Right now, I’m sitting in an lounge chair overlooking the clear blue sea from our perch here at Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon, Florida. The weather is a lovely 78 degrees with a slight breeze blowing…One could get very used to this!!!
Before we arrived here on the Florida Keys, we visited the Everglades National Park and stayed at Flamingo Park for 4 days…Did we see any alligators or crocodiles? Check out the GYPSY KITCHEN Photo Album to see just how many we saw…and up close and personal. On our last day in the park, we visited an area known as Royal Palm and took a 1/2 mile stroll and literally saw dozens and dozens of alligators. But I’m getting ahead of myself already.
Last Saturday,we spent the day exploring the historic downtown area of St. Augustine, watching the street vendors and visiting several of the areas many interesting shops and boutiques. While checking out the Visitor’s Center, we learned that a small restaurant named “DECO” was voted best gourmet restaurant in St. Augustine…we made the decision that this would be our destination for lunch.
“DECO” is a bit out from the downtown city area but was well worth the short drive out Route 1 to 980 Santa Maria Boulevard. Chef/Owner Sandy Krebs is a talented, creative workhorse of a chef. She starts out most days in the early morning baking her own breads and desserts, simmering her sauces, making her dressings, cooking outstanding meals for her lunch guests all the while prepping for dinner service…Sandy is a chef’s chef and also one great designer as she purchased the land and designed and built this hi-tech, modern facility which clearly “fits” into the Florida scene beautifully.
We started out with a lovely baked wheel of brie with Fiji and Granny Smith apples and house prepared walnut brittle. For our entrees, Cindy choose the Omelet Special of fresh crab, avocado and feta cheese, which she loved and I opted for the Club Sandwich which was built upon fresh in-house baked ciabatta bread, piled high with thick cut bacon, vine ripened tomatoes, crisp romaine lettuce, beautiful ham and roast turkey and finished with both Cheddar and Swiss cheeses…accompanied by a delightfully crisp and snappy pickle and house made potato salad which is the best we’ve had on the trip so far.
Gigi, our served told us that we had to save room for Sandy’s Grandma’s Lemon Cake, which we did…wonderful is a word that quickly comes to mind.
“DECO” rates:
We would definitely go out of our way to revisit!!!
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After lunch, we headed out to St. Augustine Light House and a nice stroll out onto the small causeway that leads out over the bay and watched the fishermen work their skill reeling in various species of local catch…the pelicans were among the best fishermen we witnessed.
We opted to skip dinner all together after this exceptional lunch at “DECO”
Sunday, we packed up and headed out on Route A1A South and stopped at a recommended eatery “Martin’s” on Flagler Beach for a nice Sunday afternoon meal. “Martin’s” is one of those places that when you walk in you say to yourself…”Is this a mistake?” I would say that this restaurant dates back several decades as do most of the patron’s sitting amongst the many tables and booths. Service is provided by young (probably first waiting job) personnel who look as nervous as school-kid’s waiting for the bus on the first day of school…but they are friendly and pleasant. Our food was surprisingly GREAT and the prices are unbelievably low. Cindy ordered the Shrimp Special (A la Scampi) – $8.95 and I picked the Bone-in New York Sirloin Special – $9.95. Both meals were cooked perfectly and my sirloin was advertised as 12–ounce but had to be actually closer to a full pound, full of flavor. We learned that “Grandpa (80+ years old) cuts all the meat daily, Grandma handles the Hostess functions, Son and daughter-in-the are the current managers and a few of the grandkid’s help bus tables and work in the kitchen…this is the epitome of a family run business. We had a fantastic meal complete with fresh brewed ice teas and our total bill was a whopping $28.00 including gratuity!!! No wonder the place was the busiest dining we have experienced on the GYPSY KITCHEN Tour ’09.
Martin’s rates:
A great bargain for really good food.
Again, we opted for some sliced brie and crackers for dinner because we simply couldn’t even consider dinner.
Sunday evening through Tuesday was spent at Jonathan Dickson State Park, an 11,000 acre preserve where we were able to capture one of the most picturesque sunsets I’ve seen in years. We had a great time walking the trails and learning about the Loxahatchee as it meanders through freshwater creeks, down into a brackish estuary, and finally empties through the Jupiter Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean. If you ever find yourself traveling through Hobe Sound, make sure to spend a day or two at the Jonathan Dickson State Park…you will have a wonderful time and learn a lot while enjoying every minute of your stay.
Tuesday afternoon, we entered the Everglades National Park and then traveled 38 miles to Flamingo campground which we learned had the unfortunate honor of being hit by both Hurricane Katrina and then Hurricane Wilma a short period after. The park is still in the “rebuild” stage and one can still see a lot of the destruction caused by these two mammoth storms but it was still a beautiful place to call home for 4 days and nights.
One note: The only cell service which is available is AT&T (which is extremely spotty at best, we are told), so we found one of the only places in America that the Autonet Mobile WIFI system could not get a signal in order to broadcast from. There is one pay phone located at the Marina Store if you must be in contact with the outside world.
The Everglades is again a fascinating place, full of life and learning, and all kinds of exotic birds, fish, plants and yes alligators and crocodiles…and yes you get to see them up close and personal (sometimes a little too personal).
Because the park is so large and so vast, we did not venture out of the park until we were leaving so we did not have a chance to visit any other restaurants to review but we were invited to a neighbors campsite on Saturday evening to join about a dozen or so folks for a splendid Fish Fry…all locally caught fish – WOW it was wonderful.
So that just about covers The GYPSY KITCHEN – Week # 3…although this might be a good place to point out a quick observation: As we have traveled from Maine to Florida thus far, it is VERY apparent that many, many of the restaurants that we have encountered on our travels are certainly experiencing the “economic slow-down” and in some pretty big ways. We have eaten in some GREAT places and been 2 of maybe 6–10 guests in the entire place. I know that we ALL are suffering and having to watch our pennies very closely – but I feel that I have to do a shout out for your local eateries…folk’s the only stimulus package these hard working Mom & Pop, husband & wife, brother & sister businesses are going to get is by people like you and me stopping by and partaking in a lovely meal. No government bail-outs, no federal appropriations programs. The only “pork” these businesses see is on their respective menu’s.
Please support your local favorite restaurants and let them know how much you enjoy their hard efforts.
Okay, that’s it for my “soap-boxing”!!!
Have a great week, I know that I’m going to as 2 of our kid’s are coming down for a few days.
For information and/or directions for any of these establishments, please visit our interactive “Gypsy Kitchen Tour ‘09” map.
Make sure to log onto www.cookwithjohn.com and subscribe to receive FREE weekly recipes (this week’s recipe: “Frogmore or Less Stew”) and chance to win a 3–course dinner for 10 guests performed by the Gypsy Kitchen in the comfort of your own home.
Until next week,
Chef John
in the “Gypsy Kitchen”
Ratings Scale:
= Needs Work, Most Likely Would Not Return
= Good Basic Find, Things Could Be Improved, Would Probably Try Again
= As Expected, Good Choice, A Few Things Could Be Better, Almost Certainly Visit Again
= Better Than Expected, Great Choice, Would Definitely Revisit
= Totally Blown Away, Every Point Exceeded Expectation, Would Drive Out-Of-Way To Revisit
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