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BEST OF THE COAST 2006 | Vol 6, No. 41, October 12, 2006
(Best Of The Coast 2006)
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Restaurants


Best Restaurant Overall
Best Seafood Restaurant
Best Brunch
Best Key Lime Pie
Best Selection Of Wine By The Glass
Best Place To Take Out-of-Town Guests
Best Public Bathroom
Other top three finishes: Best Original Menu, Best Desserts, Best Gumbo, Best Salad, Best Sushi, Best Place To Meet Friends After Work, Best Bar To People Watch, Best Restaurant With A View, Best Bar Décor, Best Place For A Hurricane Party
Fish House, 600 Barracks St. 470-0003
The Fish House is must-dine stop for all visitors to the Pensacola area. This great Southern restaurant is to seafood what McGuire's is to beef. Its signature dish is "Grits A YaYa"—sautéed gulf shrimp, portabello mushrooms and spinach over Gouda grits. All seafood is fresh and hand-picked by Chef Jim Shirley. Fried, grilled, blackened, ginger-crusted are just a few ways Shirley and his chefs offer their seafood creations. All come with an assortment of Southern sides to choose from: Collard greens, corn fritters, Gouda grits and more. IN readers suggest you top it with their BOC winning Key Lime pie.
Runners-up: The Global Grill, Jackson's

Best Restaurant
Downtown Pensacola
Best Place To Work
Best Appetizer: Apple Wood Smoked Bacon Wrapped Lobster Tail
Best Desserts
Other top three finishes: Best Restaurant Overall, Best Chef, Best Place For A First Date, Best Steak, Best Place To Meet Friends After Work, Best Bartender—Greg Smith, Best Place To Take Out-of-Town Guests, Best Place To Propose
The Global Grill, 25 S. Palafox Place, 469-9966
With an excellent bar and one of the most unique menus in town, Global Grill is the drinks, tapas, dinner or dessert destination for anyone enjoying a good time downtown. Specials are added frequently but try the Applewood Bacon Wrapped Lobster Tail in smoked Gouda cheese sauce, which won Best of the Coast 2006 Best Appetizer. You can mix and match tapas or try one of the delicious entrées. Hint: the filet mignon with Frank Taylor's homemade Worchestershire sauce is unbelievable. A meal finished off with the gooey-centered Spanish chocolate cake may just do you in. After all, Global also won best desserts.
Runners-up: Eat!, Jackson's

Best Restaurant/Cordova Mall Area
Other top three finishes: Best Place to Splurge, Best Appetizer: Bang Bang Shrimp, Best Martini
Bonefish Grill, 5025 N. 12th Ave., 471-2324
Walk into Bonefish Grill and you will quickly forget that you're in a chain restaurant. The bar area is inviting, beautifully decorated and serves fantastic Martini's. The dining area is elegant and the servers are attentive, knowledgeable and out to make your meal memorable. Be sure to start your meal with the Bang Bang Shrimp (Best of the Coast 2005 winner).
Runners-up: O' Brien's Bistro, Macaroni Grill    

Best Restaurant/Pensacola Beach
H2O, 12 Via de Luna (Hilton Garden Inn), Pensacola Beach. 916-2999
This award-winning Cajun-Asian restaurant offers the most unique menu on Pensacola Beach. Located inside the Hilton Garden Inn, H2O has its own special version of Surf and Turf—seared sea scallops and Tamarin-glazed short ribs. Its sushi is incredible, too. We also recommend the Sunday brunch, with its make-your-own-Bloody Mary bar.
Runners-up: Hemmingway's, Peg Leg Pete's

Best New Restaurant
Café 22, 22 S. Palafox St., 432-8221
The Athanasios family is back. The family that owned and operated the Boy on Dolphin restaurant on Pensacola Beach for years has brought its Greek recipes to their new downtown café. There already is a list of customers who ask to be called whenever the Lamb Shanks or Crab Cakes are being served. Café 22 has quickly become a downtown lunch favorite.

