Fun Playing With Food at Harbor Docks, Destin FL

Though occasionally inconsistent, Harbor Docks remains our "go to" Destin restaurant for fish. Ok, the breakfast wasn't stellar, but I feel obligated to tell the truth about it - then recommend you go to Harbor Docks for lunch and dinner (especially lunch, which offers a nice value and some delightful Southeast Asian flavors). Yes, tourists go there, but it remains at its heart a locals place, located in the same space on the harbor for the last 40 years.

We dined at the Harbor Docks bar our first night in Destin. There was a boat fest on the harbor and the restaurant was jammed, but I was not going to be denied a plate of Harbor Docks after 7 years absent from Destin! Just one bite into that exquisitely fresh and well prepared fish, the tears welled up. Tears of joy.

First, though, the ubiquitous Harbor Docks salad. The only time I'll actually eat canned mandarin oranges. And like them!

BLACKENED CATCH OF THE DAY (grouper), corn chow chow, smoked gouda stone-ground grits, vegetable of the day (green beans)

Bob's Sesame Crusted Snapper was equally delicious, but too blurry to post.

As I wrote seven years ago in this post, "Our “go to” breakfast for ten years [was] the Silver Sands Breakfast at Harbor Docks." The Silver Sands’s proprietor, Mr. Ferrell Shipp, passed away in July 2011 and the Silver Sands Breakfast ended three months later. Harbor Docks initiated their own breakfast shortly after, but no one could make biscuits like Mr. Shipp and the one breakfast we sampled in 2012 was still in the development stage. Harbor Docks currently offers breakfast Friday-Sunday. I wanted so much to love it, but my advice is to enjoy lunch and dinner at Harbor Docks, but leave breakfast to the pros.

Bob's: French Toast with Conecuh Sausage

Bob's' French Toast was good but nothing to write home about. In it's defense, though, this plate was our first introduction to Conecuh Sausage. This family business began in 1947 in Evergreen, Alabama, and produces very tasty hickory smoked sausages with simple ingredient lists and interesting seasonings. We found them in local grocery stores also, but wouldn't have known to look for them but for this breakfast plate.

Mine:  Half Order of Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

Mine: Cheese Grits

The biscuits are no longer made in house, and this one wasn't very good. The gravy was ok, but no longer available without the sausage. The true sin against breakfast, however, was in the grits. Bullion cubes, to be precise. The addition of bullion cubes did not add flavor in a good way; instead it created an overly salty, artificial-flavor, funhouse-mirror effect on the palate. So, while we enjoyed several other meals at Harbor Docks, we did not return for breakfast.

Lunch was a completely different, delicious, savory story.

Bob's: Fried Grouper Fingers, Cheese Grits, Coleslaw, Hushpuppies

Fish Curry (I think it was snapper), Rice

Spring Rolls, Dipping Sauce

Bob's plate hit all the expected tasty notes, and the grits were obviously made by someone not on the breakfast crew, who knows how to make them. But mine hit the motherload - a skillful, just-spicy enough Thai style curry caressing perfectly sauteed local Snapper, plated with Jasmine Rice and accompanied by two crispy right-out-of-the-fryer, made in house, spring rolls with dipping sauce.

There would be two additional dinners at Harbor Docks. Neither hit the heights of the first dinner or lunch, but they were mostly solid, and delivered with Harbor Docks's excellent service and hospitality (hello to Ms. Sunshine, who is still serving there even after these many years!).

Bob's: Fried Grouper fingers, Fries

Mine: Grilled Tuna, Rice, Veg, Buerre Blanc.

Though Bob's fried plate was excellent, my tuna was just a little older than it wanted to be, and it couldn't compare to the exquisite tuna I cooked from Blalock's. There was something funky about the Buerre Blanc also. These things happen, the plate was enjoyable, just not stellar.

Bob's: Fried Triggerfish

Mine: Blackened Snapper, Grits, Chow Chow, Green Beans

Again, Bob's fried plate hit the spot, but mine, which was the same order from our first dinner in December, somehow lacked profundity. It may have mattered that there was a big beer tasting dinner going on in the next dining room. In any event, we love playing with food at Harbor Docks, and we will be back there upon our return to Destin!

