#1 The Conch House

Finally, the first bar for my blog. You've heard me rave about it, my favorite bar, the Conch House. Finally, you get to hear about that things that makes this place my favorite bar, their are not enough words to describe my experience in conch house. I truly believe that the Conch House Lounge is one of St. Augustine's best kept secrets.

WELCOME TO CONCHLAND

A photo of the Restaurant from the lounge at night.

The history of the Conch House Marina Resort goes way back. Being owned and operated by the Ponce family, the Ponces history in St. Augustine goes back over 400 years establishing themselves as a landmark in the area. The resort was first opened back in 1946 by Jimmy Sr. and Jackie Ponce and over years of hard work, the Conch House became what it is today. In 1976, the By the Sea Marina and Conch House Lounge were built. The Lounge extends 300 feet out over the water. The restaurant was then built in '80 and was the last bit added to Conch House.

The Conch House is much more than just a bar and a restaurant. It's a getaway. A vacation from home, without ever having to go to far. Here I've learned, the true value of a great bar is not in its drinks but in its bartenders whether it is telling a joke, a story, listening or just horseplay, they are the people who make you want to go out and stay.

When arriving at the Conch House, you aren't arriving at just a bar. You are entering "Conchland." The majority of the Conch House you see is the restaurant. They serve lunch and dinner and will host special events. At the restaurant a variety of dining scenery is offered, all Caribbean themed. The restaurant serves a variety of food ranging from steaks, seafood, salads, pasta other cuisines and has a Raw Bar. The Conch House is also a 200 slip marina that is located on Salt Run located 1000 feet from St. Augustine Inlet right on the intracoastal. It is also a Key West style motel.

One big event that Conch House hosts is Reggae Sunday. Reggae Sunday started on March 7th and will last all summer long till September 26th. Every Sunday, weather permitting, the Conch House has a live reggae band (different bands every Sunday) and everyone gathers for drinks, fun under the sun, great music, and a good time. On Reggae Sunday the lounge opens at 1 p.m. and Reggae begins at 3 p.m. with a $5 cover charge. The band plays till 7 p.m. and the lounge will stay up till 11 p.m. You must be at least 21 to enter.

Reggae Sunday is fun but is often too busy for my taste. I enjoy going to the Conch House during the week whether from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (which I never do) or just for Happy Hour, it is always fun. Sunday through Friday the Conch House is open from 12 p.m. till 11 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 12 p.m. till 1 a.m.

Happy Hour is from 4-7 p.m Monday through Friday. The lounge is located right on the water with the best scenery around. Happy hour prices are $1 off any beer, bottle or draft and $3 wells or house wine. It is well worth it. It was also voted best Happy Hour in St. Augustine by the St. Augustine Record. Another great aspect is that on Friday they have live music.

Conch House also has specialty that range in price that are not on the Happy Hour menu and they are:

• The Goombay Smash (you'll only need a couple)
• Rum Runner
• Conch House Cooler
• Planters Punch
• Key West Rum Punch
• Swedish Lemonade

The drinks and happy hour at the Conch House are great don't get me wrong but one thing that I love about the Conch House are the people. Aside from Reggae Sunday its generally an older crowd but let me tell you that they are like family to me. I have built a relationship with nearly everyone there including the bartenders. The people are friendly and the bartenders are some of the best around. The experience, like I said earlier, is what you really need. Its hard to put something so wonderful into words.

A view of St. Augustine light House from the lounge

Another neat aspect of the Conch House is when they are the host for fishing tournaments. A few weekends ago there was a Wahoo Tournament. Around 30 boats were entered in the tournament and the fishermen were allowed to weigh two Wahoo and the winner had a total of 127lbs. One Wahoo weighed up to 80 pounds. They weigh and clean the fish right on the floating docks underneath the lounge.

To the right is one of the dock hands is raising a Wahooo to be weight for the tournament. If anyone hasn't had Wahoo I recommend it, it has a similar texture to swordfish, apparently its best eat nearly raw like ahi tuna, I cooked on the grill with butter and lemon-herb seasoning. It was excellent. The tournaments are held fairly often generally a two day event. Boats will come from all over the participate in the event. So grab a drink and watch.

Overall the Conch House deserves to be, in my blog, the best bar in St. Augustine. Recommendations are always welcome for bar idea. Overall the food at the Conch House is mediocre, the drinks are strong, the bartenders are fun and friendly and the people are welcoming and fun. Come down anytime for Happy Hour rain or shine its always fun.

