New Restaurant on Merritt Island

It was such a beautiful day I decided to drive to Port Canaveral to take some photos. It was very windy and not too much wildlife was out. I decided I would head over to Merritt Island and maybe hit the bird sanctuary over there. As I started to cross over the causeway (SR 528 aka Beachline formerly Beeline) I remembered there was a small restaurant I wanted to visit at Harbortown Marina.

Here is a map...

I found the place and parked in the large parking lot provided. There were a few other vessels parked nearby...

The entrance was very Florida like with large palm trees and the building painted an island yellow, like a pineapple or banana...

The place is called the Island Dockside Grill and is located right on the water at the marina...

There is a large dining area inside, a large screened in patio, a small two-sided bar, and a few chairs out the bar door (to the left of the lady in pink) and a picnic table. This outside area is located next to a large pool, which I did not take a photo of, since people were swimming and they were not models. The other door goes into the outside dining area.

The menu had a section for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus an appetizer section. I decided to order the soft-shell crab sandwich from the lunch menu. I was seated at the bar and the bartender warned me this was not crab cakes. I told her I have had a spider roll before so I knew the crab would look like a crab. I am sorry I took the photo after I had ripped off the claws on one side and added the home-made remoulade sauce. The sandwich came with home-made chips but for a $1 extra you could add fries, more starch or steamed vegetables, which is what I got. The veggies included lots of broccoli, yellow carrots, green beans and red peppers. The sandwich was on a big roll with a leaf of lettuce, slice of tomato and two slices of red onion. The beer was a Shock Top.

While I was eating my lunch, I was talking to a lady who lives part time on a boat at the marina. She retired from a state job in Tallahassee after 30 years.  I told her about my quest for new restaurants and she liked the idea. I tried to get a few more photos from my bar seat but in trying to be discreet, they really do not show much.  The first is the bar area with dining area behind...

This photo, also taken from my bar seat, shows the view of the marina and outside dining area. I took this photo through a glass window.

I was greeted as I walked in by the bartender and said I would like to sit at the end of the bar. It was 15 minutes before she came to ask for my drink order and give me a menu. As I sat and talked to some of the people around me, I then realized that there were only two servers (the bartender being one of two) serving all the bar and both dining areas. I understood a little better for the initial wait. The bartender was very nice and told me what she liked on the menu, so did a few of the other regulars sitting at the bar.The food was very good so I would have given the place a score of 3.0, but I docked them down to 2.5 because of the wait. Even if she just handed me a menu and said she would be back for the drink order. It is the little things and as I go to more and more places, I realize how much the small gestures matter. Not to get philosophical, but maybe that is true in all things we do, make nice...