Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
BEACHSIDE BARBECUE You’d think that the last thing anyone would want to do in this infernal heat is stand over a hot grill flipping slabs of meat. But that’s human nature for you. We’re as willing to sweat over a fire in 98-degree weather as we are to do a few early morning backstrokes in a frozen lake in the dead of winter. Logic? We toss that out with reams of sauce-stained paper towels while decrying everyone else’s wasteful ways. After all, it’s barbecue, and Americans... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
The Shark Pit Bar & Grill • Tobin Bennison • For all our easygoing, open-minded reputation is worth, beachside residents can certainly be a prejudiced bunch, especially when it comes to how far we’ll go for a good meal. For the majority of us, a hungry drive to the mainland becomes a begrudging sojourn that usually ends at one of the many reliable, albeit characterless chains. Limited beachside, and all safe options exhausted, the last place we’d look for sustenance is in a... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Sun On The Beach • Tobin Bennison • Taken at face value, there’s not much to distinguish Sun on the Beach from other east coast Florida diners, hundreds of which pepper the shore that stretches from Fernandina Beach to Key West. You’ll notice that it is closer to the ocean than most independently owned diners — it is, in fact, one of two with ocean views between Cocoa Beach and Vero — but beyond that, everything about its outward appearance hews to the common model,... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Rubio’s Cuban Café Given the rich cultural history of Cuba, a tangled mélange of African, Spanish, Latin American, and Caribbean influences, “refinement” is probably the last word you’d expect to hear associated with its cuisine. Cuban food is, both by historical precedent and economic necessity, a confused blur of flavors, marked by abundant spice, thick sauces, numerous sandwiches with identity crises, and slowly simmered, rib-sticking stews. But when you go to Rubio’s... [Read more...]
Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Concepts On Highland If there’s one overriding problem with the current state of much contemporary cuisine, it would have to be its reliance on intellectualized “concept” over actual delivery. Add to that some insufferable, self-important chefs, and you’re left with some highly photogenic dishes that aren’t so much meals in the traditional sense as they are transient, edible trends. But one of the newest additions to the increasingly vibrant Brevard dining scene, downtown... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
THE 1st ANNUAL COCOA BEACH WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL On March 13, Lori Wilson Park will be transformed into an international tasting village as part of the inaugural Cocoa Beach Wine & Food Festival. Conceived by Cocoa Beach attorney Tony Hernandez III, the Festival has been three years in the making, and the result of his, Event Manager Matt Gunter and countless others’ tireless work to help showcase the best and most eclectic selection of food Brevard has to offer while helping fill local... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
Coconuts on the Beach By: Tobin Bennison When Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his burrow this February 2 — Groundhog Day — there’s no telling whether he’ll see his shadow or not. You’d think that the recent frigid weather would suggest a protracted winter, but we’re talking about weather — and we all know what a slave to certainty the climate is, much less to the whims of a somnolent varmint. Portentous rodents and tricks of the light aside, one... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
One of my favourite customers from my bartending days was a man named John Phillips. As a retired Philadelphia fireman who served during the ‘50s and ‘60s, you’d figure John would have some great stories about raging infernos, near-death experiences, and improbable rescues. But like many a modest veteran of tough work or battle — and very much in keeping with every fireman I’ve known — John never spoke about the bad stuff. For John, the mundane events that unfolded during the... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, Britain has seen the closure of 52 traditional pubs each week since mid-decade, and figures for the first six months of 2009 show that number increased by one-third. To many, the pub is a solid cornerstone of English life, as integral to its collective identity as the red, double-decker bus, the phone box, bearskin hats, tea cozies, and thatched-roof cottages. Once beloved arenas of public discussion, encroaching modernization and changes in the... [Read more...]
By: Tobin Bennison
Article Category: Restaurant Review
They say you can’t go home again, but places like the Blueberry Muffin prove you can still get pretty darn close. Like thousands of small, independently owned restaurants scattered all over the country, Indialantic’s Blueberry Muffin acts as a home away from home for individuals throughout its community and beyond. It’s a place where the spirit of home isn’t nearly as irretrievable as we’ve resigned ourselves into believing, and where feeding the soul is as important... [Read more...]
