There may be no diving for another hour west, but Fort Walton leaves nothing to be wanted for with the most pure sands and seas in the Panhandle. The beaches are almost deserted and the waves blow in just enough to invite swimmers and skimboarders. This is Okaloosa Island.
Five minutes back into the heart of Fort Walton, a quaint strip of individually owned shops selling tourist trinkets sits in front of the most popular restaurant that locals hold near and dear from the invasive tourists. The building reminds you of an old southern home, and it should, as it once was. It is nestled in the historical district amongst great trees covered in Spanish moss. You are greeted by a staff that doesn't maintain the strained uncontrollable excitement that you have joined them that day but rather seats you pleasantly.
The decor may remind you of an Applebee's, miscellaneous items of almost no pattern scattered about the walls, however the black and white photos of men in uniform and radios from the 1940's seem as if they all have a story as old as this town. Not an inch or a stitch of the floor isn't holding a table, go around lunch and you will know why, accompanied by almost no empty seats. The restaurant invites a variety of people, Airmen from Eglen Air Force Base out for lunch, Generations of women eating brunch on a Saturday, or even two tattooed Cholos. They all gather here because who can deny real hearty, southern, down home, stick to your bones, just like your grandmother's cooking.
The menu holds a range of choices like the most traditional chicken and dumplings you have ever had all the way up to seafood necessities like crawfish etouffee. To this day I can't hear the description of their shrimp alfredo topped with a hearty crab cake without my stomach beginning to grumble. The desserts are consistent, ten or fifteen different pies or cakes to choose from which they present to you on a desert tray besides a menu, which some are made and brought in by local women made fresh that day. I'm too full for desert by now, but never will i turn it down. You really can't choose wrong. The food isn't fast, in fact it takes a while, but never would I complain because it comes out perfect. They make it the way it should be and nothing less, which is all I ask for on my weekends away in Fort Walton.
Five minutes back into the heart of Fort Walton, a quaint strip of individually owned shops selling tourist trinkets sits in front of the most popular restaurant that locals hold near and dear from the invasive tourists. The building reminds you of an old southern home, and it should, as it once was. It is nestled in the historical district amongst great trees covered in Spanish moss. You are greeted by a staff that doesn't maintain the strained uncontrollable excitement that you have joined them that day but rather seats you pleasantly.
The decor may remind you of an Applebee's, miscellaneous items of almost no pattern scattered about the walls, however the black and white photos of men in uniform and radios from the 1940's seem as if they all have a story as old as this town. Not an inch or a stitch of the floor isn't holding a table, go around lunch and you will know why, accompanied by almost no empty seats. The restaurant invites a variety of people, Airmen from Eglen Air Force Base out for lunch, Generations of women eating brunch on a Saturday, or even two tattooed Cholos. They all gather here because who can deny real hearty, southern, down home, stick to your bones, just like your grandmother's cooking.
The menu holds a range of choices like the most traditional chicken and dumplings you have ever had all the way up to seafood necessities like crawfish etouffee. To this day I can't hear the description of their shrimp alfredo topped with a hearty crab cake without my stomach beginning to grumble. The desserts are consistent, ten or fifteen different pies or cakes to choose from which they present to you on a desert tray besides a menu, which some are made and brought in by local women made fresh that day. I'm too full for desert by now, but never will i turn it down. You really can't choose wrong. The food isn't fast, in fact it takes a while, but never would I complain because it comes out perfect. They make it the way it should be and nothing less, which is all I ask for on my weekends away in Fort Walton.