Dockside Dave's Grill 
 St. Pete Beach, Florida        Date of Visit  09/17/10        http://docksidedavesgrill.com/

Knowing we were going to Florida for some long needed baseball I had started looking for restaurants right off the bat. A couple kept appearing everywhere I looked and Dockside Dave’s was continually trumpeted overall but particularly for having the “Best Grouper Sandwich” in the area. Now I have never had a grouper sandwich, I mean, you could write on your menu that you have the “Best Belly Button Lint Soup in the World” but that doesn’t mean I want to eat it. So we had to know, what is the deal with the Grouper Sandwich, I had a great Cuban sandwich the last time we were there but had never encountered this option. The place was right down the street from our hotel, it was amazing how many fabulous little places were on this little stretch of beach. A square little light blue building with fish painted on the side, I am assuming grouper. Now I am getting worried, we might be stretching it a bit from here.

Pink Seafood Chowder...Yikes...But Delicious
 

The inside features all of the crazy colors and images you begin to get used to in South Florida. Our server reminded me a little of Roger Rabbit off her medication. She was just full bore non stop action, and had very little internal censorship, nothing inappropriate, just frenetic whatever came to mind chatter. Really it made for and interesting and sort of endearing meal. There it was on the menu, our famous grouper sammy so we had to try a couple to which we added a fish chowder, seafood gumbo, and some crab legs, we were going all out. In this area of the country the some of the birds are pink, some of the buildings are pink, and no kidding a lot of the soups are pink.?. The seafood chowder seriously looks like pepto bismal with some floaties. Once you get past the color it was really good. The gumbo was dark, dusky and spicy with slices of andouille and chunks of tender fish, that made for two in the plus column.

The sandwiches appeared and without tasting I was already filled with joy. They were just beautiful, simple but stunning both in size and appearance. The picture below I took of my Mom taking her first bite of her sandwich she later decided she wanted used with her obituary, she has morose moments every now and again, but she looks as happy in the picture as I felt. A big bun, stuffed with even bigger fish with a crisp and well seasoned batter encasing the tender and steaming hot and flaky and mild grouper, I might paint those groupers on the side of my house in honor of Dave's.

The sandwiches are served alongside huge bottles of ketchup and a good tartar sauce and they are simply great. Now I get the Grouper sandwich, right out of the water, excellent treatment, and enormous. Loved it! The crab legs were sweet and buttery due to outstanding freshness. They were served with waffle fries which were perfect. A crisp salty exterior hides velvety potato in a basket so big they were passed around the table over and over. With the crab legs we got another shot of service as our nutty server stopped by to give a hands on how to when dismantling snow crab. Under dessert the menu says, “One dessert only…One dessert is all we need!” Barbara’s Homemade Key Lime Pie. Unless you hate key lime pie you would agree they only need a single offering. The oddity of this particular pie is instead of the traditional graham cracker crust they use Oreos. Yuck, right? The first bite starts sweet but the sweetness is quickly doused by the intense tartness of the limes. Custard and the whipped cream tame the first two and it finishes with a light bitterness from the chocolate. Best Key Lime I’ve ever had. Definitely, for me, the best place we ate all weekend! If you are in that neck of the woods, be sure to stop at Dockside Dave’s.
 

Oh My, The Pie!!!