New Marriot which replaced the Holiday Inn on Navarre Beach

We had lunch at the Japanese steak house on 98 in Navarre. Great Box lunch specials and Sushi. After dinner visited the now opened Marriot which has a separate restaurant and bar. We will try to visit it for a meal in the next week or so, but they have smartly raised the pool deck and hotel registration to the second floor as each hurricane the old holiday inn was shut down for months because of flooding.

It also looks like the old palms restaurant at the corner across from the tom thumb appears open. We know they have church services on Sunday mornings, but it looked like they had a special sign up and beer signs in the windows. We used to love this place 25 years ago, but with each passing ownership, it goes down hill. We will see. My wife ran into a college roommate at the place after not seeing her for forty years, as her daughter is a vet in Navarre.

The new Navarre Beach Marriott was built by the same woman (under a subsidiary of her corporate umbrella -- American Fidelity Life Insurance) who owns the Springhill Suites by Marriott and Holiday Inn Express on Pensacola Beach, and who also built and owns the beautiful Margaritaville Beach Hotel on Pensacola Beach (which has an outstanding restaurant, btw: Frank & Lola Love Pensacola Cafe - used to be terrible but has really shone for the past few years under Chef Eric Troup -- truly top notch). Anyway, Margaritaville has a parking garage on the lower levels and all other functions raised. It's the only way to go.

I heard that the new hotel has very good steaks. The reviews on the Palm location however are not real good. We may try a burger there. The kids will be down in March and we will probably save the beach places for when they get down here.

I am caught in a moral dilemma. I have been playing for over forty years with my high school buddies at super bowl. I have actually missed the super bowl to be with my friends when I had tickets for the viking/redskin and gave them up. I get my shots on the 24th and scans on the 25th and need to get something done in Pensacola, so if we leave to come back down on the 25th I will have to be back in Illinois on the fourth by noon to make the super bowl party, or I can get my work done for a couple days in Pensacola, and then travel to Cape Coral to visit friends until feb 19 giving me three days to drive back to Illinois pending weather and snow. This last trip down here took more out of me than I first thought, and there is a poker tournament in Miami that week we would go south, and we will try to get a Miami Heat game. I asked my wife am I being selfish to not want to make that extra trip to Illinois to see my high school friends, and she is for not returning because she saw the exhaustion on visiting Birmingham. I will have to think about it because one of the players is very sick. It could be a much more serious dilemma, but it is the small things which seem to bother me now.

A place called scooters on 87 where East River used to be is supposed to have great seafood. Good ratings and apparently a very good fish taco. We will try to check that out.

Let us know about Scooters if you eventually get there. We don't get over that way often, and there's plenty of great seafood right down the street, but one never knows.

As for burgers, the absolute best on PBeach in our opinion is now "Frank's Steakburger" at Frank & Lola's inside Margaritaville. Even though it's forbidden fruit only rarely picked, and even though their filet is also delicious, hubby says he likes their burger even better than any steak. I'm not sure I'd go that far but it is truly scrumptious. Making myself hungry.

One of the best parts about going to Frank & Lola's on very cold or rainy days is that you can stay out of the weather by using the parking garage (left side of the building back near rear) and taking the elevator to the lobby level.

As for the back and forth to Illinois, all I can say is if there were ever a time in your life when you should have completely free rein to do what's best for you and your close family, now is it. To over-exhaust yourself traveling all that way more often than absolutely necessary makes no good sense to me, and if you're at all concerned that your friends can't understand that, they aren't the best of friends anyway. My two cents, FWIW. I can't see any "moral dilemma" here at all. Not that you asked.

Correction to my above post about "ownership" of various hotels on PBeach (and NBeach) - of course American Fidelity doesn't "own" bupkus including their buildings - they are merely leaseholders. My bad for using the "own" word.

My father owned an Italian Restaurant in the fifties until he died in the early sixties, where they cut their own steaks, and the scraps were put in the grinder with ground beef. They were the best burgers ever as they melted in your mouth. You get your best burgers where there are good steaks. Many Chefs still like to cut their own steaks and clean them up and put the trimmings into the grinder. I used to love watching the Chef cut his steaks, and have told this story about this guy who came in every saturday night and had this huge steak......like three times the size of a regular steak. He would eat most of it and then ask for a doggie bag. Every week the exact same meal, big tipper, and people all over the restaurant would come over to look at his steak each saturday as he was known throughout town for his routine.

