellar meal.  This past weekend, we were in the mood for Asian of the non-takeout and non-buffet variety and Chopstix Cafe on 13th St. seemed to fit the bill.  Our one previous visit to Chopstix had been a fair to good experience overall, although I can't say I fully understood even then why lots of people seem to get excited about the place.  After our second visit this past weekend, I'm further confused.  Granted, the view of Biven's Arm Lake is great and the prices are very reasonable.  The food on the other hand, to me at least, just tastes average, the service is mediocre and  the place is fairly run-down (call me crazy, but I feel cleaner in La Tienda).  On this visit I tried the spicy duck soup and Traci went with a bowl of Thai-style noodles (I forget the her particular entree).  For appetizers we ordered chicken satay and bo cuon (rice angel hair noodles, thin sliced beef and lettuce wrapped rice).  Unfortunately, nothing really stood out for us.

• In other news, I received an email yesterday that a new Northern Italian-style restaurant called Francesca's Trattoria is slated to open in the coming days.  The opening could come as soon as next Monday.  For more information, check out Francesca's website and consider signing up for its VIP list.  In the interest of full disclosure, I'm friends with Dave Khey, whose family is opening up the restaurant.  I've always enjoyed talking restaurants with Dave and since I really don't have a go-to Italian restaurant in town, I'm looking forward to trying Francesca's.  So what's your favorite local, sit-down Italian restaurant (this doesn't mean pizza joints like Satchel's and Blue Highway)?

That's all for now.  The picture above is of sunset last week at Amelia Island.  Enjoy your summer.

Comments

[lee h]

you're ordering the wrong things at Chopstix... aside from the pad thai itself, I've never loved the way they do their thai dishes. they get so much else right, however, especially the Malay-oriented dishes (pad kee mauw), the general tso's chicken (immaculate technique about 3 visits out of 4 with the occasional backup cook being decent at best) and the simple 'singapore lo mein' are all great. For soups; the hieu thieu nam vang is best. I know the owners pretty well and I tend to get very good service as a result but I do sympathize with feeling lost in the shuffle there. But worth being persistent.

At any rate, I've had the four entrees you mention ordering and they are not the menu standouts.

[matt]

Lee,

Thanks for your insights into the Chopstix menu. You're certainly one of its many fans. Will keep in mind these dishes (and definitely order one of them) if I go in the future. Thanks for reading-

[Kristen]

I just found your blog, so maybe you've already been but Fresco, over by Carabba's, is AMAZING. We've been there several times, and the food is nothing short of phenomenal, even by a true foodie's standards. And, the owner is generally around a chatty, like running into Byron at Blue Water Bay. It's one of my very favorite places in the entire area, and Italian isn't normally that high on my list.

[matt]

Kristen,

We tried Fresco once some months ago and it was good. Your post may inspire me to try it again sometime this weekend- thanks :)