Harbor Docks
538 Harbor Blvd.
Destin, FL 32541
(850) 837-2506
info@harbordocks.com

HOURS
Monday - Wednesday 11am - 10pm

Thursday 11am - 11pm

Friday - Saturday 7am - 11pm

Sunday 7am - 10pm

Fun Playing With Our Two Favorite Gulf Coast Restaurants, Part 1

Much as I would like to name a "best of trip," that is impossible. We enjoyed so much fabulous food from so many wonderful places. But two places stood out just a bit above the rest. However, one can't really be ranked above the other. So, we'll explore the other in the next post.

The place to which we keep bringing our friends is Christiano's Italian Restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach. Chef/Owner Chris Chirum and his wife Rene offer genuine hospitality, killer fish and seafood, red sauce Italian, pizza, and house made desserts. The food and atmosphere are so welcoming, we forgive Chef for being a Steeler's fan!

The first basket of this luscious house-made focaccia bread is complimentary, and is accompanied by a savory dipping oil. You don't want to fill up on bread when there is so much goodness to come, do you?

Bob's:  Trout Meunière: Pan-sautéed Trout in a classic brown butter sauce with lemon and capers, with fresh asparagus and pasta marinara.         

We've had several different fishes prepared Meuniere style at Christiano's and they are always delicious. But my first entree this season hit the motherload.

Italian Whole Snapper al Forno

Locally caught whole Red Snapper baked with fresh herbs, lemon & garlic, encrusted with bread crumbs & Pecorino Romano Cheese was bone-licking good! The side of pasta with marinara went almost untouched (though it made a tasty left over the next day) but not one morsel of that snapper remained!

On our second visit, we were joined by a Cleveland area couple whose acquaintance we had just made, via  a Cleveland food group on Facebook. They are regulars to the Destin area in winter, but had never before enjoyed Chef Chris's hospitality. They left happy, sated, and impressed.

Christiano's is one of the few restaurants where I will eat the shrimp (which are generally sourced from Harbor Docks Wholesale Seafood Market together with much of the fin fish). So Bob and I began with an appetizer of Bad-a-Bing Shrimp.

Local shrimp are simmered in a Moscato wine garlic butter sauce with sun-dried tomatoes & scallions. Pristine and succulent. 

This time, I had the Meunière, prepared with Louisiana Redfish. It was splendid.

Bob, and one of our dining companions, opted for the classic Fettuccine Alfredo and they were both delighted with it. 

Our remaining dining companion chose the Pork Osso Buco, which was quite spectacular. It looked like the ones depicted in the video on Christiano's Facebook page, and our friend enjoyed every drop! Christiano's Pork Shank Food Porn.

For our third and final visit, we brought our dear friends Phil and Virginia for their first meal on their brief visit with us. I had so enjoyed my taste of Bob's Alfredo the last time, that I went for the Alfredo with Shrimp; it proved an excellent choice.

Bob decided to landlubber with the Veal Marsala. 

Veal Scaloppine was sautéed with mushrooms, onion & garlic in a dry Marsala sauce and served with pasta marinara. It melted in the mouth. 

Phil and Virginia love sweets, and persuaded us to join them in dessert. This was probably the only dessert we ordered on the entire trip, but oh, my it was worth the splurge!

House-made Key Lime Pie

The pie was perfect, from the tender flaky crust through the creamy filling and up to the top of the house-whipped cream. I do recommend that you sample one of Chef Chris's desserts should you dine at Christiano's!

If you want to try the whole fish, it is best to call and reserve an order, because they don't keep a lot of it on hand (especially in winter) so as to only serve the freshest fish. Prices for fish are commensurate with the neighborhood, but the prices overall are extremely reasonable and the service is always stellar. As you can see, the portions are substantial. Christiano's also had some nice value priced wines by the glass, as well as more high end selections. I don't know if they still have live entertainment in the lounge, but when offered, we enjoyed it. We always have fun playing with the food at Christiano's! 

Christiano's Italian Restaurant

4942 U.S. 98 Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459

(850) 267-2185 

Monday-Saturday 5pm-until

Fun Playing With Destin-Area Breakfast

What better way to start the day than with breakfast? We found a number of tasty options nearby and barely scratched the surface of the local offerings.

