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.

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 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.

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. Two of our favorite stone crab restaurants are reopening Oct. 16 for the season after severe flooding from Hurricane Ian.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Marathon Seafood Festival calls itself the Original Marathon Seafood Festival to emphasize it’s the real deal – indigenous and authentic. Marathon is a fishing town, and you don’t get fish any fresher than here, unless you catch it yourself.

After a pandemic pause, the St. Augustine Lions Club Festival returns in 2022, reimagining its seafood festival past.

This isn’t frozen shrimp or imported shrimp or farmed shrimp. The huge boiling pots at the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival are filled with fresh, right-off-the-boat Gulf pink shrimp. Members of the Lions Club have perfected the cooking technique over 50 years of Shrimp Festivals.

Our guide lists more than 350 locally owned craft breweries in Florida, easily referenced by region and by city.

Fresh Florida seafood is best enjoyed in an authentic Florida fish shack, ideally with an outdoor deck overlooking the water. Here are a few of our favorites.

The Pensacola Seafood Festival is back for 2022, kicking off festival season in Florida.