In my little corner of the world is a beautiful turn of the 20th century house that was built by the son of the town’s founder. The town is Williston, Florida and the builder of the house was Dr. Willis.

Since 1993 though, the old Willis house has been renovated into a gorgeous restaurant. The Ivy House makes you feel as if you’ve stepped back into the early nineteen hundreds with the hard wood floors and bead board ceilings. Each room has a different theme but they are all pretty and have a homey feel about them.

I’ve eaten at the Ivy House in years past and to be quite honest, wasn’t all that impressed. But because I’ve started writing critiques of restaurants and because the Ivy House was named by Florida Trend Magazine as one of the top 400 places to eat in the state of Florida, I decided to give it another chance. I’m glad I did.

We visited on a recent Friday, right around six o’clock and found that we had definitely beaten the rush. We were seated immediately and by a very friendly hostess, with our waitress Gabrielle arriving quickly behind. Drinks were brought promptly and our questions were answered and orders taken in record time.

I ordered the Cat Fish special for $14.99 served with a garden salad. The sides I chose were a warm potato salad and mixed vegetables. Most meals come with corn bread and a yeast roll.

Lori, my wife and dining partner, ordered the Shrimp Scampi special for $15.99 but chose not to have it over rice, as it was offered. It also came with a house salad, corn bread and yeast roll. She opted for the French fries and mixed vegetables for her sides.

The garden salads had a great mix of fresh vegetables and their Ranch dressing was very good. The corn bread was the kind that’s moist with plenty of kernels mixed in and the yeast rolls were wonderful. Mixed vegetables included carrots and green beans that tasted much better than they looked.

The cat fish was excellent, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. No overpowering pepper batter; you could taste the fish, which is exactly how I like it. The warm potato salad scared me at first, I am not overly fond of that dish served warm. I was pleasantly surprised though, it had a mild cheese flavor and was quite good.

Lori’s Shrimp Scampi had a good taste but she enjoys a little more garlic and a little stronger flavor. The shrimp was cooked perfectly though and she enjoyed it.

Overall, we were pleased with our meal. This is one place that you should plan on applying your own salt and pepper, and although some might think the food a little bland, it is actually prepared so that the customer may season their meal to their preference. I am a great fan of food that doesn’t have its natural flavors hidden by the seasoning of a heavy handed chef.

Service was superb, our food arrived nine minutes after it was ordered. Our waitress, Gabrielle was very attentive and checked back often.

Prices were not bargain basement but they were still somewhat affordable, especially if you chose The Ivy House as a place for a special night out. With tip we spent $40.00 for the two of us, both ordering specials.

An excellent new restaurant just opened in Bronson, Florida. That’s the little town next to ours (Williston), and we needed some new restaurant choices around here. Gainesville and Ocala have some great places but over here in Levy County we have a limited number of good restaurants, not that we don’t have any, but eventually you need something different.

You’d think that here in the rural south, Bar-B-Que would be pretty over done, (Bad pun, I know) and we do have a couple of pretty good Bar-B-Ques but our pickin’s just got a whole lot better!

I know this is starting to sound like an advertisement but it’s just that I was so pleasantly surprised by BubbaQue’s, I’m just braggin’ on ‘em.

I ordered the BBQ Chicken Half for $7.99 with “Mac N Cheese” and Baked Beans.

Lori, my wife and dining partner, ordered the “Pull’d Pork” for $6.99 with French Fries and Baked Beans.

The Chicken Half had tasty skin and was nice and juicy. Definitely moist and tender without being tough. This was much better than Sonny’s which tends to be dryer and tougher.

Their Mac-N-Cheese is also excellent and the closest we’ve had to homemade in a long time. Creamy and cheesy but not the fake restaurant style of cheesy.

The baked beans, again, some of the best we’ve had in a restaurant in a while. Plenty of meat mixed in to make it a very hearty side. A hint of onion that adds to the overall taste without over powering it. I’ve had a lot of baked beans at Bar-B-Que places that taste like they took baked beans and just mixed in their Bar-B-Que sauce but these had a flavor all their own .

Lori’s Pull’d Pork, which she let me sample was very good. It isn’t my favorite meal but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Moist and really quite flavorful even without dipping it into any of their numerous sauces. Lori did dip it just to give it even more pizazz.

They have a full Bar-B-Que menu with very reasonable prices. (Click here for a sample of their menu choices) Excellent portions left both Lori and I pleasantly full with Lori bringing home part of her “Pull’d Pork”.

The service could not have been better, we were there on their second day of operation and it seemed that everyone knew what they were doing. The wait staff was exceptionally attentive and helpful. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve had waitresses from other tables asking if they could refill my drink or bring me more sauce. Not only have they found excellent employees but somebody obviously knows how to train their people.