In all our prior years visiting Destin, we'd never succeeding in playing with food at the Destin Diner - it was a cool looking old railcar style place, but always seemed to be between owners during our February visits. The current operators of the space (now called Mary's Kitchen) have remedied this. They also operate a second Mary's Kitchen at Uptown in Fort Walton Beach, which is open until 8pm for dinner. The Destin version is open from 7:30am until 2:30pm, and offers daily "Blue Plate" specials beginning at 11:30am for lunch in addition to the generous breakfast and lunch menus. Due to the number of meals we ate there, Mary's will get it's own post. However, our first breakfast at Mary's, on our first morning in Destin, warrants a preview here.

Bob's Pancakes

Half Order of Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

My side of cheese grits

Bob's pancakes were light and dreamy. I honestly didn't love the sausage tossed into the gravy, but the white gravy itself was delicious and the biscuits were light and airy. They told me their biscuit maker makes them from scratch daily and they certainly tasted like it! People tend to love grits or hate them; I am in the former category and found these creamy, cheesy and serviceable. A lovely start!

Our next breakfast adventure took us back to a place that didn't really impress in years past, but has upped their game quite nicely. The Donut Hole now has three locations; on this trip, we dined at two of them. The original, in Destin, impressed us both times we visited.

Bob's: The Everything. 2 eggs, sausage, cheese grits (subbed in for homefries), 2 pancakes.

Mine: Texas Sweet Potato Pancakes with Praline Sauce

The quantity of food provided two full meals for each of us, and then some. But more important was the quality, which was very good and delivered at very reasonable price points. More of Donut Hole will appear in a later post.

We enjoyed two breakfasts at The Pancakery, just up the street from us. While they do use liquid egg product for their omelets, the fillings I sampled tasted of freshness and quality.

Mine: Crabcake Omelet 

They get the crab cakes already made from their vendor, which they said was a local product. They also source local shrimp for omelet making, but we didn't sample it. This mammoth plate gave me two meals, with some to spare! The quality of the filling and presentation of this dish almost made up for the use of liquid egg product. And to accompany this savoriness:

Sand Dollar Pancakes

What a treat! Why get a side of food service bread toast when there are freshly made pancakes in the house? 

Bob's: Strawberry Fields, pancakes filled with strawberries and topped with strawberry compote. 

This was a little too sweet for my palate, but Bob loved it.

Gone Bananas: Filled with fresh bananas and served with bananas foster sauce.

We both ordered this on our second visit, and didn't love it as much as our first visit. The Bananas Foster Sauce had a strong margarine/butter substitute flavor that wrecked the dish for us. So the trick to enjoying the Pancakery is to order carefully - they do a fabulous job with the pancakes themselves and some of the toppings are worthy. We will definitely return.

Crackings was recommended by our realtor, who is a food guy and is married to another food lover. Originally part of the still-existing “Another Broken Egg” chain, but recently taken independent by its owners, Crackings still felt (and tasted) way too chain like. It wasn’t bad but wasn’t especially good either, and more costly than other local options. The menu bragged about serving Hormel meats – that sort of sums it up. There are better choices. And to be fair, my realtor and his wife had lunch items not breakfast; perhaps they do better with that. 

Mine: Praline Pecan Pancakes - two sweet cream pancakes, filled with sweet crunchy praline pecans, drizzled with scratch made cinnamon cream cheese icing

This looks like a bit of a mess and that was how it ate. Way too sweet, and the parts that weren't covered with icing were quite dry.

Bob's: Banana Foster's it Up - a scratch made brown sugar, banana liquor, and butter cream sauce with fresh bananas with pancakes

Crackings actually did a better job with this dish than the Pancakery had, probably because they used real butter rather than substitutes. Bob clearly chose better than I! Having lots of sauce to drizzle where needed helped.

The final two places are almost polar opposites, but each delivered deliciousness!

Mama Clemenza's is owned by the couple that are part owners in Fat Clemenzas in Miramar Beach and Clemenzas at Uptown Station, Fort Walton Beach. The Miramar Beach location, 12273 Emerald Coast Parkway, Miramar Beach, Phone: 850-424-3157 is open Wednesday – Sunday 8am – 1pm. The Fort Walton Beach location is open 8am- 1pm Sunday in the premises of Clemenzas at Uptown Station, 75 Eglin Parkway | Suite 126 | Fort Walton Beach, FL 32591. Both locations offer an upscale, hand crafted breakfast and lunch experience. Though our second experience was marred by some technical difficulties, the house responded well and we'll certainly be back.

