FloridaFoodHound

Blue Desert Cafe, New Deal Cafe, Sweet Dreams, Five Guys and Original Pizza Palace

While it's been far too long since I last posted some restaurant reviews, we haven't stopped trying new places (and revisiting old ones) over the past two months.  Below is a quick run-down on our latest hits-and-misses in and around Gainesville.  As always, drop me a line with suggestions.

So here's goes with the latest and greatest:

• Blue Desert Cafe: Last night we were in the mood for something different.  One restaurant that has intrigued us each time we've passed it on the way to Cedar Key is a funky-looking, little place called Blue Desert Cafe.  So yesterday evening we called ahead to make sure they were open and then took the 45 minute drive out to Cedar Key.  Little did we know the long drive would be the quickest part of our dinner.  While the server was pleasant (and she warned us of the wait), we literally sat and waited for over an hour from the time we placed our order until we were served.  Traci ordered a personal sausage pizza and I had a shrimp and scallop burrito.  The menu is an eclectic mix and our meal was good, but this still couldn't make up for such a long wait on top of our drive.  For a kicker, we were pulled over leaving for supposedly "speeding".  Cedar Key's finest graciously gave us a warning (We were doing "41" in a "30"; the sign said "35", anyways).

• New Deal Cafe and Sweet Dreams:  This evening we stayed much closer to home and went back to New Deal Cafe for dinner.  New Deal is the  casual accompaniment to the adjoining upscale Mildred's Big City Food.  After having eaten at both, we prefer to save our money and enjoy New Deal's very reasonably priced menu.  We tried New Deal for the first time last month.  On this second visit, I ordered a Maytag blue cheese burger and Traci had a regular hamburger.  Both burgers were winners.  For an appetizer, we shared a Mediterranean plate (a sampling of vegetable spreads with fresh bread).  After dinner, we walked down to Sweet Dreams where I was able to twist Traci's arm into ordering some ice cream.  She selected a cup of Mojito italian ice and I had a cup of  chocolate hazelnut and toffee flavors.  I've heard multiple people rave about Sweet Dreams having the best ice cream in town, and it's easy to see why (Sweet Dreams is also available at Buddha Belly and goes down great after a hot, spicy plate of curry).

• Five Guys Burgers and Fries:  I guess we've been on a bit of a burger kick lately.  A few weekends ago we hopped in the car one Saturday and drove down to Ocala.  Why there isn't a Five Guys Burgers yet in Gainesville I have no clue.  I think a Five Guys would be a slam dunk in a college town.  It's likely only a matter of time as new locations are popping up all over Central Florida.  Originally started in Virginia, Five Guys is all about serving up big giant, sloppy hamburgers and bags full of fries.  Nothing is frozen and the fries are cut daily.  The Ocala location, which was swarming with retirees (maybe a steady diet of burgers and fries are the real secret to a long life?), didn't disappoint.  On an unrelated note, there is a surprising amount of new construction on the southwest side of Ocala.  There's several Five Guys now open in Jacksonville and a growing number sprouting up in and around Orlando and Tampa.

• The Original Pizza Palace:  Dan Rua of the Florida Venture Blog turned me on recently to the re-opening of the Original Pizza Palace on NW 13th Street a few blocks from campus.  Apparently, before it closed in 1999, Original Pizza Palace was something of the Satchel's of its day.  The Sun recently did an interesting piece about the back story of the restaurant's re-opening.  On our first visit, we had a spunky server and a pretty good meal.  I had a tasty lasagna and Traci had a plate of "mama's meat sauce."  On our second visit with two friends, the level of service went down the tubes and our food was mediocre at best.  Plus, unless we're imagining things, it seemed like the place had already raised prices since our first visit.  The pizza was fairly plain tasting.  I like the laid-back vibe of Original Pizza Palace and I hope it makes it, but the food isn't Satchel's or Blue Highway caliber.  If you've been since Original Pizza Palace re-opened, I'd love to hear about it.

That's all for now.  With a little luck, I'll have the chance to post more frequently this summer...

El Norteno, Seabreeze, Pat & Tony's, and Falafel King

This past weekend was certainly a food weekend to forget.  We started things off on Friday evening by planning to eat at Omi's Kitchen, a little restaurant and catering business, near the intersection of Archer and Tower by our house.  Omi's might have great food, but the line was moving slowly, the two person kitchen seemed overwhelmed, and it was hot inside.  So after, a few minutes, we decided to split.

From there, we decided to go for some Mexican food at La Fiesta, which we had liked on a previous visit.  Well, just our luck, but La Fiesta has since moved (I'm assuming it wasn't just temporarily closed, we didn't get out of the car and look?) and an empty parking lot and closed restaurant greeted us.  We were still in the mood for Mexican, so we pulled into El Norteno on 75th (Tower Rd.).  The first warning sign was when we pulled up and the parking lot was less than half full, granted it was still fairly early.

The first thing that hit us when we walked in the door was a smell across between mildew and antiseptic.  The meal wasn't any better.  I've had lots of mediocre tex-Mex over the years and El Norteno ranks among the worst.  Not only was the food blah, but the portions were pretty small to boot. 

On Saturday, hoping to forget about El Norteno, we headed out to Cedar Key for lunch.  We had wanted to try the Blue Desert Cafe, but found out it is only open for dinner.  So instead we headed back to Dock St.  Instead of going back to Frog's Landing, which had solid food on a previous visit, we decided upon Seabreeze on the Dock.   Unfortunately, besides the great view on the water, I don't have anything positive to say about Seabreeze - bad food, bad service, etc.  In a nutshell, a waste of thirty bucks.

