Boating — Changing waterfront has ‘Dead Enders’ confused!
“What the heck happened,” cried ‘Minnesota Kathy’ as she entered the club house after a cruise with her husband, Bill. No one looked up from the ‘Texas Hold’em’ tournament. “We go away for six months and everything changes around here?”
“We knew the Bridge was the new ‘Doc Ford’s’ because we read about it in the Observer that gets mailed up home but we didn’t see the closing of the ‘Channel Mark’ coming,” bemoaned Bill. There is a slight delay in mailing time.
“Landlord dispute,” said Boston Bob. “Economic downturn,” said Cap’n Crunch. “Rent was too much,” said ‘Run-aground Ralph’. “No parking,” said ‘Saint Louie-Louise’.
“Nobody knows why exactly but I’d suspect it was a combination of that,” I said while waiting for the river card to be turned.
“I can’t understand it! It had such a beautiful view! How could it not make money? The docks were okay and the food was okay and they had a local’s card and a great happy hour,” ‘Minnesota Kathy’ rambled on.
“It’s your fault, okay? You and your snow-bird buddies went and deserted the place in the midst of the ‘Great Recession’ and now you want to know what happened,” said Boston Bob.
“You’re blaming us, you cheap sailboater, you never took your boat over there,” Kathy shouted in the defense of her fellow snow-birds.
“My boat draws five and a half feet and I can’t get it back there except on lunar high tides. I’ve spent my share of money at ‘Tim’s Place’ I’ll have you know,” replied Boston Bob.
“There were rumors that it was going to close as far back as spring time and yet we had our farewell party at another waterfront place,” said ‘Saint Louie-Louise’ who was winning all the chips in the game. “As I remember it was you and (Long Island) Gloria who planned that party.”
‘Minnesota Kathy’ sat down and seemed to reflect on her part of the demise of the waterfront icon. “Well it’s going to be a spaghetti house or something,” said her husband.
“Rosa Luna, red moon in Italian,” said Boston Bob trying to show everyone how smart he is. Like smart can make up for being a sailboater in the eyes of most powerboaters.
“Upscale, I hear it’s going to be high-end Italian food. They have a place in the Miramar Outlet Mall,” said ‘Cap’n Crunch’. “I guess they give you three meatballs instead of two.”
“Boy you don’t know nothing about good Italian food,” said ‘Saint Louie-Louise’. “You ate the Chicken Marsalla I made for the last Christmas party like you were starved. You never asked where the meatballs were then, you meatball!”
“You better watch it, she’s half ‘Iti’,” said her boyfriend ‘Parasail Phil’.
“I didn’t even know that was Italian food but I do admit it was great,” ‘Cap’n Crunch’ replied humbly. “Do you think they’ll serve that kind of Italian?”
“It’s hard to comprehend why a waterfront restaurant could go out of business but since we have so many around here, maybe being on the water doesn’t guarantee success. ‘Doc Fords’ moved into the ‘Bridge’ and I’ll bet they’re slammed during season. Remember, if Tim’s Place was in Charlotte Harbor he would have been guaranteed success,” I said.
“You are always raving about ‘The Fish Monger’,” said ‘Minnesota Kathy’, “can it be that they try harder because they aren’t on the water?” I had to agree that fresh fish makes a difference.
“‘Pensacola Jim’ loved the lobster roll at the ‘Lobster Shack’ on Monroe’s Canal at the south end of Pine Island but it closed and re-opened as ‘The Hogfish Grill,’ but that was closed the last time I was up the canal,” Cap’n Crunch’ proclaimed. “We ended up at the ‘Waterfront Restaurant’ and that place is really great. It’s been around forever and ever!”
“The ‘Dixie Fish Company’ re-opened after a month’s hiatus,” said Boston Bob. “It has a great, unobstructed view because it doesn’t have docks.”
“That was ‘Tim’s Place’ failings,” said ‘Saint Louie-Louise’. “Before Hurricane Charlie they had a great view of the water. I remember the guy who brought his Labrador Retrievers out to the sand bar aboard a dinghy. Everyone would wait anxiously to see whether the black or white one would jump out of the small boat first and swim to the sandbar. Then they built the bar on the dock that blocked the view of the water.”
The conversation stopped for a moment as we all remembered those dogs and the Roseate Spoonbills that worked the low water around the sandbar. The docked boats and the bars and tables were putting up drapes on the windows of Seattle’s Space Needle.
“You should say something about blocking off the view in your column,” said ‘Run-aground Ralph to me.
“I agree, but I have to be careful not to offend anyone. We columnists have a code of ethics. But to keep our great waterfront restaurants I will put on my ‘Super boatguy’ outfit and use my powers to retain that great resource,” I said.
“There you go again,” said ‘Tim the Restorer’.
The author of this column is quite disappointed in the small amount of e-mail responses from his readers. He looks forward to seeing you at his booth at the Fort Myers Boat show in early November but would appreciate an e-mail now and again. Buying Super Shipbottom Paint would also help buoy his spirits.
by boatguy Ed