The Boathouse Oyster Bar
The Boathouse calls itself “Destin’s Best Kept Secret.” I hate to tell them, but the secret is out. This tiny establishment, truly boathouse-sized, is packed to its dollar-bill covered rafters most nights of the week with crowds flocking there for live music, pitchers of beer, frozen drinks, award-winning crab and shrimp gumbo, and Apalachicola oysters shucked to order.
The Boathouse calls itself “Destin’s Best Kept Secret.” I hate to tell them, but the secret is out. This tiny establishment, truly boathouse-sized, is packed to its dollar-bill covered rafters most nights of the week with crowds flocking there for live music, pitchers of beer, frozen drinks, award-winning crab and shrimp gumbo, and Apalachicola oysters shucked to order.
The menu also offers crab claws, all manner of shrimp, crab cakes, fried oysters, and grilled mahi-mahi or yellow fin tuna steaks served with corn on the cob, coleslaw and hushpuppies.
It’s quieter in the afternoon, when you might eavesdrop on conversations such as this:
“Is it beer-thirty?”
“No, it’s Long Island ice tea-thirty.”
Bottoms up.
(288-B Harbor Blvd. Destin, 850-837-364)
“Is it beer-thirty?”
“No, it’s Long Island ice tea-thirty.”
Bottoms up.
(288-B Harbor Blvd. Destin, 850-837-364)
High Tide Restaurant and Oyster Bar
Thirty years is a long time in the restaurant biz, so you know they’re doing something right at High Tide Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Fort Walton Beach. A roadside lounge with an old-fashioned ambience, High Tide is renowned for its shucked-to-order oysters that arrive in boxes every other day.
Thirty years is a long time in the restaurant biz, so you know they’re doing something right at High Tide Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Fort Walton Beach. A roadside lounge with an old-fashioned ambience, High Tide is renowned for its shucked-to-order oysters that arrive in boxes every other day.
“In the summer, we go through 175 to 200 boxes a day,” said manager-bartender-shucker Graham Skrivanie. “People are offended if we run out, as if we didn’t serve anything else!”
But they do. In addition to oysters, there’s gumbo, chowder, fried or char-grilled fish, soft shell crabs, farm-raised catfish, scallops, and all manner of shrimp. The grilled grouper sandwich is so good that it reportedly has a fan club.
(1203 Miracle Strip Parkway, Fort Walton Beach, 850-244-2624)
(1203 Miracle Strip Parkway, Fort Walton Beach, 850-244-2624)
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