Ke'e Grill

I went to one of the best restaurants ever when I visited south Florida this past weekend. One of my best friends, who lives in Jupiter Florida, invited my boyfriend and I out to dinner with her parents. It had been a couple months since we had seen them so it was such a pleasure that they invited us. The restaurant that they took us to was called the Ke'e Grill, by far the best seafood I have ever had. The prices run on a little more of the expensive side but it is well worth it.

The Ke'e Grill is located at 14020 US Hwy 1, Juno Beach Florida, 33408 (at Donald Ross Rd).

The way you know that it is an excellent restaurant? It is always crowded. My friend's parents even made a reservation but we still had to wait another 15 minutes, which they didn't mind since they knew what kind of food laid ahead. The restaurant has a great fancy, tiki restaurant/lounge vibe but there is only inside seating, none outside. The room you sit in is surrounded by large windows. To make it feel more tropical they place tiki torches and palm trees to completely cover the windows on the outside so it feels a little more tropical.

There is a full bar with plenty of seating and a diverse martini menu which I will get to shortly.

The food is excellent it really is. By far one of my best dining experiences I have had. They have an excellent menu. Unfortunately, Ke'e Grill doesn't have a website so the menu seemed relatively accurate to what I remember and you have to use travel sites or food rating sites, such as Urban Spoon to learn more about this fantastic place.
At dinner I had:

• The House Salad with their creamy balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
• Some rolls at dinner
• A glass of white wine, Meritage, Evolution
• We split a bottle of red wine at dinner
• Entree: Chilean Seabass Piccata: sauteed, lemon, white wine caper sauce (no capers for me) and two side dishes, green beans and spinach maria.

Everything was excellent, my boyfriend got Sweet Potato Crusted fresh fish with a mango remoulade and my friend got the Palm Beach Snapper which comes sauteed, tomato provolone sauce, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm (sauce on the side) which all was good.

After our meal, my friends parents left and my boyfriend, friend, and I decided to have a couple cocktails at the bar since she knew the bartender. The martini/specialty drink menu was quite interesting. I convinced my girlfriend to have a martini made with my favorite vodka which is called 44 degrees north, its a huckleberry vodka, thus making her cocktail incredibly sweet. My boyfriend had a drink called the 19th hole which was made with Jeremiah Weed Sweet tea vodka and I had a pomegranate martini and a pear martini.

The pomegranate martini (I love pomegranates) is made with a pomegranate vodka(probably Pearl) mixed with Pom (fruit juice) and has a splash a syrup to cut down the bitterness of the Pom cocktail.

The Pear Martini was just simple Grey Goose La Poire (pear vodka) with a splash of Peach Schnapps.

Both were excellent cocktails. This restaurant is a must stop next time one is in south Florida, I believe there is multiple locations but I cannot speak for those. Check out the one in Juno for excellent food, great ambiance, excellent service and a wide variety. It will be well worth the time and money.

It's been awhile...

It's been a little while since I last posted...It's been a crazy week. I am going to post a few bar spots in a moment but I figured I'd clue you in as to why I haven't been blogging in so long..

As I said, I was going to West Palm Beach Florida for a bit and my first blog post will be about a really good restaurant/bar there and an excellent cocktail I had with a girlfriend. But this week alone has been a long, sad, happy week.

For one I spent every day at the Conch House this week. On Monday, I arrived to visit a friend where my boyfriend and I received news that a friend of ours had passed away.

On Tuesday, it was one of the conch house regulars birthdays so a celebration was in order.

On Wednesday, it was my friends memorial ceremony and I spent most of the day at that event.

On Thursday, I actually went home to visit my family to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a day late, so I got to eat corn beef and cabbage which is always excellent :).

Then Yesterday, Friday, somehow I ended up at the Conch House again...

And today, I'm sure I'll end up their shortly. Yesterday and today the Conch House plays hosts to a Wahoo fishing tournament. I love to go watch them bring in the fish, fillet them and weigh them. Only four out of 60 fishing boats went out yesterday so today should be pretty interesting. I believe that the record fish yesterday was 58lbs. So I'll upload pictures later this week but expect a blog post to come soon.

A Short Hop and a Sudden Stop

What's better than having a large glass of red wine, on a rainy while writing a blog about bar hopping. What's better than that. Plus I'm about to have a pulled pork sandwhich from my favorite barbecue place Park Avenue (South Florida West Palm Beach, Jupiter Chain). Tonights going to be a goodnight...