Runner-up: Crema, 124 W. Garden St., 470-5512
Other top three finishes: Best Bagel, Best Breakfast. Dave Guardanapo, a well-traveled, classically trained chef, has created a masterpiece by combining a cozy, comfortable bistro and coffee beanery with a traditional European bakery. Crema features daily specials that showcase freshly baked artesian breads and indulgent pastries.
Runner-up: Oar House

Best Italian Restaurant
Tre Fratelli Ristorante, 304 S. Alcaniz St., 438-3663
The three Fratelli brothers (Emilio, Mario and Sebastiano) give us a distinctly Sicilian take on Italian food. With all breads, pizza dough and sauces made from scratch, Tre Fratelli will not disappoint. Start with the house bruschetta. Follow it with the rich pasta carbonara made to order, the diavola—a spicy marinara sauce with black olives and bacon—or a nightly special paired with Italian wine. And finish with the cannoli. Dine inside or out overlooking quaint Seville Square.
Runner-up: Geno's Pizza & Italian Restaurant, 9276 N. Davis Hwy., 477-2365.
Other top three finishes: Best Place to Get Pizza (non-chain). This family restaurant opened in 1973 as a pizza parlor serving UWF students and the military personnel stationed at Ellyson Field. Over the years, Geno's has doubled in size and added more homemade Italian entrées that caught the eye of IN readers. Nice surprises come in little packages.
Runner-up: Franco's Italian Restaurant

Best Chef
Most Original Menu
Best Bar Decor
Other top three finishes: Best Restaurant—Downtown Pensacola, Best Selection Of Wine By The Glass, Best Gourmet Foods
Eat!@ Home/Lee Lucier/Eat! 286 N. Palafox, 433-6905
This was the most competitive category in Best of the Coast voting in "Dining." Pensacola is blessed with great chefs. Chef Lee nudged out Jackson's Irv Miller and The Global Grill's Frank Taylor with consistent offerings that use combinations of flavors and ingredients that make every meal a memorable experience. You can't go wrong with anything on the menu—which was also voted Best of the Coast 2006 Most Original Menu. Let us recommend the crawfish quesadilla for lunch. And for dinner the fennel brined pork chop and gruyere artichoke grits. The décor of the restaurant is hip and chic. Next door, Chef Lee has Eat!@Home that was a top finisher in the Best Gourmet Foods category.
Runners-up: Irv Miller/Jackson's, Frank Taylor/The Global Grill

Best Place To Take Advantage Of Wi-Fi
Best Place To Dine Alone
Other top three finishes: Best Bagels, Best Bakery, Best Deli Sandwich
Panera Bread Company, 5100 N. 9th Ave. (Cordova Mall), 494-1774
This national bakery offers breads, bagels, pastries, gourmet coffee, soups, salads and sandwiches. Try the "You Pick Two $5.99 Special" and select any of two of the following: any bowl of soup, any half sandwich or any half salad. We recommend the Turkey Artichoke Panini. All the bakery goods are superb!

Runner-up: Breaktime Espresso Café, 34 N. Palafox St., 438-7788
Other top three finishes: Best Key Lime Pie, Best Place To Take Advantage of Wi-Fi. This café began 12 years ago as Bagels Del Sol, and has since evolved into a delightful little eatery that has become the morning social hub for Palafox Place. You may dine alone, but you will never be lonely here.
Runner-up: CJ's

Best Romantic Dining
Jamie's, 424 E. Zarragossa St., 434-2911
Celebrating 25 years of fine French dining this year, Jamie's continues to set the bar of restaurant excellence in Pensacola. Consistently clinging to a spot in the Top 100 restaurants in Florida, both the service and food are impeccable. Your date will definitely be impressed.
Runners-up: The Melting Pot, Skopelos on the Bay

Best Place To Splurge
Best Place To Eavesdrop
Best Place To Propose
Other top three finishes: Best Restaurant Overall, Best Restaurant—Downtown Pensacola, Best Chef-Irv Miller, Best Original Menu, Best Selection Of Wine By The Glass
Jackson's 400 S. Palafox St., Pensacola 469-9898
For the second consecutive year, Jackson's was voted Pensacola's favorite restaurant to splurge. It's also the best place to find out what's really happening behind the scenes. This restaurant has won Florida Trend's Golden Spoon Award for five consecutive years and is honored as one of Florida's Top 25 restaurants. From the venison ravioli appetizer to the cured duck to garlic-stuffed lamb chops served with goat cheese, the eclectic menu offers up innovative dishes with Southern charm. There is no dining experience like it in the Pensacola area.
Runners-up: Bonefish Grill, Copeland's

Best Place To Feed The Whole Family
Best All You Can Eat Deal
Barnhill's Buffet, several locations Barnhill's is definitely the place to feed the entire tribe. It offers every day Southern-style cooking in large all-you-can-eat buffet trays. They wouldn't be concerned if a big eater just tied a bib on and walked through the door gearing up for their fried chicken, various pastas, mac and cheese, fried fish and oysters, and salad bar. Throw on some mashed taters and yams for that extra starch before hitting their dessert bar loaded with a self-serving soft ice cream machine, cookies, cakes and pies. They also have a special weekend breakfast. Senior discount, special kids pricing and catering upon request.
Runners-up: Hunan, Sidelines

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