Eating Your Way Along 30A

One of the appeals of this place is the food—because the entire area has become such a draw to vacationers, and so many of those vacationers come from metropolitan areas where great restaurants are plenty, 30A has great restaurants. I won’t attempt to name them because I’ll leave most out by mistake and ignorance. Also, we moved here during the Covid pandemic, and although too many people around here claimed such a thing didn’t exist, we are just now getting out and trying new places.

First, when I say “vacationers,” I’m including the people who have second homes here and visit here quite often throughout the year, not just people who come here for a week or two in the summer. The second-home types generally have means, so their standards are means-worthy, and that’s why I believe there are so many remarkable restaurants here. There are people who will pay high prices to eat good food.

That means locals have to pay high prices, too, of course, but some places quietly offer 10% discounts to us. We have never asked for that discount but don’t turn it down when it’s offered.

Now about this food—you will find everything from delicious carpaccio and filet mignon in Inlet Beach to Italian dishes not involving spaghetti and meatballs in Grayton to sushi at Blue Mountain Beach to down-home dishes all along the way. For me, at the moment, I am drawn to the down home.

I am northern by most standards, and when I tell people we moved here from Ohio, I’m sure they assume some things. What they don’t know is that I was born in Alabama, and while raised in Indiana, I was brought up with the Food of My People—fried chicken, shrimp, and oysters; fried okra, hush puppies, honest to goodness coconut cake with seven-minute icing, fried corn (which is really more like creamed corn but fresh from the cob, frozen, and then cooked in a skillet), catfish, and biscuits. Just to name a few dishes from my mother’s kitchen.

I have done without these things for a long time, and now back in the South, I am making up for lost time. I have yet to find the corn or the coconut cake of my childhood, but everything else is available. This is not to say I don’t thoroughly enjoy more sophisticated dishes.

Have the hush puppies at Stinky’s Fish Camp for sure while you’re here, and the catfish tacos at Red Fish Tacos in Blue Mountain Beach. Shunk Gulley has a great shrimp basket, and their slaw is the best I have had, although it’s nothing like what my mother made. It’s better.

Another thing that is plenty here is fresh fish straight from the Gulf or the bay, either on menus or at seafood markets for meals at home. Oysters are everywhere in season, and shrimp and crawfish as well. Be sure to order crawfish pie at a place that’s known for making it well, and buy some shrimp and try your hand at making shrimp and grits.

I continue to answer the question “what’s it like to live here” because people ask it online quite often. So, food wise, it can feel like you’re on vacation all the time even though it’s just a typical Tuesday, which can get expensive. We enjoy the many local restaurants and look forward to discovering more, but we quite often have dinner at home because we aren’t bad cooks ourselves.

#30A #EmeraldCoast #FloridaPanhandle