So the bar hop that was meant to happen on Wednesday kind of happened. It just wasn't quite the bar crawl that we were planning. The crawl started at around 12:30 and the guys started out at the "World Famous" Oasis Lounge near St. Augustine beach then the crawl took them up to Jacks BBQ on A1a beach where they spent a good chunk of time. The Oasis is somewhat of a neat bar, if you sit upstairs at the bar and open the windows the ocean breeze comes soaring in but its not on the water and for being on the east side of a1a I feel like it should be. I still enjoy it for a cocktail but not the first place I'd for drink. It's also a really big stop for bikers especially for Daytona's bike week.

They actually spent so much time at Jacks I was able to meet up with them at four o'clock after I was done with my classes. When I got there a bunch of people had showed up for some time. Jacks bbq is actually a really neat location which I will get into a little more later. When I got there i had a margarita on the rocks with salt (of course) while everyone Else drank beer. Its on a1a across from the beach. It has mostly out door seating, a covered out door bar and a patio area that is complete with its own pool (which I wouldn't swim in unless I had a few cocktails). They also have surprisingly good food, I absolutely love a good pulled pork sandwich and this place offers them. I like a sweeter barbecue sauce but regardless it was still good. Jacks will be a blog topic later.

We finally around 5:30 moved up a1a to stop at a restaurant called Sunset Grill. The food here is okay but we had cocktails in mind. They have a small outdoor sitting area but its a pretty nice area and its a good socializing spot, this is where I had one more margarita. After my drink here I ran home for about an hour to get some study time for a big test i had the next day in my Marketing class (my least favorite class).

Later I met up with everyone at the Conch house lounge and marina, which by now I still haven't learned that this place should be our last stop. Its my boyfriend and I's favorite bar in St. Augustine, good food, great drinks and great people. I love this place, it is right on the water and has so much to offer. Its a smoking bar but you'd never know because of all the open doors and windows. This will probably be the first individual bar that I talk about. It is definitly my favorite place and I can't wait to write about it. We stayed here all night, the lounge closes at 11 but we fortunate enough to have a friend with a small boat down there so we hung out there for a couple hours till we went home and crashed. it was a good day overall not what we expected but no complaints. Next blog to come soon

I'm actually spending the weekend in West Palm Beach so maybe I'll write about an interesting bar here if I decide to go out. Hope you enjoy reading my posts thus far.

The Above photos are of the counch house lounge

taken from the conch house website

Just a little jealous...

I can't help it but I'm jealous about today. My boyfriend and one of his friends are going on a bar crawl in celebration of their birthday. They have birthdays one day apart, so today they decided they would start early and party till the cows come home (so till about 1 o r 2).

Its not that I am not invited either, sometimes they hope that I come because more often than not I end up being the DD (which is okay sometimes..). However, I have a lot on my plate, especially regarding school work and I need to make the smart decision to get my work first and then have a good time which is always hard. Today I don't have class till about 2 p.m. so I can't join in the festivities till at least 3:30 or 4:00. My public relations class has to be my first priority.

They have the idea the perfect crawl lined up they plan on starting off down by Matanzas inlet. Then they work their way up A1a stopping at many bars along the way. Then they will finally make it downtown where I will join up with them later. They have quite a few good places
picked out and I'm sure I'll cover them individually later.

Tomorrow after I know all the stops they went to, I'll post a map of the layout of our bar crawl. it's going to be a good day...eventually.

A Bar hoping blog?

This blog is meant to be casual. It is pretty much about bar hopping and there is nothing fancy about that. However, I find myself pre-typing all my blog posts and go back through them to check for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Something I never did with homework. This blog is important to me and I can't wait to start posting about bars.

Like I was saying though, there is nothing fancy about bar hopping. No matter how you do it, whether at the cheapest, dirtiest bars or at the high end clubs and lounges in town, 9 out of 10 times people end up going home buzzed. Even if you are "dressed to the nines", you still take the risk of someone spilling their drink on your shoe or outfit and ruining it. Now I am not talking against bar hopping, it's a blast (I plan on doing it tonight) but I have to remind myself a couple of things: it is not classy (nor is order a long island ice tea), but it is always a fun adventure.

That's where the purpose of this blog comes in. My blog is meant to inform people of what I personally think are the best bars in St. Augustine, Florida. I hope this blog comes in useful for both locals and tourists, for a bit of guidance on a good time. This blog will hopefully show the way for a good bar hopping experience. To let people know of good deals, great locations, great drinks bad food, and wonderful atmosphere. All the bars/lounges the city offers has something unique about them, now its about sifting through them to find the best. And that's where I come in, to sift for you.

For anyone who lives in, or has had the pleasure of visiting the nations oldest city (445 years), please feel free to lives comments regarding what and where your favorite bar is.