Dining Al Fresco at THE PLAYERS at Sawgrass

Does this lovely Spring weather awaken your desire to dine al fresco? This week, First Coast residents and visitors have the opportunity to do so in a place so exclusive, it’s only open six days a year! THE PLAYERS has returned to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, May 6-11 in Ponte Vedra.  Here’s a quick, and by no means comprehensive look at the dining options that await golf fans this year.

Wine & Dine on 9 -  gourmet small plates prepared by Matthew Medure, one of Northeast Florida’s most renowned chefs, in a beautiful garden setting - also features BERINGER® Wine Bar.

Service with a smile at Up In Smoke BBQ Food Truck

Trucks on 10 sports some great-tasting dining options from six of your favorite local food trucks: Mama’s Food (Argentinian-style cuisine); Baby’s Badass Burgers (gourmet hamburgers); Corner Taco (semi-swanky street food); Gourmet Aviator (Latin-American and Caribbean cuisine); Up In Smoke BBQ (Southern barbecue); and Super Food (new American cuisine). 

Located between 10 fairway, 11 fairway and 15 green, this public venue also offers an open-air, centrally located Michelob ULTRA Mobile Bar, outdoor seating and an upgraded restroom. Mama’s Food’s Chicken Quesadilla wins our (in no way official) food blogger’s award for great flavor.

Say Hi to lovely Debby N at TacoLu's Tacos on 12

New this year, TacoLu, Jacksonville’s most popular go-to taco spot, will bring their own Baja style outdoors flair to The PLAYERS at Tacos on 12. Seating and shaded areas located between 12 green and 13 tee will give fans the chance to rest, relax and enjoy some of “the Lu’s” delicious menu items. There’s even a designated selfie spot for snapping photos TacoLu style.

Try the Verde, Bangin’ or Baja tacos – always made with the freshest ingredients. 

One of the most popular recent additions to THE PLAYERS food lineup, Taste of JAX has been upgraded for 2014 with an expanded patio, more seating and two new, local restaurants. New this year are 4 Rivers Smokehouse (Texas-style smokehouse); and Culhane’s Irish Pub (Irish-inspired cuisine). Returning from 2013 are Indochine (Thai and Southeast Asian cuisine); Metro Diner (classic American

Snag a slice of Pele's Wood Fire Pizza at Taste of Jax

fare); and Pele’s Wood Fire (modern Italian-American cuisine). Located between 11 green and 12 tee, this public venue also offers a Bacardi® open-air bar, permanent restrooms and video boards to keep up with the tournament action.

Insider tip: The Reuben Egg Rolls from Culhane’s Irish Pub are tasty, and oh, so portable!

The Food Court has been relocated to behind No. 16 green – near the Couples Gate, which provides more shade. You’ll find plenty of choices to satisfy everyone in the family: Winn Dixie Fresh Café (new in 2014, featuring fresh-made sandwiches, gluten-free and healthy food options); and Bono’s Pit Bar-B-Q; Brucci’s Pizza; Firehouse Subs; MShack; and Tropical Smoothie Café. Get your food, then stake out a shady spot at The Grove, an outdoor, shaded area located behind No. 17 tee. The expanded venue includes pavers, tabled seating and a large video board showcasing the Golf Channel and NBC broadcast you won’t miss any tournament action.

Best view and shrimp wraps too!  Sea Best 17 Deck

It’s hard to beat the views and atmosphere around No. 17, the most iconic hole in golf, but this year, thanks to the addition of the Sea Best 17 Deck, fans have a bird’s-eye view of the island green, No. 16 fairway and green as well as the 18^th tee box.  Open to the public, The Sea Best 17 Deck is a bleacher behind No. 17 green with a covered deck, misters to help fans stay cool, and a menu featuring Sea Best seafood. Try the Sea Best Shrimp Wrap and one of this year’s signature libations featuring Grey Goose Vodka.

Hang out on the Clubhouse Lawn!

If you have an upgraded Clubhouse ticket, don’t spend all your time indoors!  Hang out on the Clubhouse Lawn and enjoy food and beverages, available for purchase from award-winning TPC Sawgrass Nineteen.  In the shadow of the beautiful 77,000 square-foot clubhouse, the lawn offers ample chairs, umbrella tables and a view of No. 18 green.

New this year, the Michelob ULTRA Blue Room VIP Lounge is an exclusive venue located adjacent to Stadium Village. Tickets to the Blue Room include access to the grounds, as well as beer, wine, soda, water and upscale cuisine from select local restaurants such as Black Sheep and Mellow Mushroom. The Blue Room features outdoor games, music and themed days for a different experience each day of the tournament. Daily tickets cost $100 for Thursday; $125 for Friday; $125 for Saturday; and $100 for Sunday and are available exclusively on www.THEPLAYERSBlueRoom.com.

Pro tip:  Drink water, lots of it. Chilled, filtered drinking water is available in the permanent restrooms near The Patio, Taste of JAX and Wine & Dine on 9; so keep that bottle and refill it as many times as you’d like as a way to stay hydrated and save money at THE PLAYERS.

