2022 Dining

 For the third year in the row, I have come up short on my Bucket List item to eat at a new restaurant every two weeks. I can blame the pandemic for 2020 and partially for 2021, but I have no good excuse for 2022. In 2019, I hit 26 new places, meeting the set goal, but I only had six and five the next two years. At least I went to seven this year, an increase. Let's just say I am trending in the right direction.

I should mention that in 2022 that 80 new restaurants opened in Brevard County. I am currently adding these to my bucket list.

Sadly, one of the new places is now one of the Closed places. El Rincon Latino, walking distance from my house, did not survive. The storefront has been removed and a trash bin sits full out front, but there is a sign above  the entrance with a new Latin place coming soon called Waterfalls. I have not seen any other publicity except for the sign.

Since my last post on new places, I have been to three new ones for me.

Chez Quan's Beachside

High on my list is a place called Chez Quan's which is located in Melbourne and I have not been to it yet. Then I saw that they opened a second place Beachside and named it appropriately Chez Quan's Beachside. In late September, I really should have been back in school, but I decided to give it a try. I found this blurb online:

Owner Adam Woodworth, 41, is the vessel and his mother and Co-Owner, Ounjit “Quan” Rutirasiri, is the soul of the restaurant. The local eatery is Rutirasiri’s dream presented with Woodworth’s flare and love of everything hip-hop, including graffiti art.

Adam was at the beachside restaurant when I went. He was talking about running for city council which I see he did not win. But he seems like a nice young man.

Some of the art work for sale at the Beachside facility. They do not have sit down seating but you order at the counter. You then find a seat and they will bring you the food when it is ready.

Not having been before, I ended up ordering something simple but remembered they are know for their bowls. This is the Tom Yum Yum Sammie with a side of fries. The potatoes were excellent but I wished I ordered the bowl and not the Sammie. It was very good. The drinks are just cans of soda or other items, there was no fountain drinks that I could see.

I did like the sign. It was not very busy when I was there so the food came out fairly quickly. I spent the time perusing the art work.

It is located off of A1A just south of the Pineda Causeway. This is the sign. I think there might be a strip club in that same shopping center, not that I have ever been to one.

I gave the place a 3.0 (Great) for the fries and the other food I saw them bring out, My sandwich was just a 2.0 (Good). I will go back and I will try a bowl. But it will probably be the Melbourne location since that will be new for me.

Lily's Mediterranean Fresh Grill

I am not sure how long this place has been open. It is very small and just across from the boardwalk in Indiatlantic. Right next to Bizarros pizza. If you are going to go to a Mediterranean restaurant, I figured you have to try the gyro. This is my gyro and side Greek salad. Just like Chez Quan's, sodas are delivered in the can.

When you walk in the front door, there is a counter and you are greeted by two very nice ladies. You can sit at a table but I think I ordered at the counter. They brought me the food when it was ready.

This is the main entrance as seen from the parking lot. Their parking is free but there are meters for the beach parking. I went during the week so there were not many customers.

I give the place a 2.5 (Good to Great). The food was great and there was a lot of meat on the Gyro sandwich. I think I took off some for it being a beachside place. It has a very laid back vibe and I am sure it would be great to visit while spending a day at the beach. But it is not fancy. I felt like people would show up in their swim suits.

Pub Americana

My cousin Patti has been wanting to take me out for a birthday meal since August. I think she just wanted to be in my Blog. That is her in the picture on the right. This is the second Pub Americana in Brevard, the first is located in Cocoa Village. This one is located in downtown Melbourne where the Ole restaurant was previously.

As you can see, they have a full bar and they do have Guinness on tap, always a plus for me.  It is kind of a sports bar and they are known for their huge hamburgers. Patti ordered a chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. It was also huge. I think it was the Village Chicken Ciabatta sandwich with grilled organic chicken breast, apple wood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, baby arugula and smoked berry BBQ sauce. Comes with fries but she upgraded.

I ordered a salad and the Creamy Cajun Garlic Wings. The salad was wonderful but I should have ordered a burger. Did I say the salad was great?

My problem wit the wings was the sauce. I thought that the word Cajun joined with Garlic would be somewhat spicy, but the Creamy seemed to be the only correct adjective. The wings were big and cooked great, so next time if I don't want the burger, I will get a different flavor of wings.

I give the place a 3.0 (Great). The service was great and the food was mostly great, they need to learn what Cajun is...

So 2023 is just a few days away. My plan is to get back on track and hit a new place every two weeks. I have only entered about 20 of the new 80 places from the newspaper. Some I had already added throughout the year. Again, if there is a place you want to try, call me up.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!