26. Jun, 2009
Bread & Butter a Greek deli delight
Bread & Butter Deli, since 1974
Pressed for time, I needed a quick lunch in Tarpon Springs that wouldn’t just be a run through a Taco Bell or Wendy’s, and I found it, serendipitously, by taking a few wrong turns near Innisbrook and finding Bread & Butter, a Middle Eastern (but mostly Greek) deli along Alt US 19, not far south of the golf course. You walk in, you pick out what you want from the deli cases – dolmades or pastitio? Hummus or Baba Ghanoush? – and the server brings it to your table. They have a nice selection of Greek pastries, too.
Bread & Butter Gourmet Deli
1880 Alt US 19 S, Tarpon Springs
(727) 934-9003
Now Lake Butler is truly a Florida backroads town, huddled along the shores of a beautiful cypress-lined lake that they keep all to themselves. It’s another railroad town dating back a century and more, and quiet as the day is long. I know of it mainly since the Florida Trail cuts right through the middle of town, and hikers are encouraged to ask for permission to camp in the city park along the lake. I’ve stopped here before and dined at the Butler Seafood House to my satisfaction before, but this visit had a challenge attached – we were warned the food wasn’t as good as the last visit. And I learned my lesson. Don’t order beef in a seafood restaurant! The burgers, sadly, were uninspired. But the country buffet sure looked good. If it weren’t for all the eager teachers swarming across it, we might have ordered it. I’m not giving up on them yet, especially since the cashier was nice enough to give us a discount for waiting so long for the clouds of young teachers to clear the room. I’d suggest, however, sticking with country favorites and fried seafood.
For fresh, local wild-caught crab, Peace River Seafood, a funky little shack along US 17 north of Punta Gorda will have you wishing you could eat here every evening. It’s an unpretentious place, an old Cracker house with a talkative parrot on the porch, dollar bills stapled on the walls, and a nautical theme like you’d expect in a seafood house.
Cowboy’s is the newcomer in the town of Okeechobee, a steak-and-barbecue restaurant that filled in the blank left by the closure of the R.J. Gator’s chain last year. I saw the sign back during my New Year’s visit but the restaurant wasn’t open yet. Passing through Okeechobee this weekend, I discovered my favorite BBQ joint – Skip’s – is no more. A sign on the door directed me to Cowboy’s. It’s a very different experience, and different approach to BBQ, but Cowboy’s takes on the Okeechobee image and holds it forth proudly for the world to see. The decor leans heavily on photos and paintings of local ranches and ranch families. And each table is named for a ranching family and decorated with their brand. Now that’s touting OkeechoBEEF! Mine was a quick lunch, a loaded baked potato topped with shredded barbecued pork, but I’ll linger longer on the next visit.
While I mourn the loss of the Suwannee River Diner in White Springs, I’m pleased to report that the Stormant family is still cooking up the same great country vittles we know and love down at Fat Belly’s, their restaurant on the south side of White Springs near the blinker to Big Shoals.
I’m adventuresome when it comes to food. So when Jennifer Huber suggested we meet up over dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant, I was all for it. After all, I grew to love Greek food hanging out with my sisters in Corfu. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover the Downtown Hookah Lounge. True, Lebanon is on the Mediterranean, too, but it doesn’t pop to mind as a cuisine. The restaurant is largely outdoors, since one of the prime draws (no pun intended) for patrons are the hookah pipes, which my sister calls “hubble bubble.” Flavored tobacco is drawn through water and inhaled for effect: and we’re talking flavors like sour apple and bubble gum. Not my cup of tea, but certainly popular.