"Honey Pie"

 I am happy to report that I completed the goals I sent for 2025 related to dining. In the past few years I was too focused on going to new places, and not returning to the places I really liked. So for 2025 (and probably 2026), I set the goal to eat at 12 New places and also to eat at 52 different places. I  did both.

Before I go into the details of my dining experiences in 2025, I want to report that Taco City on A1A in south Cocoa Beach has closed the restaurant that has been there since 1980. I stopped and took this shot of the sign at the current location, but it was already closed. I did not eat there in 2025. I did eat tacos out nine different times.

I went looking for some pictures of Taco City and found this one from 2002. Here are Barbara, Eric, Nancie, hidden person, BJ, Nancy and Allan. This team was working on a War Simulator project in Orlando. I think I treated them to lunch at Taco City. I see no beers so I assume it was a working lunch.

Taco City was one of my favorites through the years but most times I went by myself. I loved the hard chicken tacos which they cooked in oil with the chicken in the shell. I have heard they are moving to a new place in Cocoa Beach. It will never be the same though.

Here are the twelve new places I dined at in 2025. Almost all were rated by me between Great and Excellent. I had one 4.5 at Crush Eleven and one 2.5 at Fiesta Bar & Grill. These two places are within a short walk of each other in downtown Melbourne. There is a review below of the last place, Dirty Birds Tiki Bar.

Here are the 52 places I went to in 2025. The purple highlighted are the New ones. There were eight places I rated 4.0 or above, all excellent.

I actually went out to eat 90 times in 2025, about a quarter of the time. Realize that there are typically three meals per day for over 1000 meals, so I ate less than 10% of my meals out. One Important side note; I went the whole year without doing fast-food or take out or delivery. I tried to eat healthy meals out or that I made.

The next table shows all 90 places, grouped by Restaurant Type. The leading place was ten visits to Lou's Blues. not sure how that happened. In second was nine visits to Nomad's Canteen in EGAD. The third most visited place was five trips to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. That makes sense since I own the place.

I have included some photos of the new Dirty Birds Tiki Bar in Cocoa Beach. My score was only a three (Great)  because they were out of the conch chowder, and my conch fritters never came. They made me another order of the fritters and comped me the cost. They were delicious and I am told that the chowder is made in house. I will give them another chance. This is the kind of place you take visitors from the North.

The conch fritters had lots of conch chunks throughout. Yummy!!

I wanted to give a special mention to 28 North Gastropub in Viera. This is the sweet potato cobia chowdah (see menu in following photo). It was delicious. This was my second visit here and I plan to go more. The food has been great and so are the people. BTW, I live at 28 North Latitude, hence the name. Viera is the fastest growing area in Brevard County and there are lots of new places opening up. Hell, they even have a Trader's Joe now.

So, now I get to prepare my spreadsheets for 2026. My invitation is always open to anyone who wants to try a new place, or enjoy an existing place, just call me.

About Title

"Honey Pie" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). The song was written entirely by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership.

The song is a direct homage to the British music hall style. It concerns a famed actress, called only by the term of endearment "Honey Pie", who becomes famous in the United States, and her old lover, who wishes for her to rejoin him in England. The premise – a humble admirer yearning for the return of his lover – is not unlike a typical music hall plot. To establish an appropriate, old-timey sound, the band added the third line, "Now she's hit the big time!", along with "crackles" taken from a 78 rpm record. The song begins with a slower intro, and becomes fast after that.