So I don't sound like I'm just complaining about local restaurants lately, we do continue to find little  places that we like.  We've now been to Tony and Pat's twice (on the corner of Archer and 34th in an old shopping center) and like this little, no-frills eighties-style pizza joint.  For gourmet pizza, Satchel's and Blue Highway are still the places to go, but for a quick and cheap dinner, Tony and Pat's does the trick.

A few weekends back, we checked out the Falafel King in Butler Plaza off Archer for lunch.  Good, reasonably-priced Mediterranean food (the baklava is so good and sweet you can almost feel your teeth rotting!).  Neither Falafel King or Gyro Plus blew me away, but I'm glad we checked both out. 

That's all for now.  I'll try to post more frequently.  In the meantime, drop me a line and let me know what local Gainesville restaurants we need to visit - and why- plus, which local restaurants to avoid!

Clamerica Festival at Cedar Key

We decided on a low-key 4th of July this year and spent the day at the Clamerica Festival on Cedar Key.  Thanks to its unique coastal waters, the small island village has  grown over the past decade into the largest producer of farm-raised clams in the country.   We had enjoyed our first visit to laid-back Cedar Key a few weeks ago, and thought Clamerica sounded like a good excuse to make another visit.

We arrived in the late morning when things were just getting going.  It was nice not having to fight crowds and traffic.  No one in Cedar Key seemed to be in a rush.  We walked around the small festival area for a while and then headed over to the dock where we had reservations for a boat tour with Captain Doug of Tidewater Tours.  The tour was the highlight of the day.  We learned the history of the area and went by many of the outer islands of Cedar Key, including Seahorse Key and the lighthouse.

Being out on the water for a couple of hours, we had worked up an appetite. Festival food I tried out included clam fritters, clams on the half shell, and a white clam chowder.  The fritters were tasty (again, it's hard to go wrong with fried), the chowder had just enough spice and was full of clams, but the raw clams on the half shell I could live without.  I'm used to raw oysters, but this was my first stab at raw clams, which have more of a salty taste then I care for.  Traci munched on a big corn on the cob, which you can see a picture of below.  We've posted other pics from the day here.  All in all, a fun experience.

Side-note: We grabbed a bite to eat at Gyro Plus on University this past weekend.  For the amount of food you get for the price, I really can't complain, but I enjoyed my lunch more at Pita Pit on Archer.  Long-time readers know I'm not a "chain person" and I generally favor local restaurants.  Of course, I'm also the same guy who said I thought Chipotle was better than Burrito Bros.  Heresy here, I realize!

Bottom-line:  If you're looking for an escape from the crowds and the hustle-and-bustle on the 4th (and aren't looking for beaches and a wild time), then Clamerica at Cedar Key is worth checking out.  For someone that has spent a lot of time in fairly large cities, it's nice to explore small towns for a change.    

Chopstix Cafe, Frog's Landing & Wise's Drug Store

This past Friday, we decided to check out Chopstix Cafe on 13th Street for dinner.  A recent search I had done indicated that Chopstix was the hands-down favorite Asian restaurant in town.  The restaurant is located right on the bank of Bivens Lake, which provides a great lakeside view from the main dining room.  The "Pan Asian" menu is huge and has pretty much any Asian dish you can imagine.

We ordered chicken satay as an appetizer.  We're used to chicken satay being served on skewers and often with a small flame.  Chopstix's satay came in a bowl filled with small chicken chunks covered in a tasty sauce.  For our main course, I ordered "The King and I" (Thai-style spicy shrimp with vegetables) and Traci went with the pepper chicken with green peppers and onions.  Both dishes were nicely done and reasonably priced.  For that matter, the prices on everything were lower than I had expected. 

My only minor complaints was that the service, while friendly, was slow and it also felt warm and muggy at our table.  I realize this was partially because we were sitting near the window and the sun was going down, but the place could also stand to crank up the A/C a bit.   I'm not one to generally complain about the  temperature in a restaurant.  Overall, though, we had an enjoyable experience and will be back.

On Saturday evening, we decided to check out Cedar Key and ended up at Frog's Landing, a casual seafood restaurant on the water, for dinner.  Service tried hard to please, but was very slow and short-handed.  The food was respectable for a seafood joint.  I ordered one of the specials, a soft shell crab sandwich and Traci had a burger.  Frog's own "Deep Croak" pepper sauce was a nice surprise.

We're looking forward to exploring Cedar Key more in the future.  My first impression of Cedar Key is that this funky, little fishing village is how Key West must have been decades ago before it  was over-commercialized. Cedar Key is a mix of independent restaurants, motels/rentals and art shops.

We also had the chance to check out Wise's Drug Store downtown on University for lunch one day this past week.  Now, we like nostalgic, old-time places, and I'm glad we checked Wise's out, but we probably wouldn't go back for lunch.  We sat up at the counter and both ordered turkey salad sandwiches and a bag of chips.  For dessert, we split an old-fashioned shake, which Gainesville.com had highlighted.

The sandwiches were small and for $4.25 each not my idea of a good deal.  The shake was fine, but not outstanding.  Service was friendly and we did enjoy taking in the history of the place.  I believe the soda fountain portion of Wise's is only open in the late morning and during lunch time.  Otherwise, I'd say this would be a good place to grab a shake in the evening.  Still, I'm glad we checked Wise's out.

Bottom-line: We certainly found a new restaurant to add to our "restaurant rotation" in Chopstix Cafe.  Cedar Key was a nice surprise and Frog's Landing was overall a solid experience.  While Wise's was a little bit of a let-down for lunch, I'd still encourage you to check out this slice of Gainesville history.