[My ongoing series for 2016 continues ... with the FORTY-EIGHTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA (coming to you on sequential Thursdays. All. Year. Long.)!]
Establishment: Shuck and Dive
Location: Ft. Lauderdale
Meal: Dinner
Drink: Sweet Tea (Carolina style)
Appetizer: Dollar Oysters!
2 each of ...
Black n' Blues: topped with our compound butter, a Iil' blackening spice, crumbled blue cheese & finished under the broiler
Rockefeller: a French Quarter classic, creamed spinach, onion, garlic, simmered with Penrod Liqueur
Bienville: invented at Antoine in New Orleans - shrimp, bacon, onions, & green peppers in a cream reduction & topped with parmesan cheese
Appetizer 2: Pork Boudin
from Breaux Bridge, LA
Main: Fried Gulf Shrimp New Orelans Po'Boy Sandwich
butterflied & flash fried
Side(s): Tater Tots
Dessert: n/a
Server: Tara
Website: https://shuck-n-dive.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shuckndive1/
When we lived in Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale was the go-to vacation spot. Now that we live in the FTL, we're pretty sure New Orleans is the *new* go-to vacation spot. That being said, we're still figuring out the best time of year to visit -- having gone last year in early December, we started having a craving for it ... and so 'Shuck and Dive', with its commitment to providing authentic Cajun and Southern cuisine, was the answer. Plus we saw Cap'n Lee (and took his picture surreptitiously, although he seems to have noticed by the look on his face)! As for how this New Orleans spot scored on the Troy-score, see below:
AMBIANCE: 9/10 (cozy is the polite way to say that it was a bit smaller than we expected [we can't imagine what it's like during a Saints or LSU game], but luckily they have a bigger outdoor seating area that seems like it doubles the capacity ... and the New Orleans vibe extends to the tree outside with lower branches covered in beads [see the photo below] ... inside the music for most of the meal was Bourbon Street-esque, and then it suddenly switched over to current country, for which a point is lost for the sudden mood change)
FOOD: 9/10 (with the oyster special of the night at a buck apiece, we were worried that the quality might be lower, but we were pleased at the variety and at the tastiness all around for each of the preparations -- admittedly, one or two might have been a touch salty, but that's to be expected with fresh oysters ... as for the other appetizer, it might have been our general ignorance of the particular regional item, but we were not prepared for the liverwursty texture of the boudin -- which turned out to be more of a spread for crackers and not so much a fancy sausage [so a point lost] ... there were no complaints about the po'boy though, which was stuffed full of fried shrimp on a toasted roll ... and the tots were crunchy, crispy and well done [as they should be])
SERVICE: 8/10 (direct, to the point, efficient, straightforward -- all applied to the level of service, but a point lost because it took us asking about the bathrooms [clarifying that although there were breasts on display in the men's room a la New Orleans and beads, there weren't penises on display in the ladies' room] to get her to break out of her worker shell, and a second point lost because we're pretty sure the server misidentified which oysters were which)
BACON: 6/10 (sure the bacon was nice as one of the many ingredients on the oyster prepared Bienville style, but I would have liked to see it offered in a few more spots on the rest of the menu ... could you imagine if the stuffed po'boy was "over"stuffed by adding bacon?)
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for scratching that itch of wanting some New Orleans style food, +3 for doing so with authentic tastes, +3 for a Bravolebrity sighting and +1 for being a place to which we will return -- maybe again on dollar oyster night -- when maybe that's all we'll eat for the whole meal!)
TroyScore: 42 out of 50 -- aka 84, a solid B
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