This evening, my son and I skipped the seafood offerings along the PCB and opted instead for a little fast food action. I enjoyed Five Guys at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and was glad to see that we got one in San Antonio, though my wife and I have not made it over to give it a test run yet. But since the opportunity presented itself, we hit the Five Guys at Pier Park.
I guess the chain has the system down. Walking in, the place looked pretty much the same as I recall; fairly basic set-up with people taking your order, people frying fries and people making burgers. How can you go wrong?
We both ordered cheeseburgers, my son added grilled mushrooms and onions, and I added the bacon and grilled onions. Keeping in mind that this is strictly a fast food experience, we were both extremely pleased with the quality of the burgers - they simply melt in your mouth.
I added a regular order of fries to split and it was a good thing we didn't buy more. As good as the burgers were, the fries were not what I recalled from my visit in Baltimore. Who knows, maybe we just got an old batch.
Fries aside, I enjoy how they leave out little cards for diners to express their thoughts about Five Guys artistically. Some of the cards were pretty interesting.
Fast food or not, we're Hook'd on Five Guys and the one at Pier Park on PCB is a Tasty Treat...
We hit Pineapple Willy's on Panama City Beach for an enjoyable dinner with a few of my son's friends and parents. I shan't offer a full rehash of our first visit a few months back but if you need a recap, you can see the full report here.
2 Red flags mean keep out of the water!
I am happy to report that the Grouper Basket was very enjoyable this evening. Lightly breaded and tasty nuggets, it was much better than I recalled from the previous time around.
We were driving down the road and heard something about a BraNument, a monument made of bras if you will, for Breast Cancer Awareness. Cute idea, right? So my son mentioned that he had driven by and it would appear that most of the women who had donated must have been really well endowed.
The BraNument was to be taken down at 11am this morning, and since I was in the area of Panama City Mall, I stopped in to investigate. When I saw the spectacle for myself, I realized that my son didn't mean "well endowed" as in a size 3 gal with really big hooters, but more of the "well endowed" as in by virtue of weighing three hundred pounds, you need a really big bra to hold in all the boob and associated fat.
But this was all for a good cause and who are we to make juvenile jokes about boobs and such. When I drove by the BraNument, I wanted to take pictures but I didn't want to look like some pervert taking pictures of bras. Let's face it, I avoid the bra section at WalMart for fear that a) someone will think I'm a creep, and b) for fear that someone will think I'm shopping for a man-bra. So anyway, I kept back a respectable distance, took a few tasteful pictures and then as any normal guy would, I pulled out my video camera.
By the way, I was not the only person out there. I saw three or four cars come into the parking lot to take a gander at the BraNument and even take pictures, though surprisingly, I was the only man during my visit. I wondered if any of the ladies were there to see if they might grab a new style from the clothesline so to speak, but I witnessed no such shenanigans.
My son and I hit Margaritaville in Pier Park at Panama City Beach to grab a quick bite and so I could see the place. On our last visit, we walked into the gift shop but didn't see inside the restaurant or taste the vittles.
Surely they were not going to play Jimmy Buffett songs for the duration of our meal, right? Eventually, they did throw in an occasional tune from some other unknown artist to mix it up. My son tells me that the first time he went to Margaritaville, it was a 40 minute loop of Buffett's greatest hits. Who wouldn't enjoy hearing Cheeseburger in Paradise over and over again? Please, I'm not a Jimmy Buffet hater, I just wasn't familiar with his broad collection of work, nor aware of the fact that you could create a Disney-like theme park to honor him.
Anyway, the food: My son ordered the MexiCali Burger and substituted the fries for onion rings. To me, the burger looked pretty much like it was one of those pre-cooked, microwave before serving type burgers. But, he enjoyed it so who am I to complain? The onion rings have the batter that I like, but they just seemed a tad greasy.
I couldn't resist trying the Cuban sandwich, also with the onion rings (see previous comment about looking good but greasy). The Cuban was thick and on actual Cuban bread. That's a plus. But again, maybe it was the humidity but it just seemed to glisten with a sheen of grease or something. In the end, I forced myself to enjoy it, even if I was thinking I could have had a huge mountain of Nachos instead.
We went in the early evening before the crowd was liquored up and getting all jiggy with it, I suppose. It was pretty family friendly but we still got to see the big Disney style animatronic-like presentation of the signature song Margaritaville where, from the bottom of an airplane suspended overhead, a disco ball with huge salt shaker drop along with big puffs of smoke and shots from cannons on the side of the room as if it was a Buccaneers game and the team had just scored.
And I think the atmosphere, the show, and the fact that the restaurant is sitting just off the beach is the reason the food, given the average quality of it, seems a bit spendy in my mind. To me, Margaritaville would be a perfect fit for the San Antonio River Walk; it was certainly full of tourists.
Are you a Parrot-head? Is the trick to just order the Margaritas and skip the vittles? Give me the poop or leave a comment below.
Every once in a while, I like to get out of the office for lunch at some place out of the ordinary. This morning, I decided I would try a little burger place not far from the beach.
The small little airport looks so friendly.
But what is wrong with this picture? Yes, that is a baggage carousel. And what do we see on it? NOT MY BAGGAGE! Turns out that the folks in Atlanta who move the luggage from one plane to the next do so at the same speed, regardless of whether you are jogging through the airport to make your connecting flight or not! This was told to me by a baggage handler at Panama City, so I take it on good authority.
So, since I had to wait for the next flight for my luggage, and since my son couldn't pick me up for a few hours, I decided to skip a cab and just do lunch at the little grill. It looked safe and I found some free WiFi!
This is my cheeseburger, fries and lemonade for $7.99. It'll do in a pinch.