The atmosphere is somewhere between Cracker Barrel and Sonny’s but with a whole lot more attitude and personality. Chairs, stools and coolers to sit on, an assortment of antiques and rustic charm hanging on the walls, even a stuffed deer with bucked teeth.

Sometimes theme restaurants try too hard and it all comes off as tacky and dumb but BubbaQue’s can’t be too tacky and it comes off more redneck charming than dumb. It seems like everywhere you look makes you smile or chuckle.

Although beer is available, it was very low key and family friendly when we were there. BubbaQue’s seems like it would be a fun place for the whole family.

Lori and I took a mini vacation May 14-17 to attend the annual Police Memorial Day Services at the Police Hall of Fame in Titusville, FL. One of the things we have started trying to do when we are away from our normal stomping grounds is to try the food at restaurants in the surrounding area of our destination. This trip was no different and you’ll be reading some of my critiques of those restaurants in the days to come to go along with what I thought of restaurants from other trips.

I thought though that I would start with the restaurant that I enjoyed the most and then kind of work my way down. Choosing my favorite was quite easy because I am a huge fan of both Irish and English Pub Food. Cocoa Beach, just south of Titusville, has one of the best English Pubs I’ve been to in awhile both for it’s food and it’s pub atmosphere, I enjoyed the whole visit immensely.

The menu at The Pig and Whistle explains:

“The name Pig and Whistle has had a place in British History ever since daily rum rations were issued to all men aboard Royal Navy ships in 1655.

As the story goes, it was the job of the junior midshipman to go below to draw the rum for the ship’s company from the barrels-called “pigs”.

One day the junior officer arrived on deck drunk with rum for the duty officer of the day. The next day the officer ordered the midshipman to keep whistling until he returned on deck with the rum, this way he wouldn’t be able to drink while carrying on his task. Therefore, the name ‘Pig and Whistle’.”

It seems that I tend to always order the Shepherd’s Pie because, well, it’s Shepherd’s Pie and one of my favorites, so I decided to try something else. Lori took this as her cue to order Shepherd’s Pie, I know but somehow it makes a certain amount of sense and besides it allowed me to try The Pig and Whistle’s version.

It was excellent! It was rich enough with out over doing it and Lori ordered it with vegetables which is always the best way. All of the flavors mixed together perfectly and there were just the right amount of mashed potatoes over the top to add to the dish and not over power it. This dish gets raves from both Lori and I and it was reasonably priced at $7.95.

I ordered The Sausage and Chips and was pleased to find that it contained proper sausage and not the cheap kielbasa type sausages that so many places try to pass of as English Pork Sausages. These were excellent! The skin was a little tough but that’s what happens when you grill good sausage and the taste more than made up for any problem I might have had with the skin. The sausage had a wonderful balance of flavor, spicey for taste’s sake and not for hot’s sake. The sausage is served with a small dish of hot mustard which is indeed hot but at the urging of one of the wait staff I mixed in some Pub Sauce that he brought me and the combination of the two was perfect for dipping sausages in. Another winner reasonably priced at $7.95.

Our waitress, Shelley suggested the Bourbon Street Pecan Pie with Ice Cream when she found out that I couldn’t eat chocolate. Lori and I shared it and we were fighting over the last bites. As a rule, I don’t like Pecan Pie much. It’s just too sweet for my palette, but The Pig and Whistle’s version of it is just sweet enough and goes great with ice cream. The crust is a nice thick Graham Cracker that holds it all together. It was a great way to follow up all the rest of the superb food, service and proper draft Guinness.

Talking with our waitress, we found out that the reason that we had such a time finding the place was because we were going by the information that we found on their website, unfortunately it is a very old site and they have no idea how to change the original page as someone else set up the site. So, the correct address is:

240 North Orlando Avenue, Cocoa Beach

phone: 321-799-0724

Give them a try if you’re in the neighborhood and tell them that Traveler’s Tales sent you!

I picked Lori up from work Wednesday night and one of the first things out of her mouth was, “Where are you taking me to dinner?” She does this sort of thing every once in awhile when she’s bored with home cooked meals. I’m almost always open to suggestion, when it comes to food, so I told her it was up to her. She suggested Texas Roadhouse, and I quickly agreed.

We hadn’t been there in awhile so I was looking forward to the yeast rolls, which are excellent. I haven’t had yeast rolls that good since Quincy’s Steak House closed in Gainesville.

