When I"m not studying stuff I like to explore and as my explorer wife is currently teaching in Marathon we decided to visit Key Colony Beach for lunch on Monday. I'd been before, she hadn't, because I have also explored the tiny enclave of Key Colony Beach before: Key West Diary: The Mouse That Squeaked. So we met on the causeway at Sparky's Landing.
This is not the place to order meatballs me thinks but I was tempted by the cobia wrap. It was a lovely day and perfect for eating on the water so I was quite pleased with myself for picking this spot.
It's dark and woody inside but the deck was perfect for a sunny eighty degree day. We ordered fish on salad, my wife's blackened and mine grilled, in proper low carb form.
The view was lovely...
...the food came promptly and was fresh and delicious...
...and we weren't the only ones looking for good grub.
The meal came to about twenty five bucks tax and tip included.
I think our neighbors were speaking Portuguese which confirmed this is the eclectic tourist season in the Keys.
We really enjoyed our little break on the water. Being in class can have its pleasant breaks.
My wife scooted back to her adult education classroom in her Fiat, which she continues to enjoy greatly with 4,000 miles on the clock.
I rode back to fill my head with knowledge, wondering if a biplane ride ought to be in my future.
My Key West Police colleagues had lunch at Taco Bell, a fast food joint that pulled out of Key West a few years ago to much lamentation. I think I got the better end of the deal, but they are young and sometimes feel deprived by the lack of mainland amenities.
Key Colony Beach is a little over an hour from Key West. Plan your road trip accordingly.
Posted with Blogsy
Trip Adviser people tend to be monotonously repetitive in their recommendations, the whole service isn't, in the end, designed to push the adventurous choices and I wondered if this place would come up to billing. Often visitors to the Keys seem to like the atmosphere more than the food and frankly I'd rather eat good food in a crappy ambiance than vice versa. I tried ordering stuff I might not normally eat, being as how I wanted to take risks and the conch chowder was quite excellent.
It wasn't salty but it was creamy and filled with pieces of potato and conch. I am not a great fan of mollusks but in a chowder conch done right is better than clam in my opinion, and this was done right, firm but not chewy the conch gave great texture to the soup. The iced tea was also well worth drinking. It was tannic enough without forcing the point and my server did a good job of keeping the glass filled. She also recommended the pasta salad made with oil not mayo to accompany the fish fingers.
It was really a simple meal done well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The pasta was firm, the dressing wasn't greasy and the fish fingers made a decent portion without being overwhelming. The fish was flaky and the fried crust was not the bland stuff I've had elsewhere. It was crunchy and all of it made a great lunch out of simple ingredients. I wondered how good dessert would be but I didn't want to make a pig of myself.
I took a table at an angle to the ever irritating TVs but there were lots of seating choices- too cold to sit outside and I didn't want to sit at the bar. There also appeared to be a separate dining room near the front of the building done up in bright colors. I liked the main room, all dark wood and funky decorations. The bar tender/host greeted me cheerfully and Blondie did a bang up job of serving me my lunch.
Cheyenne had just completed her first long walk of the day with more to come as we explored the Middle Keys. The air temperature was 63 so she was enjoying the sun in the back of the car in the strong north winds.
Oh yes, fishing too. But not from the municipal pier where casting a line will net you a twenty five dollar fine. This is the only pier in Florida where fishing is expressly forbidden, so take a good look:
No swimming allowed either, else the under toad will apparently eat you:
And if you somehow got the mistaken idea that swimming off that magnificent sand beach under the palm trees would be refreshing, think again:
And remember those six officers have but 1400 homes to patrol so they will be on you like flies on the proverbial if you dip a big toe in the azure waters of the Straits of Florida. Look don't touch. Which reminds me a bit of that old TV show The Prisoner. 
There is a park after a fashion, but if I want to boil my brains out on the sunlit benches where do I leave the Bonneville? In the next jurisdiction? It's very passive aggressive. Home ownership in KCB does have its advantages, in that the city, unlike Monroe County, does allow short term rentals. Indeed short term is the theme for the Keys' own mouse that roars. The waterfront is obscured for the length of it's KCB mile by condos. Old fashioned 1950's concrete block structures:
And newer designs with faux shutters and weird Mittel European porch lights blazing in the middle of the day to no visible effect:
Not forgetting the neon glories beloved of our parents, back "in the day" as they say most annoyingly:
I did discover an "extra" street within city limits, which was probably more fun than I should have allowed myself. Back at the end of the causeway I was returned brutally to the lives that the rest of us in the world outside the cozy confines of KCB have to deal with daily, in winter: a traffic jam turning out onto Highway One.
The cars at the front of the line were so languid only about three got out on each green light which was making me crazy with boredom so, ever the rebel I took the right turn lane and found myself abruptly in the parking area of a Circle K convenience store. Indeed, and this it turns out is KCB's sole gas station, though as it faces Highway One a passer-by not tuned in to the vagaries of city planning would never guess. The city of Marathon uses the usual green street signs employed elsewhere in the county and in Key West. But KCB in an effort to distinguish itself uses blue street signs:
And right around the corner I found Coral Way, in blue butting up to Clara Boulevard behind the Circle K. And I didn't even need to show id to escape back to the real world. As real as it gets in the Florida Keys, let's face it.