Random Taste for Thursday 5/25/17

And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...

 here's the TWENTIETH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Aruba Beach Cafe
Location:  Lauderdale By The Sea
Meal:  Dinner
Drink:  coke?  water?  beer?  (oops -- I forgot to record)
Appetizer 1:  Lobster Bisque (soup of the day)
Appetizer 2:  Baked Escargot (for the table)
(tomato, garlic and pernod, served with crusty French bread)
Appetizer 3:  Seafood Quesadilla 
(flour tortilla stuffed with fish, shrimp, scallops, jack & cheddar cheese, served with guacamole)
Main:  Grilled Swordfish (special of the day)
Side(s):  House Rice AND a whole loaf of freshly baked Bimini Bread with Honey Aruba Glaze
Dessert:  Key Lime Pie
(Key West lime citrus custard pie with whipped cream. kiwi and raspberry drizzle)
Server:   receipt said Matt B (although I don't think there ever was an introduction)
Website:  http://arubabeachcafe.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/arubabeachcafe/

If you take nothing else away from this post, you should understand the call to action to hie thee hither to this establishment at your earliest convenience to score some of their homemade freshly baked Bimini Bread with Honey Aruba Glaze.  Their social media says they sometimes run out, so hie thee hither early in the day.  You can thank me later.  Also -- a quick disclaimer about this post:  due to a delay with the publication of this blog, this review is being retroactively slotted in May 2017 but posted in June 2018 for a meal that was actually eaten and photographed in July 2017 [hope you can follow that!]).  Also also -- keep on reading to see how this particular local treasure fared on the Troy-score:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (a wall of windows looks right out into the ocean -- which I'm sure is amazing during the day and maybe even special at night ... and a good sized veranda wraps around on the outside and is next to the beach and the main thoroughfare to it -- which I'm sure is good for people watching ... but as explained below, I opted for moving our group to a corner against the wall so that we could focus on the conversation and the people across the table from us, which is how I came to realize that there was a bit of an 80's hotel feel about the decor, which is why there is a point deduction)

FOOD:           8/10 (truth be told, there's a real good chance that I would have been happy making a meal just out of that homemade bread [see bonus below] ... but I was also very pleased having chosen the swordfish special, because I like me a fish that is more steak-y than flaky, as that one was, and the meal felt healthy [as opposed to some of my choices in this series] ... plus the quesadilla was packed full of goodies as you want a quesadilla to be ...  the points lost are because just about everything else felt like it was so so close to being delicious but just a touch off -- the bisque was a touch too sweet, the sides were a touch too forgettable, and even the key lime pie was a touch too tart -- a persistent enough problem that is worth the rare double point deduction for the same issue) 

SERVICE:      8/10 (we put the service to the test immediately ... as in *before* we sat down ... as in I didn't like the first table offered and wanted to pick something in the corner instead so that we weren't immediately on top of other guests as our party had lots of conversation and catching up to do -- and I'm happy to say that they gladly re-seated us quickly ... the points lost are because there wasn't much interaction during the meal and because there was definitely no urgency at the end of the evening when we were pressed to leave since the meter was running out even though we explained that fact to the staff)

BACON:         6/10 (that's one point for every time I saw it on the menu ... and that was in all the usual places [wrapped around a scallop, as a salad topping, defining a burger, as a side meat for brunch] ... but that was all rather expected and nothing all that special, which, for me [and the overall score], was disappointing) 

BONUS:         10/10 (+3 for those special fishy light fixtures [see accompanying photo], +3 for that amazing glazed loaf of bread (I just can't say it enough), +3 for providing live music to amp up the atmosphere and +1 for being a place to which we will return on a night when we can maybe focus on those breathtaking views a little more)

TroyScore:  41 out of 50 -- aka 82, a B

Random Taste for Thursday 2/9/17

And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...

 here's the FIFTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  LaSpada's 
Location:  Lauderdale By The Sea
Meal:  Lunch
Drink:  Coke Zero in a bottle
Appetizer:  n/a
Main:  12 inch Monster with double meatHam, Turkey, Roast Beef and Cheese Combo with all the toppings:  Tomatoes, Lettuce, Onions, Pickles, Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Oil & Vinegar, Oregano, Salt and Pepper
Side(s):  Salt and Vinegar kettle chips
Dessert:  n/a
Server:   there was the meat guy ... and the toppings guy ... and the money taker boy ... and it was such a production that we kind of missed all of their individual names, so maybe we'll just refer to them as if they were each a LaSpada
Website:  http://www.laspadashoagies.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/LaSpadas-Original-Hoagies/111764352193418


Were it not for a lack of bacon on the menu, this local chain of sandwich shops (six of them in the area) would have been the highest taste to date ... AND would have been the top scoring location ever.  As it is, it's going to be the new top DELI on the list ... and it's going to at least crack the highest scoring baker's dozen of all the tastes reviewed so far.  It's not *only* the fact that there was a meat tossing event (meats were sliced fresh and tossed down an assembly line to be caught by the other employer directly in the hoagie-in-progress) NOR is it *only* because they promote a Pennsylvania taste (admittedly, I might be biased).  For all of the reasons, check out the Troy-score tabulation below:

