Last weekend, one of my twins, Zac, and his GF came into town on Saturday in preparation for the road trip to ATL for the Pogues show on Monday night. Around noon on Sunday, they went off to scour local museums, and came home raving about a place where they ate lunch.
Now, Zac is a bit of a beer connoisseur, so, when he rants about a bar's beer selection, I generally sit up and listen. As a bonus, they both said the food was terrific. And, to cap it all off, the joint is only about 2 miles from Fortress Tentoze, and until now, has flown totally off my radar.
Zac insisted we go back for dinner Sunday night, and I had no problem with it. It has an unfortunately goofy name, Kickbacks Gastro Pub, but that can be overlooked.
It's a neighborhood pub-type environment, no fancy ambience, just straight forward, no-nonsense beer and food. And, O Lordy- the beer...60 different brews on tap, and as of that night, over 270 bottled varieties. I thought I'd died and gone to Belgium. No shit. On top of the beery goodness, the food was absolutely outstanding- not your typical wings bar. I had Harpoons, which was 2 skewers stuffed with alternating mahi chunks and bacon- wrapped fresh, local shrimp, with smashed taters and fried green beans- and a Caesar salad to start off, for $12.99. The seafood was grilled perfectly, and there was a ton of it, and the sides were very, very well done. Zac had chicken-fried steak, and was equally impressed. Steph wasn't that hungry, and I think she had a wrap of some sort and was very happy with it.
After dinner, the owner, a young man named Steve Flores, came and sat with us for about 1/2 an hour, talking beer and things- great guy. I asked him if he could get any of my favorite beer from my time in Belgium a year or so ago- St. Feuilliens- and he got on his Blackberry right there and said he'd have some in stock within 2 weeks at the most. He immediately became my hero. He's into aging beer, and stood Zac and I to one of his private reserve aged Belgian beers- 6 years old- it was quite tasty.
All in all, a place that I've only dreamed of in this Budweiser-centric, podunk town. I think I'll swing by there tomorrow evening and see if the St. Feuilliens arrived today, or if it will be next Friday. There's plenty of other very fine beers to sample if it hasn't. And only 2 miles from home. Color me happy as hell.
Derris and any of you other misguided Dawg fans- if you come to Fla-Ga this year, I'll stand you all to beers at this place until you can't see.
http://www.kickbacksgastropub.com/