My brother and I both got to be quite tall and muscular going to the cooler and picking out steaks and grilling them ourselves. The protein we ate while going through the young teenage years was like fertilizer on a plant......meat and more meat and we kept growing and getting stronger. You are beginning to see some pretty big asians as their traditional diets of fish and rice are enhanced by western meat. Now I have gotten myself in a real burger mood. I had a culver burger Friday, but we have those in Illinois all the time and really have gotten tired of them. The whopper special of two for six bucks is a nice change as my wife has always liked a whopper. We have to try some breakfast places, but as tired as I have been, they are serving lunch by the time I get up.

2seaoat wrote:You are beginning to see some pretty big asians as their traditional diets of fish and rice are enhanced by western meat.

Don't know about big, but doubtless more prone to heart disease.

Just enjoyed a great pizza at New York Deli. Like the atmosphere and the pizza was very good. We think we will return in Feb. because my wife would like to try some of the sandwiches. They all looked so good while we were eating the pizza. Thanks for an excellent recommendation. It has been forty five years of chit pizzas until this place was pointed out. We drove by the papa johns in Gulf Breeze and it had one car, and two delivery cars. That is NOT pizza. You are a hundred times better off going to a grocery store and getting a frozen pizza.

SO glad you made it back to the New Yorker, and you're very welcome for the recommendation. Was going to ask but didn't think you'd be straying that far from Navarre. Hope you indeed can return in Feb., as the sandwiches are really great. You'll recall my recommending their Reuben (either turkey or corned beef) as the absolute best hubby and I have ever had. Stacked, moist, flavorful and delicious. They should pay me a commission. Ha. A turkey Reuben and a cup or small bowl of homemade soup makes a terrific meal on a winter's evening.

Sadly for us, our favorite New Yorker server, Christian (the nice looking young man who served you on your first visit) has moved to Boulder, CO. We miss him, but all the other wait staff are reasonably attentive as well.

I did not see him the last two times we visited. Our server was very good, and the pizza was very good. The Ruben is what got my wife all excited as she spends most of her time checking out what other people are eating.

With the hormones off the chart, my lack of appetite, plus instantaneous carcinoid attacks make it really important to choose foods which are appealing because I am starting to loose weight. We are staying away from fast food as much as possible, and the steak and sushi place in Navarre is excellent for arousing an appetite.

We have been avoiding the waffle house because of some horrible meals on the Avalon Blvd waffle house on Garcon Point. We loved it for forty years and then you get three bad meals in a row. We enjoy Panera Bread and go to the one in Pace, and hope with some of the new buildings around the new Publix at tiger point, they will have a Panera. I love their soups and bread. There sandwiches are usually of high quality.

We also like the Ribeye steaks at Texas Roadhouse in Milton. We usually take neighbors out to eat who watch our project and cut the lawn with our lawnmower, and they love those Ribeyes also.

We also like the KY fried chicken buffet for lunch as we go months without eating there, but we like the tiger point and Navarre locations as they are convenient with our travels.

Thanks for the reminder about the KFC Buffet in Tiger Point. Haven't been there in a couple of years but may have to stop again soon. Do they have a good crowd at lunch? Because the few times we were there in the evening they were pretty empty other than the drive-thru business. Nothing more off-putting than an empty restaurant, if you know what I mean.

Glad you're finding good things to whet your appetite. Can't have you getting too skinny.

We enjoy Shane's Rib Shack at Tiger Point. We split a two meat plate. Chicken and chicken with 2 sides. Equals a whole chicken with leftover chicken. I love the Mustard BBQ sauce.

We have decided to give up doing work outside today as we did not get a lick of sleep as it appears a feral cat or racoon spent the entire night trying to get down our chimney. At first we thought is was expansion sounds on the sheet metal, but nope.....all night trying to bang the sheet metal to get into a warm space.....do not blame them, but I do have the strength to put the ladder up and check the chimney cap for compromise. The wife walked the dog and said the Prius is covered with a sheet of ice........this is Illinois weather. I should have headed for Marco Island and waited for Pensacola until later in the spring.

Maybe time to take in a movie, but my biggest fear is sitting in a cold theater and freezing my asz off. We have BBQ out and will check out the rib place in March. The new Publix and out lot stores looks interesting at Tiger Point. We are seeing a great many new homes being built in Navarre. Have not seen this kind of activity for a decade. Hopefully, prices are returning to levels before the crash.