Thanks to THE PLAYERS for inviting me for a complimentary Taste of THE PLAYERS event so I could sample and snap some of the best of the best to share with you!

Bang Bang, Spicy Asian, Bangin' Firecracker Shrimp

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well prepare to witness some fine flattery, my friends.

As the Beasties have been out on the town, sampling the finest seafood on Florida's First Coast (with the occasional side trip), we've noticed a pattern emerging on appetizer menus all across town. It's a little phenom we like to call:

Bang Bang, Spicy Asian, Bing Bang, Bangin' Firecracker Shrimp.


At the heart of this dish is the lovely shrimp. Sweet, tender, slightly chewy. Battered or coated, fried, then lightly sauced with a creamy, sweet, hot Thai Chile inspired sauce. So now you've got sweet, creamy, hot, chewy, salty, crunchy goodness, piled in a dish or on the plate. Simple, yes, but insanely addictive. Thus all the imitation (er, flattery) cropping up all around town.


Let's start with the original. To the best of our knowledge (or at least what we were able to turn up by Googling it), Bonefish Grill is the OG of the Bang Bang Shrimp craze. Or should we say Original Bangsta!

A sweet, spicy, crunchy, chewy, creamy pile of shrimp, garnished with scallion tops and brought steamy hot to your table with a set of chopsticks. Everyone watches as the waiter navigates through the room with this dish, and then its like a chain reaction - ooohhh - I want THAT!

We love Bang Bang Shrimp. So much so, we hardly ever eat anything else at Bonefish. A couple of Sidecars and some Bang Bang Shrimp, a rockin' Crabcake app, and you've got the makings of a great evening. But I digress. This is all about the Bang Bang.

Lovers of the original can rejoice in the fact that you can get them for $5 (discounted from the usual $9) on Wednesdays.

As we made our way around town we felt compelled to compare the Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish Grill to the rest of the Bangin' crew. So we set out to perform a VERY unofficial taste test.

First up - Firecracker Shrimp - from Pusser's Bar and Grille in Ponte Vedra.

These are pretty awesome as well. Generous portion, the shrimp are a nice size, cooked and spiced just right. $8.50 - but you can get them half price during happy hour Mon-Fri 3-7pm, so if you can't wait for Bangin' Wednesday at BFG, c'mon down to my end of the beach and enjoy some of these babies for $4.25 ...

WAIT - it gets better! MONDAY is $4 Firecracker Day - so save that quarter for the soda machine at work. Wash 'em down with a Red Stripe - $2.50 all day, every day!

We have recently changed our opinion of Pusser's, thanks to a personal invitation from their new marketing manager (accompanied by a $50 gift certificate to defray the cost of our tastings there).

While we spent more than that on drinks alone during our explorations, we were for the most part pleased with what we found. A new menu was released last week, and we'll be posting on that shortly as well. But for the purposes of this post - we can say without prejudice that their Firecracker Shrimp was a pretty good representative of the category.

Then there's the craftily named Bing Bang Shrimp at Crazy Fish in Jax Beach. Yeah, they are not fooling anyone with THAT name.

Described on their menu as "jumbo crispy fried shrimp covered in our sweet island tropical sauce" - these were more sweet than spicy, more crunchy than anything.

The shrimp themselves were nicely done, but because they are larger, the portion seems smaller. Not as easily shared as most of the others.

They dress out the plate with some chunks of melon (to tame the heat which never quite came on) and a huge hush puppy (aka waste of space onion studded ball of dough). Seriously, people, what on earth is the deal with Hush Puppies? Leave these for the howling dogs. Focus on the good stuff.

Next up is another oddly presented contender - from Jackson's in Riverside - Blazin' Shrimp ($6) are reported to be seasoned Buffalo wing-style shrimp with a dipping sauce.

Six large shrimp for - you do the math - a buck a piece. Again, the individual shrimp were delish - but you won't want to share.


Our favorite of the Bang Bang Wannabe Gang was the Sock it to me Shrimp appetizer at The Blue Fish in Avondale - $6 on the lunch menu, $11 at dinner or on the bar menu. (We went at lunch - and it was a great bargain).

The portion was generous on this day - enough to share or have as a meal. The juicy shrimp were nicely breaded and fried, served piping hot with a coating of creamy Thai spiced sauce. The assertive heat stayed around after the dish was cleared. I'm thinking these were panko crusted - but I'm going to ask the server next time because they were my favorite in the coating category.

The light, crispy texture and the generous portion size have propelled this dish to the top of our lunch craving list. Sure, you could share, but you won't want to! Drizzle some of that lemon and dig in!


One of the biggest disappointments in the search for the perfect faux Bang Bang was this gloppy mess from Mitchell's Fish Market in St Johns Town Center.

Spicy Asian Shrimp came with sweet sticky rice, pickled cucumbers for a whopping $9.95. WAY too much money for WAY too much sauce covering WAY too small, WAY over-breaded shrimp.

