Unique Eats, Bars & Seafood Shacks

My idea of a great choice for a place to eat on vacation is a restaurant with a story behind it. Here are eight historic restaurants that fit that criteria — from Prohibition rum-runners to 1980s drug-runners; from authentic 1920s grand hotel to an authentic 1950s diner.

Stone crab season starts Oct. 15 and Everglades City, a small, isolated fishing village south of Naples, is a place to feast on this Florida favorite in an authenic Old Florida atmosphere.

Stock Island is a workaday island next to Key West with marinas, fishing and shrimp boats. It’s off the beaten path, a place where you can find great restaurants, luxe resorts and some funky charm.

Robbie’s Marina is a don’t-miss stop as you drive through the Florida Keys. Dozens of tarpon, some more than 6 feet long, gather at the dock and lunge for fish from visitors. The restaurant there, the Hungry Tarpon, is highly recommended , too.

Four of my favorite stops in the Keys are a little hard to find, and that’s part of their charm. They’re off the Overseas Highway in neighborhoods — and they’re worth discovering.

In the fertile rural Redland area in Homestead, you can tour Fruit and Spice Park, where you taste exotic tropical fruit and learn about unusual plants that grow here. You’ll see fruit trees that flourish here that do not grow anywhere else in the contiguous US.

If you want to savor the flavor of the Florida Keys, spend a little time at a tiki bar. Our favorites profiled here are unpretentious waterfront spots where you’ll get good fresh fish, fried everything and a big serving of Keys atmosphere.

Mangoes may be the reason I can never leave Florida. Here are favorite Florida mango recipes discovered or developed during my 30-plus years of worshipping these beautiful fruit.

U-pick farms in Florida prove that agriculture thrives here. You’ll find many blueberry farms, plus everything from chestnuts to peaches to citrus. Include one of these stops when you’re exploring Florida’s backroads.

The St. Augustine Lions Club Spring Festival has reimagined its seafood festival past.

Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, is staking a claim for something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival, the Sebring Soda Festival. Local small-batch sodas made with real sugar are making a comeback, partly as an outgrowth of the craft beer phenomenon. This Sebring festival is a good opportunity to taste what it’s all about.

Comprehensive guide to more than 300 Florida craft beer breweries, next-gen neighborhood taverns for sipping suds, playing games and meeting new friends.

Everyone wants to discover that funky inexpensive spot where locals go. In Key West, that would be Hogfish Bar & Grill on Stock Island, which wins raves for fresh off-the-boat seafood.

The historic agricultural area surrounding the Homestead entrance to Everglades National Park offers so many cool experiences — a park where you can see and sample exotic fruits, a historic village of shops and restaurants, a local tropical-fruit winery and famous fruit milkshakes and cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls and the fall season are both back; Knaus Berry Farms reopened Oct. 25. This 50-year-old institution south of Miami has generations of devoted fans. It’s a good stop for an Everglades trip or a day exploring the Redland.

Rooted in the boisterous days of pirates, wreckers and rum runners, inebriation is an established ritual in Key West. Celebrate with locals at these favored watering holes away from the hordes crawling Duval Street.