Joe's Stone Crabs

While I would love to opine on my week ass performance as it relates to blogging, I must confess I have been too busy. It really isn't a good excuse, but it also jives with the fact that C and I have been nowhere to eat lately other than Chili's. One day I will give a picture of what taking the girls to Chili's is like, but I imagine that anyone with children can understand.

That being said I have only two places to update about, both of which span the past three months, Buckhead Diner and Joe's Stone Crabs in Miami. As long as the silver enclosed doublewide has been in business and the fact that I have lived in Atlanta pretty much 28 years, I found it surprising myself that I have never been to Buckhead Diner. Not that I really eat out that much but it seems like it has been there for years. Either way, C and I went there a couple of months back.

It was alright. We had what I imagine is typical fare there, a wedge salad, bleu cheese fries, and something I can't really remember for entree. That is kind of the point I guess. I can't really remember. Not that it wasn't good, it just wasn't very exciting. All the dishes seemed to sort of suggest, "we have had this ordered 10,000 times and it is good." The fries seemed very greasy and the salad was good but not outstanding. And if I haven't already said it, I can't remember what I had for an entree.

After one tourist attraction, I took part in another last weekend in Miami. While taking part in a bachelor party weekend, one of the planned activities was dinner at Joe's Stone Crabs. While they supposedly don't take reservations, my well connected hosts some how scored an 11 man reservation. Dinner was fantastic. Aside from the fact that dinner with a group the size of 11 (all male keep in mind) is always entertaining, the entire affair was splendid.

We arrived a good 10 minutes late and they held our table. Other people were waiting 2 hours. hehehe. When we arrived at our table, the waiter immediately filled drinks and took appetizer orders. We enjoyed an enormous tower of shellfish from mussels and oysters, to lobster tail and cocktail shrimp. The nice thing I learned was when a table orders oysters, only a couple of people will eat them. I hardly need to tell you the benefits of that situation.

For dinner our gracious host suggested the aforementioned stone crabs along with creamed spinach, hash brown potatoes and fried tomatoes. I have a feeling again that I am eating the tourist meal. But the difference from Buckhead Diner, is that Joe's did it so well. The stone crabs which are basically just one claw of each crab, is absolutely fantastic. They provide a honey mustard kind of dipping sauce, but there really wasn't a need. The rest of the sides were fine (nothing real fancy) but overall an excellent performance. Our waiter was fantastic and provided the kind of service one wished they could receive everywhere.

Anywho, I am done ranting for now. I will try and update more frequently, but please feel free to post as you please.

m