By the way, I was looking through that SkyMall magazine on the flight (the flight I took that my luggage did not), and I saw this picture of a dog. Does that not look like a Walrus? Where are the hind legs?
I generally rule out eating at a place where you have to wait for 45 minutes, given the fact that you can always go at a different time or more importantly, there are lots of other places to go. But when you are visiting a tourist town on the last real weekend of the tourist season, there is a good possibility that you'll just have to wait.
Also, I should add in that when my son added our name to the wait list at Pineapple Willy's and received the little flashing pager thing, the lady never even told him how long the wait would be. People seemed to be moving through there fairly quickly, so it never occurred to me to ask.
As we began to wait, we went inside the Pier Bar to grab a cool drink for the wait. The place is big with lots of seating and full of thirsty tourists. Later in the evening, they feature bands and I suspect the place gets fairly exciting.
The restaurant offers inside seating, beach seating, and where we sat, on the covered pier where you can enjoy the nice view while not necessarily roasting on the beach. At one point, a large tourist type boat called the Sea Screamer pulled up to the beach near where we were seated, blasted his horn, then fired a shot from a big air cannon. I guess the sound of the blast bouncing off the hotel walls ashore gives the passengers a thrill. Hey, who doesn't like the idea of floating around firing off an air cannon every so often?
We saw some folks order onion rings and they really looked good, but decided instead to get the Al E. Gator as a starter. The meat itself was fine, but the preparation was fairly bland. The last time I had the alligator bites was at Acadiana, and I suspect the Cajun spices gave it a little more character. These weren't bad - especially with the dipping sauce, but I suspect you just have to be in a spending mood to drop $9.00 for what was basically an order of Chicken McNuggets. 
My wife was not looking for a huge meal and the waiter we had suggested she grab something from the kid's menu. She went with the "Fish Food" which was basically a small basket of fried Grouper and a few fries. Like me, she also got a small side of Cole Slaw for a quarter. It turns out that my wife doesn't care much for Grouper, but she did like the Cole slaw and the fries.
My son and I both ordered a Grouper basket. They offer up a good portion, add in some fries and give you a few tubs of tartar sauce. I thought the fish was fine, though certainly not flavorful like the fish we enjoyed at the Hofbrau the previous night.
Really, what it comes down to is that Pineapple Willy's is more of a party place that happens to serve some food for those trying to soak up the beer and frozen tropical drinks. I could see the place being a favorite for people attending Spring Break or for people just out to party for a few hours. We did have good service and an enjoyable time.
Have you been to Pineapple Willy's - did you try the ribs? I'd love to know. Tell me about it or leave a comment below.
Needless to say, if I could have coordinated my outfit ahead of time, I would have joined this crew walking up and down the beach...
Though we may have needed an extra wide lense to fit it all in...
On Friday night my son had planned for us to check out a place called Pineapple Willy's near his apartment on Panama City Beach. We made the critical mistake of starting late and if the unbearable tourist traffic wasn't the first clue, the fact that we could not park in the regular or overflow parking lots was enough to convince us to move along.
And we were glad we did. We drove down the road to a wonderful development called Pier Park. The mall portion of the place is a cut & paste of The Shoppes at La Cantera. Having never been myself, I can only take my son's word for it.
The part I liked was closer to the beach and was full of bright and colorful buildings that to me, looked like a modern version of Main Street USA at Disney. I especially loved the fact that they had a carousel and little slingshot bouncy things for the toddlers. How cool is that?
There was a wide selection of places to eat at but we opted for a German place called Hofbrau Beer Garden.
If you have ever been to Germany or seen it on the Travel Network (as opposed to The History Channel), you immediately recognize the communal seating on long tables and the group participation in the entertainment. Its tough for even a reserved person like me to not be sucked into the clapping and laughing and yes, even Chicken Dancing that takes place during the eating of the vittles.
My wife ordered the Fish & Frites and she was very happy with it. There was nothing bland about it at all. Not too spicy for her tastes, but certainly not bland. And I don't think it was fried at all. It was breaded, but there was no fried texture to it.
My son and I both ordered some other fish plate - the name escapes me several days later and the online menu didn't offer a clue - but it was good. The fish was lightly breaded and highly seasoned giving it an almost Cajun kick to it. Had I known yellow squash would have been included with the vegetables I would have probably asked for something else, but surprisingly, it was all very, very good. Okay, I ate the zucchini but not the rest of the squash. 
We all were very satisfied with the food and my son and I each sampled a beer. He had the Hofbrau Original and I went with the Dunkel, the darker variety. Good stuff.
To cap off the evening, we went into a club across the street called Tootsies where the house band was putting on a great show. The crowd is encouraged to participate because just up the road in Nashville, TN, the folks at the original Tootsies Orchid Lounge are watching a live feed from the PCB lounge. It was all quite cool, and with so many tourists and older folks, my wife and I didn't feel out of place.
I'm not sure how Pier Park pans out during the off season, but for our visit, the place was pretty sweet.
I guess the chain has the system down. Walking in, the place looked pretty much the same as I recall; fairly basic set-up with people taking your order, people frying fries and people making burgers. How can you go wrong?
We both ordered cheeseburgers, my son added grilled mushrooms and onions, and I added the bacon and grilled onions. Keeping in mind that this is strictly a fast food experience, we were both extremely pleased with the quality of the burgers - they simply melt in your mouth.
I added a regular order of fries to split and it was a good thing we didn't buy more. As good as the burgers were, the fries were not what I recalled from my visit in Baltimore. Who knows, maybe we just got an old batch.
Fries aside, I enjoy how they leave out little cards for diners to express their thoughts about Five Guys artistically. Some of the cards were pretty interesting.
Fast food or not, we're Hook'd on Five Guys and the one at Pier Park on PCB is a Tasty Treat...