The flavors were good - the spicy heat was there - but the textures were just wrong. And instead of a nice medium sized shrimp, these were tiny - almost salad sized, and not butterflied. The breading expanded when they cooked, so most of what was on that plate was breading, sauce, and air. The rice was nice, but mostly it was there to elevate the shrimp so the portion would look larger. The pickled cucumbers were soggy and limp. We tried the crab cake too - do NOT even get me started. Stick with the Kung Pao Calamari if you want a great fried seafood app at Mitchell's.

Speaking of alternatives - we couldn't let the Asian Shrimp app category go by without singing the praises of this delicious offering from Fuji Japanese Restaurant on Roosevelt Ave.

Shu Mai are tender, sweet shrimp dumplings - a bargain at $4.50.

If you drizzled a little shrimp sauce on them you'd have a Bangin' good replica - but don't - they are melt-in-your-mouth perfection with the accompanying dipping sauce.

Another controversial entry in the Bangin' category is the Bangin' Shrimp Taco $2.95 at Jax Beach fave rave Tacolu.

EVERYBODY raves about the Bangin' Shrimp Taco - everybody except me, it seems. My verdict - too sweet. The shrimp (about 3 to a taco) tasted like they've been candied. Hot, sure, sweet, hellz yeah.

Yet somehow it doesn't work for me. Don't get me wrong - We LOVE The Lu! But the Bangin' is the one taco on their menu I don't really much care for.

I wish they had other shrimp tacos - I do LOVE a good shrimp taco, just not sugar coated. In this one case, I'd say don't take my word for it, try it out - but ask the waitress about the "secret tacos" - and try them all -

So there you have it! Our verdict - the original is still the winner -
Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish Grill - can't say there's nothing like it, but we're sticking with the original.


Well, we sampled as many as we could find, but I'm sure we've left out some of your favorites - so if you know of another Bangin' Slammin' Rockin' Sockin' Asian Fried Shrimp Appetizer in town, please let us know!

In the interest of full diclosure - the fine folks whose work it is to promote the Bonefish Grill have asked us to compare them to another local seafood restaurant - and this time they've put their money where our mouths are - with a generous donation to the Beastie's dining fund! We'll be drawing those comparisons soon in another post.
Thanks to both Pusser's and Bonefish Grill for helping to make this the best seafood summer EVAH!

More Tacos for You!

Tacolu
Fiesta Central at Jacksonville Beach!



Baja Style tacos are the thing at TacoLu in Jax Beach, and of those I'm partial to the spicy Chingona Chicken and melt-in-your mouth Beef Brisket. Homemade tortillas and spot-on seasonings make these little gems a thing of beauty. I've loved everything I've tried here EXCEPT - Bangin' Shrimp Tacos - might be somebody's thing but they were too sweet for me - almost like candied shrimp. I wish they had an alternate shrimp taco on the menu, but no big, they have so many others to choose from.

They rock out some awesome specialty tacos, too. My personal favorite is Grilled Lamb with feta and mint - a handful of heaven on a homemade corn tortilla.

Another sure winner is the Taco Rosa - Seared Ahi Tuna with cucumber-avocado-tomato salsa. Vegetarians - they've got you covered too - with the Veggie and the Avocado tacos.

They've also got what they call a Stacked Enchilada - layered instead of rolled. I haven't tried it yet (so many tacos, so little time) but I saw it being served at a nearby table at my last visit - and it was a MONSTER! Can you say lunch AND dinner? Speaking of that - TacoLu recently added a brunch menu for the weekend. Anyone tried it yet? Report back, please! And yes, that is Corona in the can! Thankfully our bartender offered me a glass - I can only imagine that poor lime wedge floating around in the dark...

Atomic Flying Fish
Wow - what a great little place!


People kept telling me about this new taco place on Atlantic Beach, but nobody could remember its name or what it was called. I found a couple of interesting new places while I was searching, but not the taco nirvana everyone and their aunt Fannie was now raving about.

Then last weekend I was house and pet sitting for some friends in Atlantic Beach, and while looking for a spoon for my yogurt I found a menu for this place called Atomic Flying Fish Seafood... Voila - there were those awesome tacos! Armed with the name, address and the Prius' GPS I finally found it - tucked in next to a convenience store across from Al's Pizza.

Owner Buckley is friendly and earnest, and the place is clean with beach-casual decor. He tells me he first opened as a seafood shop, but the tacos were so popular he ditched the retail fish operation and focused on developing the taco stand side of things. Fish tacos are especially good here.

Grilled Grouper and Mahi were both great. The fish is fresh and well seasoned, perfectly prepared. Prices are a little higher than some spots, but you get a good portion, with lots of extras - red peppers were crisp and sweet, black beans and crema rounded out the Mahi special. I was anxious to get back to little Grommit the beagle, so I took mine to go and enjoyed them poolside. There is a small seating area though. If you go, tell Buckley that crazy chick from Nourish The Beast says hey. I'll be back, but probably not before I finish the 2009 Jacksonville Taqueria Tour!