The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

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We were down in Florida for a wedding on Saturday, and after spending a nice afternoon on Sunday visiting Grandma and sunning on beach, we went searching for dinner before our flight. Luckily the magic combination of iphone and chowhound gave us the answer – the GQ best burger in the country was but a short drive away. The place Le Tub, was a very carefully and lovingly cultivated dump. The ‘inside’ is tiny – a pool table and a grill and maybe 2 tables, but if you keep walking just a little, you get to a nice little outside deck, and if you keep walking the deck continues out right along the edge of the ICW, with built in booths and tables with fabulous views of the sunset.

We get a couple beers and are warned food might take a while, but thats ok because its such a nice place to just sit. Its a simple menu, photocopied onto plain paper (which makes much more sense as they frequently get caught up by a gust of wind and probably do not always get caught.) We order burgers and fries, and at my insistence the smoked fish spread, which I was fascinated by for some reason. The fish spread was a mix of whitefish and tuna salads, nothing much to write home about, but not bad either. The fries came next, and they were good – big thick cut ones fried in peanut oil. Fairly starchy, so they cried out for lots of ketchup, but thats not a bad thing. And finely the burgers came. Huge things, not coming close to fitting in the roll. The rolls were in the ‘wonder bread’ style, which was not really up to the task of holding the burger – it soaked up the juice and the ketchup and became more of a thin coating then a bun. The burger was quite thick, and loosely packed in a very homemade looking patty, well seared but woefully under seasoned. I rarely, if ever, feel the need to salt a hamburger already drenched with ketchup and mustard, but this one needed a fair amount. One of the only flavors I could really pick out was gas, though I am not sure if that was from a gas grill or the boats idling next to the kitchen.

Right after we put in an order for key lime pie for dessert, the disadvantage of eating outside became very obvious – the skies opened up and a downpour began. Luckily we got inside before getting too wet, and we were able to have our pie inside. I like my keylime pie quite tart, with the sweetness of the crust and the whipped cream balancing it out, but this was a very sweet pie, it needed far more lime juice in my book – I could taste the condensed milk flavor. Not a winner to me.

All in all a mediocre meal, but one I would repeat in a heartbeat. The location makes up for a lot of flaws in the food – it doesn’t make the food better, but it makes me eager to go back and hope something else is better. Of course on the drive to the airport, we passed a place serving poutine, so I know where we will be heading next time we go to visit Grandma.

C