We like Shane's, too - especially the baby back ribs meal. We also love (but only rarely order it because it's totally, shamefully bad), the huge (and I do mean huge) baked potato (forget what they call it - Shack Potato or something) topped with choice of pork or chicken, butter and cheese. EVIL!!! They make it a meal with a drink and a side. It could easily feed two, but we're big eaters.

Just wish they hadn't discontinued the greens side - that was the best one on the menu.

While we're talking BBQ, our vote for absolutely best, to-die-for place is Brothers BBQ. Unfortunately for Sea it's way on the west side -- out Gulf Beach Highway a ways past Fairfield Drive on the left. Cute place, nice people, wonderful, smoked-on-the premises meats including - yum - brisket.

Icy decks here this morning, no newspaper, no way off the island until just recently when they re-opened the Navarre Beach Bridge. Don't know if the Bob Sikes bridge (PBeach) is open yet or not. We don't care -- no place we have to be. I was inspired to make a batch of lentil soup and am off to stir it on the stove. BBL.

I am getting cabin fever. My wife is kind of putting her foot down that we cannot go do work today. However, if I wanted to stay inside, I could have stayed in Illinois. This really sucks. Should have done Arizona first.

Sorry, Sea. The longer range forecasts did show this coming. But if you can just hold on 'til Friday, things will be moderating very nicely temp-and-wind-wise, including into the 60's for the weekend.

RealLindaL wrote:We like Shane's, too - especially the baby back ribs meal.   We also love (but only rarely order it because it's totally, shamefully bad), the huge (and I do mean huge) baked potato (forget what they call it - Shack Potato or something) topped with choice of pork or chicken, butter and cheese.  EVIL!!! They make it a meal with a drink and a side.  It could easily feed two, but we're big eaters.

Just wish they hadn't discontinued the greens side - that was the best one on the menu.

While we're talking BBQ, our vote for absolutely best, to-die-for place is Brothers BBQ.  Unfortunately for Sea it's way on the west side -- out Gulf Beach Highway a ways past Fairfield Drive on the left.  Cute place, nice people, wonderful, smoked-on-the premises meats including - yum - brisket.

Icy decks here this morning, no newspaper, no way off the island until just recently when they re-opened the Navarre Beach Bridge.  Don't know if the Bob Sikes bridge (PBeach) is open yet or not.  We don't care -- no place we have to be.   I was inspired to make a batch of lentil soup and am off to stir it on the stove.    BBL.

I mention the greens every time I see the owner....still miss them. The collards were canned Allens brand. They doctored them up. Delicious.

What is with that gas station across the street from the tiger point KY chicken. All over the area new retail and residential is being built, but what looks like a great location sits empty. It has been years where it appears complete, but no opening of the gas station or restaurant space.

Bankruptcy. Intended to be a service station and fried chicken fast food service.

Joanimaroni wrote:

RealLindaL wrote:We like Shane's, too - especially the baby back ribs meal.   We also love (but only rarely order it because it's totally, shamefully bad), the huge (and I do mean huge) baked potato (forget what they call it - Shack Potato or something) topped with choice of pork or chicken, butter and cheese.  EVIL!!! They make it a meal with a drink and a side.  It could easily feed two, but we're big eaters.

Just wish they hadn't discontinued the greens side - that was the best one on the menu.

While we're talking BBQ, our vote for absolutely best, to-die-for place is Brothers BBQ.  Unfortunately for Sea it's way on the west side -- out Gulf Beach Highway a ways past Fairfield Drive on the left.  Cute place, nice people, wonderful, smoked-on-the premises meats including - yum - brisket.

Icy decks here this morning, no newspaper, no way off the island until just recently when they re-opened the Navarre Beach Bridge.  Don't know if the Bob Sikes bridge (PBeach) is open yet or not.  We don't care -- no place we have to be.   I was inspired to make a batch of lentil soup and am off to stir it on the stove.    BBL.

I mention the greens every time I see the owner....still miss them. The collards were canned Allens brand. They doctored them up. Delicious.

If you like collards you would love, love, love the homemade collards at Brothers BBQ.   Best ever, anywhere.

I will have to give them a try.

I love Arlene's Ribs. Her husband makes the ribs and sauce and they are delicious. She has good collards. Not sure what I love more....Arlene or the food.

She moved west of Fairfield on Cervantes / Mobile Hwy. We are rarely over that way.