Top Five Picks for ”The Emerald Coast”
By Margit Bisztray, Food Critic

NOTE: The Summer Top Five Video is available online. Just click to watch Margit's Top Five Restaurants for The Emerald Coast

I love early summer. In Florida, it’s when the water makes the most sense, and it’s the perfect temperature. You lie on the beach until you can’t stand it anymore, and then the blue welcome of the Gulf. And no matter how nice it is all year around in this state, where we have sunshine in February, it’s still different to barbecue in the summer, or grill up some burgers by the pool or the water. Summer equals barbecue, no matter where you are.

In Key West, barbecues take an island turn, with black beans and yellow rice as common as the potato salads elsewhere, and with the occasional mango salsa thrown into the mix like it was grandmother’s favorite. What I like about the flavors of the Emerald Coast is the Southern influence. So South Florida is more Latin/Caribbean/ and north Florida more Southern. Go figure.

Speaking of barbecue, a couple of the Chef Shows I did recently will bring on some great ideas for barbecues. Stay tuned. The chefs and I have taken our “kitchens” to the outdoors, cooking poolside or on the beach, like people do in the summer. It has been tons and tons of fun working with these chefs “off duty.” They really do love food and love to share what they know! So often, chefs are the ones “in the back” where no one sees them, so I love that the Chef Shows bring them out, in this case, into the sunshine, and we can show them off. They’re funny! Great humor, great ingredients and beautiful settings–––put it all together and it’s got all the ingredients. Definitely check out the chef shows; they’re a blast.

For the latest Top Five picks, I’m taking you to the best places for Family Dining on the Emerald Coast. Now family restaurants are their own special criteria, and the main thing I’m looking for is how well does a restaurant address the different needs of different ages so that everyone has a good time. As we all know, kids need stimulation, so restaurants that don’t provide that are, well, boring from a kid’s point of view, and that makes everyone miserable. So for the kids, there need to be colors, distractions, coloring books, souvenir cups, animals to feed…so I found places with all that and more. But don’t think for a moment these places aren’t fun for those over 10 as well. They are! For one, being on the Emerald Coast, they have GREAT seafood, super fresh and prepared the classic, simple ways to let them shine through and be lots of fun to chow. You can eat with your hands! You can get back to the simple pleasure of shrimp and cocktail sauce, or a fried fish sandwich. Don’t even get me started on the cocktails at these restaurants. If you’ve been to too many places with dainty little glasses and cocoa on the rims, get back to basics: rum drinks by the mug, bright green margaritas and cold beers by the bucket. Or just do what I do on the Emerald coast, which is to catch a major buzz on SWEET TEA. Yowsa, that stuff will kill ya. Best of all, these family-oriented places sum up what’s so fun about dining on the coast: they’re casual, you can come in your swimsuit and cover ups, you can make a big mess and not have to clean up, and there are funny things like snorkel suits, leaping fish and bikini tops hanging on the wall. Some places even have a view, or at least a fish tank. You’ll know exactly where you are, and it’s a place everyone loves: a stone’s throw from the beach. Enjoy!

NOTE: Margit Bisztray has been reviewing restaurants and writing about food for ten years. She has published three editions of The Complete Key West Dining Guide, and her work has appeared in such publications as Vogue, Gourmet, Islands and Metropolitan Home. To read more restaurant reviews, log your own personal opinions, rate your favorite restaurants and watch streaming video archives of this show and other reviews, visit Margit's Top 5.