Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Dolphin Bar

Our favorite restaurant was packed yesterday at lunch. We couldn't get to sit outside on the deck. Ouch!

I love the deck, because not only there is the full ocean view, but we can see pelicans and gulls landing on the dock and we can watch the fish swim if we look down from the sides of the deck.

While it is winter for most of the country now, this is South Florida with 79 degrees in January and a sweet breeze from the Atlantic, and my favorite restaurant is the Dolphin Bar in Jensen Beach, because it is right on the ocean. My first favorite restaurant used to be Rottie's in St. Lucie before the hurricanes Frances and Jeanne demolished it.

Luckily for the area residents, Dolphin Bar recovered very quickly after the hurricanes and opened its doors within a few months. Most any restaurant on the water gets spoiled and serves less-than-great dishes, but not Dolphin Bar.

I never ate anything I didn't like there. I love the deck, but the insides are terrific, too, still with some ocean view and with several rooms, rock walls, a fireplace (not that it is needed), and a high cathedral ceiling in the main room where the fireplace is.

Their salad bar is great; although, when I go to a restaurant, I like to be served. Oh, I know, I am a sloth!

A side dish of salad, however, comes with most of the dishes, and it is of choice greens and julienned carrots, turnips, and other scrumptious salad material. Their thousand island dressing is my favorite, and the bread rolls are freshly baked and warm.

They also serve the best kind of wine, if you order. Even the house wine can be very agreeable. In my case, since wines dislike me, my drink pick usually is the lemonade, or iced-tea, or coffee.

The entrees enchant any customer with great variety and careful, artistic preparation. Fresh fish is the best, really fresh. The Oriental Tuna is a favorite of mine. Most other customers enjoy shrimp prepared in many different ways.

Yesterday, I had a dolphin sandwich. (Dolphin is another kind of fish, mistakenly named, not the cute kind of dolphin in the Sea World.) Last week, I had the Oriental Tuna, which made several customers ask the waiter, "I want what that lady over there is having."

My husband swears by their prime rib, but anything on the menu is great. The place certainly pleases a broad spectrum of expectations and appetites, although the menu is said to be Bahamian.

The portions are not small, but they are not too overflowing that they make you gag either. I like to eat every morsel, but I end up having the main dish wrapped for later, to save space for the desert.

They have a chocolate cake to die for, and the tiramisu makes me forget about that little cholesterol problem I am having. What is so memorable is the feeling in the restaurant. The bar is full with friendly people and customers arrive by car or by boat, because the restaurant has a 200 feet long dock.

The attire is not formal, considering the high quality of food. This makes the place even more attractive. Classy but casual would describe it the best. The owners are down-to earth people who live in small cottages on the grounds, while the restaurant has a flashy past.

The place used to be The Outrigger Resort, owned by 1940s singer and movie starlet Frances Langford and her husband, Ralph Evinrude. Indoors, the walls on the foyer flaunt the photos of celebrities like Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Ginger Rogers, Jackie Gleason, and Richard Nixon.

The prices are not expensive at all, considering the quality; although, some restaurant critics of the area place Dolphin Bar as expensive. To me expensive is when you don't get your money's worth and end up feeling sick to your stomach.

Then, the best is still to come. Outside the restaurant area to the side of the building, a boutique shop offers many varieties of tropical bric-a-brac, some choice wine, clothing and other things. Inside the shop a very lovely, petite young lady helps the customers.

Although I hate to shop, I drifted to the shop yesterday, because of the music. That young lady with the magic smile told me she always played CD's and this one was from Armik, the Flamenco guitarist and composer. No wonder, I was drawn in there, because I, too, have several Armik CDs.

Well, if anybody is displeased with the Dolphin Bar, it is probably because they expect a chic French menu with waiters in tuxes. Dolphin Bar is not that, thank God. It is the scenery, ambiance, friendliness, and good food. I am glad that we have one restaurant left within short distance with all the other sea-front restaurants not rebuilding after the hurricanes or selling out to condo complexes.