AMBIANCE:   9.5/10 (just a few blocks from the beach ... we were able to walk there *with* two seniors in tow ... this place was in a little strip mall [as everything in Florida seems to be] and was a-bustlin' with activity, which made us feel like we had definitely chosen a popular eatery ... the only problem is that it was sooo busy that the few seats up front at the tables were a little trashed [kind of the previous customers' faults, admittedly] that would normally be a point deducted, but an employee did come out and clean up as soon as the rush ended, so it's only [the rare] half a point that will be lost)

FOOD:           10/10 (with the meats sliced *as you order* to guarantee the "bestest" of tastes and then served up on on a freshly baked Italian roll [from a local authentically Italian bakery, according to their website], but only after first being stuffed full of a perfect combination of all the toppings [as captured in the photographic evidence], these are.  the.  most.  AMAZING.  sandwiches! ... I couldn't stop talking about them the whole time I was eating them, and as someone who usually gets scared of having to make decisions about what items to add or subtract in an assembly line setting like this, I was exceptionally happy to have made the decision to make no decisions and to take it all ... and I can report that, like I do when I report on a quality burger or quality bbq, this was a multi-napkin meal with all the right kind of messiness as we dove in to the quality sandwiches)

SERVICE:      10/10 (it was service with a smile ...from *everyone* on the assembly line .. PLUS a show [the aforementioned meat tossing incident] even though there was a line almost out the door so the pressure had to be on ... and you know what, you wouldn't have known that they were backed up because as you worked your way down the line, the employee on the other side of the counter [see photo] at each stage made you feel like he was yours and yours alone)

BACON:         6/10 (how can there not be a single reference to bacon on the menu?  how can bacon not be a bonus topping on the hoagies?  how can bacon not even be an option for the salads?  how can I not have even noticed that bacon wasn't a part of the experience until writing this post?  ... easy -- it's because the food was just that amazing, so I'm going to break precedent and split the difference and give half the points in this category anyway [what?  it's my rules, so I can bend them for the right reasons ... and I get to pick what the right reasons are] ... plus an extra point for all the ham that IS on the menu ... 'cause, you know, that's a pig product)

BONUS:         10/10 (+3 for the tossing [and the catching] of the meat, +3 for the call back to Pennsylvania eatin', +3 for having me in so much of a good food haze that we completely forgot to stop at the nearby ice cream store for dessert as we had originally intended and +1 for being a place to which we will most definitely return [we shall Subway no more!]

TroyScore:  45.5 out of 50 -- aka 91, an A

Random Taste for Thursday 2/2/17

And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...

 here's the FOURTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Diner By-The-Sea
Location:  Lauderdale By The Sea
Meal:  Brunch
Drink:  Hot Chocolate
Appetizer:  English Muffin
Main:  Famous 2-2-2
2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon or sausage [I chose bacon, of course], 2 golden pancakes or toast [I chose pancakes]
Side(s):  Home Fries
Dessert:  Miniature slice of watermelon
Server:   unknown but completely my fault because I got her name (and made her say it twice because it was unique) yet I didn't add it to my notes
Website:  http://dinerbytheseainc.com/diner/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Diner-by-the-Sea-161662490517465/

It's the first diner of the new year ... and if the distribution is anything like last year, that means that more will be featured soon enough because a full 10% of the tastes from 2016 were in diners.  But first up is this little charmer (more about that below) within walking distance of the beach.  The good news is that they scored in the top half of the six diners featured ... and to see how it all came about on the Troy-score, check below:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (let's put it this way -- if you are an employee at this place, you better get along with your co-workers, because it is tiny ... and by tiny, I mean four or five small booths and a dozen stools or so and that's about it ... that being said, cozy can be cute, and there's something about being so close to the grill that you can watch your food getting prepared to perform your own quality control check ... and when we were there, it quickly became clear that the majority of customers knew most of the guests in a Cheers-y kind of way ... just a point deducted for the stools being slightly too close to each other -- in a budget airlines kind of way)

FOOD:           8/10 (hot and fresh with crispy "pressed" bacon and well flavored [and textured] home fries perked up my breakfast [see a bonus shot of the corned beef hash morning meal that my tablemate ate] ... if there was an area for improvement, it would be the pancakes -- as you can see from the photo, my "2" were really one big one and one baby one [so a point lost] ... I also was disappointed that my hot chocolate wasn't creamed as happens at the other diners at which I've eaten [the second lost point])

SERVICE:      8/10 (here's the truth -- the end was better than the beginning ... because, as previously explained, this place is so tiny that you can't hide anything ... so on *our* visit, we knew that our server was frazzled because the other server who was working the booths wasn't moving fast enough that morning [so a point lost for us knowing all that diner drama in the first place] ... and eventually we were able to get her to smile and be personable enough to learn that she was selling all her things and moving to Canada, but the early going was just too painful for us to watch [which explains the second lost point])

BACON:         8/10 (as happy as I was to see bacon all over the breakfast menu [as it always should be], I was dissuaded from placing my usual order an extra side of of bacon by the price of $4.50 for three slices [a point dedcuted] ... which also means that my expectations were pretty high for the 2 slices that came with my 2-2-2 meal ... and while it was good and crispy, it wasn't as amazing as I had built it up to be, possibly from the "pressing" of it ... [the second point deducted]) 

BONUS:         10/10 (+3 for squeezing us in on the last two open spots in the joint, +3 for there being absolutely NO wasted space in the place at all, +3 for getting to use the full bottle of syrup like a big boy, and +1 for being a place to which we will return -- although likely at lunch in order to try out *that* menu)

TroyScore:  43 out of 50 -- aka 86, a B