Sliced Oranges in olive oil with black pepper

So tasty that I tried to recreate it for our Snowbird group's Happy Hour. How'd I do?

Plant City Truck Farmer Honeybells with EVOO & Black Pepper

Back to Mama Clemenza's.

Bob's: Italian Breakfast Panini "Special" House-made Italian Sausage, sunnyside eggs and Gruyere cheese, served with side of Hollandaise and "side of the day" which was Raspberry Steel Cut Oats 

Mine: "Special" Seafood Quiche topped with Hollandaise, served with Croissant and "side of the day", Raspberry Steel Cut Oats (it ate like pudding!).

Bob's Banana's Foster French Toast: maple glazed sliced bananas and warm caramel sauce.

Mine: Croque Madame. An open faced egg sandwich with Prosciutto, and Gruyere cheese. Served with Side of the Day (Blackberry Steel Cut Oats) and an addition of Hollandaise sauce on the side.

The menu changes frequently and every day brings one off specials. Mama Clemenza's is not a cheap date, but the quality of the food is a notch above most local offerings and well worth it. Despite the hiccups on our last visit, we'll be back! 

Blue Collar Cafe in Fort Walton Beach is the only place in the area making real NY style bagels from scratch. And doing it quite well. But go early if you want a bagel, because they will sell out (by 10:30ish)!  We didn't get there in time the first time we visited. But the made-in-house biscuits almost made up for it! And that Maple Bacon - divine! The grits - nothing special. But there remains plenty of special to go around at Blue Collar Cafe! And at very friendly prices.

Mine: 2 Eggs Over Easy, Biscuit, Cheese Grits, Maple Bacon

Bob's: 2 eggs over easy, toast, sausage patty.

The bagels were worth the price of admission and a second trip. New Yorker approved. And though that cream cheese probably started life in a food service loaf, it had been whipped with a perfect touch of white pepper by the time it hit my bagel. Outstanding! As was the service, a real treat.

Mine: Plain bagel, not toasted, cream cheese, fruit.

No New Yorker would ever toast a fresh bagel.

Bob's: Poppyseed Bagel Toasted, Cream Cheese, Fruit

Another lovely touch - that fruit garnish isn't just a garnish - it's fresh, substantive fruit, which cut nicely through the richness of the bagel and cream cheese. And the sausage and bacon at our first visit.

Finally, a rare made from scratch breakfast in the condo, featuring Black Bear Bread Company Bread made into French Toast with Blue Eggs we got at the Sandestin/Grand Boulevard Farmers' Market, topped with Strawberry Syrup I made with Plant City Farmers' Fresh Strawberries.

And so we have breakfast in Destin and environs. Some lovely places to play with food, and a few others we didn't get to try. There will be more Fun Playing With Food from this trip, coming up shortly!

Fun Playing With Food in Destin, Florida - We're Baaack

We last visited Destin, the "Luckiest Fishing Village in the World," in February 2012. Since then, life intervened with some twists and turns. Beginning in December 2018, we not only returned to Destin, but for the first time, snowbirded there until March. We anticipate moving to the region sometime shortly. 

A lot has changed and a lot has remained the same, both culinarily and otherwise. Our condo overlooked the Gulf of Mexico and offered some lovely views.

From the terrace

From the private beach access

On the beach at sunset

We also took a short road trip to Delray Beach and Jacksonville, enjoying delicious eats along the way. 

Stone Crab Claws for dinner at Gleneagles Main Dining Room

Salvadoran Tamale at Rosy's, Jacksonville

The best plate of food from the trip? Was it this Chirashi at Sushimoto in Miramar Beach?

Or perhaps this whole Grilled Snapper at Christiano's in Santa Rosa Beach?

Or could it have been something we cooked ourselves, like this Seared Tuna sourced from Blalock's Seafood & Specialty Market in Destin?

Please join me in the posts to follow as we seek out Fun Playing with Food in Destin and its environs.