Spent the whole day on the beach and then went to Indian Pass Raw Bar for a very late afternoon lunch. We hadn’t been there since before we had kids, so we kind of wondered how it would be with kids. No need to worry – The kids did awesome. We still didn’t get them to try oysters, so they had Grapico and Fanta Orange with a hot dog, while todd and I annihilated bay oysters. I am not kidding either. We had two dozen raw oysters for an app. Added some gumbo (honestly? Not that great.) Ate a dozen baked oysters. Then had another dozen raw and an dozen steamed for dessert. Best meal I’ve had in memory. (And I ate at Rathbun Steak this summer.)
It also has a wall of coolers, a la convenience store, where you grab your drink of choice (beer or soda). You then take your beer over and pop it open yourself on a bottle opener on column near the bar. They bring you oysters on lunch trays, with plastic forks, and paper towel rolls on each table. None of those silly two or four saltines to a package deals here. Each table gets a whole sleeve of saltines, with more if you need’em. Todd and I had a hot sauce tasting test. We both prefer Crystal for long-term eating, but the local Port St. Joe’s Ed’s Red is a fave for its heat; it goes well with oysters. I should also note that this is the kind of place where you ask the fisherman sitting at the table next to you what they are having, and they say, “Here,” and stick a fork in their food and hold it out for you. (It was crab-stuffed shrimp, and it was out of this world.) I laughed out loud when I heard the same fisherman remark to his fisherman friend that “this beer is making me sleepy. We need to start drinking liquor, clean out the boat, and get back out there!” Love that.
The kids loved the wall map with push pins marking customers’ hometowns. I enjoyed reading the notes from world travelers – I wondered what the germans and scots really thought of the place.
Me? I think it’s the bee’s knees. This place can’t be beat. Except for their Gator problem. It is heavily Gatorated, with a blue and orange checkerboard linoleum floor, and many Madonna con Tebows on the wall. I noticed a number of Georgia fans there. As I was leaving, I remarked to the one wearing an “Athens: College town with a football problem” that after the TN game, we did indeed have a football problem, and that I was going to tell Coach Richt that i saw them eating at a Gator establishment. A well-dressed, and kinda snooty-looking woman with them said, “I have a thing or two that I’d like to tell Coach Richt myself.” Well-said, Ma’am.
All in all, the best day I’ve had in ages. AGES.
Tags: Cape San Blas, Coach Richt, Football, Indian Pass Raw Bar, Oysters, UGA
So glad you all are having fun!!! Sounds lovely!
Thanks, Nessa!
I’m so jealous. I LOOOOVE me some Indian Pass Raw Bar.
If you guys get to Apalachacola, try Boss Oyster. Nom nom. 🙂
Kara, we have had Boss Oyster, too! Pretty darn good. We have spent quite a few years going down to that area. (Cape San Blas, Indian pass and over to Appalach.) BK (before kids), we used to go down with friends every year for New Year’s. And one of my friends got married in App and the reception was at Gibson Inn. One of my favorite weddings ever. A kid also tried to capture ghost orbs in our haunted room (a high point of the trip for us.)
ah, good times. Love that area.
Don’t forget the head-on collision we had immediately following the wedding in Appalach…perhaps it was caused by the Captain’s ghost, doling out vengeance for our mockery.
Perhaps. Might also have been 70-year-old drunk guy driving truck before noon on a monday.
Ah, good times. Nothing like an ambulance ride with your husband only two weeks after getting married. . . .
I am glad we didn’t die that day.