We usually both go for their great steaks but I wanted something a little different. I asked our waiter why the “Country Fried Chicken” was called “Country Fried”, he said he wasn’t sure but it was fried chicken, so I ordered that along with a double order of steamed vegetables. I figured I was already doing enough damage without going after the fries or something else with hundreds of calories. Lori ordered the steak and a baked sweet potato with steamed vegetables.

I was already for some fried chicken, which I have cut way back on since we’ve been trying to lose weight. (Seems fried chicken and weight loss just don’t go together.) I could already taste the greasy goodness as the server brought our food but alas, it was not meant to be, a cruel joke had been played on this hungry Traveler.

It seems that “Country Fried Chicken” consists of flattened chicken breasts that have been deep fried with white gravy over them, not at all what I had in mind. No skin, no grease, this just wasn’t right. But I’m a reasonable guy and I’m usually willing to try new things, even if they aren’t what me or the waiter thought I was ordering. So I dug in and decided to make the best of it.

Truth is, it wasn’t bad once I got over my disappointment. The chicken was fried after all even if it was skinless. It wasn’t over fried and dry, the outside was just crispy and the inside actually had a little juice running around, not grease mind you but juice none the less. The gravy was pretty good as well but there wasn’t quite enough for my taste, I’ve always believed that if your going to put gravy on something, MAKE A STATEMENT!

The steamed vegetables were cooked perfectly but they were the same steamed vegetables that you seem to get at most restaurants these days; broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. BORING but good. (I like vegetables)

So all in all, it was enjoyable and tasty in places, I mean there were the yeast rolls. Next time we go there though, I think I’ll order the “Oven Roasted Chicken”, it’s still not fried chicken but I think I’ll enjoy it more. I did give the waiter a short lesson in what I had learned about “Country Fried Chicken“, just so he wouldn’t be giving out false information to any other unsuspecting patrons.

Lori and I were on our weekly shopping trip to Ocala and decided to eat at the local Outback Steakhouse. It’s their twentieth anniversary and they’ve added some things to their menu. According to our waiter, Rob, they’re trying to step up their menu a little.

I got the Slow-roasted Sirloin Medley and it was excellent!

Slow-Roasted Sirloin Medley - NEW!
Perfectly roasted slices of sirloin drizzled with fresh herbs, garlic, olive oil and lemon
surrounded by grape tomatoes and asparagus, served atop sautéed spinach and a
jumbo, homemade Outback crouton …………………………………………………………….$13.99

The sirloin itself was roasted to perfection, just rare enough. The grape tomatoes were cooked perfectly as well, still holding their shape but juicy and flavorful when bitten into. The sautéed spinach was very tasty and not the least bit slimy or tough. The sauce was most excellent, just the right taste to compliment but not over power the other ingredients. I wasn’t quite sure what they were trying for with the giant crouton but then I tried it and I understood. It soaks up all the different juices from the other ingredients and is a welcome end to the dish, reminding you of each of the tastes.

My only complaint concerning my order was that there wasn’t more asparagus and the few pieces there were, were fairly tough.

Lori ordered, as a side, their new Vanilla Bean Mashed Sweet Potato. She was raving about it so I had to try it and I must say I understand why. It leans more toward dessert than an actual meal side but I could eat it during any portion of the meal. It’s preparation reminded me almost of their Hot Apple Pecan Cobbler. Topped with rolled oats and other crusty delights with just a hint of vanilla. I almost ordered some to bring home.

We had an enjoyable time other than a couple ordering snafus with Lori’s order. Rob, our waiter handled it like a pro and had us laughing and joking in no time.

We asked him about something we’ve been noticing at a lot of the restaurants we’ve been in lately. According to Rob, they are going to a more “team” approach to service. They have servers who bring the food to the table as soon as it’s prepared instead of waiting for the actual waiter or waitress.

Excellent idea in theory, but there is a little bit of a down side. When the same person who took your order brings your order, they tend to notice whether the meal is prepared as ordered. When a separate server brings your food, that doesn’t usually happen. That means that quite a few of the mistakes that would normally get headed off in the kitchen are actually delivered to the table. It’s much easier and faster to fix the mistakes when they’re caught in the kitchen and the patron is rarely the wiser.

So, even though the new “team” approach gets you your food faster, I think I would rather wait for the waiter and have a better chance of receiving my meal as I ordered it.

Overall, we rated our meal quite high, we both enjoyed the new additions to the menu. The Outback is also quite good at consistency which means that the dish you ordered and enjoyed last week will be prepared the same this week.

If you are a regular at Outback, haven’t been for awhile or have never been, we highly recommend you give them a try if only for their new additions. One word of advice, if you aren’t fond of pepper you might ask them to go easy or skip the spice all together. They like to pepper their steaks quite liberally and there really is no need because their steaks are always tasty on their own.