Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant and Pub - Longboat Key, FL
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| Bottles of Beer - Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub - Longboat Key, FL |
I'm not sure you'd know it just by looking at me, but I'm feeling a lot of anxiety these days. Most of it's related to feeling like I don't have enough time to do everything I need and want to do, especially with multiple project deadlines on my plate and a big weekend coming up on my social calendar. But part of its related to my worries about one of the most important people in my life -- my grandfather.
He's been in and out of the hospital a handful of times over the past few weeks, and I hate being so far away from him during times like these (they live in Rhode Island). At his age (he's 90), any trip to the hospital concerns me, and I just hope he knows and feels in his heart that I'm thinking about him here in Pennsylvania.
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| Bud & Old Bay Shrimp Bowl - Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub - Longboat Key, FL |
To help ease my mind, I thought I'd share a review about one of the restaurants Stephen and I dined at when we were in Florida back in early September. We were pretty tired our first night in Longboat Key and didn't want to wander too far from our rental condo, so we headed over to the Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant and Pub for a low-key dinner by the bay.
After a short discussion, we decided to split a Bud & Old Bay Shrimp Bowl ($15.99). Large shell-on shrimp are steamed in a mixture of Budweiser and Old Bay seasoning and then finished with a decadent garlic butter before being served hot with lemon wedges.
Now, the best way to eat these shrimp is with two hands, so leave your fork and knife on the table. Eating the shrimp this way makes the dish a messy one to eat, but it does make for a satisfying start to the meal. The shrimp were plump, juicy, and full of flavor thanks to the Old Bay. They were worth burning our fingertips on the hot broth.
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| Scallops Rumaki - Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub - Longboat Key, FL |
Because I was still relatively full from our lunch at the Rod & Reel Pier Restaurant, so I skipped ordering an entree in favor of ordering another item from the Appetizer section of the menu. I chose the Scallops Rumaki ($14.99) after seeing multiple tips about the dish on Foursquare.
While the combination of sea scallops and bacon is a traditional one, it was the drizzle of plum sauce that intrigued me. The sauce added a layer of sweetness to the bacon's saltiness and, quite simply, brought the classic appetizer to a whole new level.
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| Baked Sweet Potato - Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub - Longboat Key, FL |
Had I not insisted that Stephen order a Baked Sweet Potato ($2.50) as one of his sides, I would have definitely ordered another plate of the scallops.
Our dinner at the Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant and Pub was just what we needed after a long day of travel. Even if the locals were staring at the strange girl wearing a cardigan at the dinner table because the breeze from the overhead fans was making her uncomfortably cold. ;-)
Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant and Pub
760 Broadway Street
Longboat Key, FL 34228
(941) 383-2391 | Map
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