45 Central: A Wine AND Dine Bar
Setting the bar

By Sarah Murphy Robertson

A well-appointed wine bar tucked into Seaside’s charming town center, 45 Central Wine Bar is another 30A masterpiece from chef and owner, Jim Shirley. This Wine Spectator award-winning restaurant is an intimate gathering spot for lingering to enjoy exclusive vintages and imaginative fare including sushi, small plates, and weekend brunch.

Wine Spectator‘s restaurant awards recognize those who offer a wide variety of selections and pair beautifully with their set cuisine. To qualify for an Award of Excellence as 45 Central has, wine lists must include at least 90 selections from an assortment of quality producers. 45 Central offers 135 at a moderate price point and its strengths include California wines.

Ever-changing with availability and seasonality, the dining menu at 45 Central is a spectrum of selections, all expertly suited for the wine they pour.

Classic companions to wine, the cheese plate and the charcuterie platter are carefully chef-chosen to include a rotating array of artisanal cheeses and delicious cuts of boutique meats.

Creative twists like a queso skillet made with melted brie and fontina, and an Asian-inspired Caesar salad punctuated with Miso, further shows the chef-driven. Vegetarian options are also not your standbys. They include a hummus trio of black-eyed peas, edamame, and chickpea dips; seasonal veggie sushi roll; or their Kale Maharaja – a stewed kale dish comprised of braised onions, tomatoes, and punchy Indian spices.

45 Central’s sushi is another popular guest favorite. Bringing bold flavor and heat, their Afterburner Roll is made with spicy tuna, avocado, freshly sliced jalapeño pepper and finished with Sriracha chili sauce. Make sure to order alongside a crisp and cooling glass of white.

And while known for rolls crafted from Gulf seafood, Shirley never stops innovating. Sushi comprised of filet mignon with a red wine demi glace is perfect for pairing with a Cabernet, and a duck confit roll was made for accompanying a glass of Pinot Noir.

“I like using form but mixing flavors,” he explained. “I’ve been playing around with porcini mushrooms and sundried tomatoes for a sushi with an Italian influence,” he shared.

Shirley also hails the talents of Joyce Russell, the master chef behind their much-craved paella.

“She worked hard to help get the recipe right. We vary up the sausages and it makes for a really great paella,” he explained. This festive dish is offered on Wednesday and Friday nights. By 5 p.m. the cooking has begun and the smells wafting through town will lead you straight to 45 Central.

Weekends in Seaside are ideal for brunching and they offer a great one at 45 Central between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. The brunch menu changes slightly with the seasons, but as Chef said, they make sure all the bases are covered, from crispy waffles to fresh fruit parfaits. And what is brunch without a bubbly mimosa? Try them here with orange, grapefruit, or mango juices.

After relaxing and delighting in creative sips and bites, guests can leave with the wines they’ve discovered. All labels are available for purchase by the bottle (or the case) thus making those new favorites ones easily revisited again. Open seven days a week, 45 Central is raising the bar for wine aficionados, foodies, and everyone in between.

45 Central Square is appropriately located at 45 Central Square in Seaside. Phone them at 850-231-4545 or visit online at www.fortyfivecentral.com. Open weekdays 2 p.m. to midnight and weekends 9 a.m. to midnight.

30th annual event sells out at Baytowne Wharf

By Michelle Farnham

MIRAMAR BEACH – A sold-out crowd filled Baytowne Wharf Feb. 16 for the 30 th
annual Sandestin Gumbo & Bloody Mary Festival. Tasting up to 19 samples, ticket-
holders everywhere employed The Gumbo Hunch: shoulders rounded and necks
extended, while blowing on the piping hot Creole stew.

Chef Jay Ammons of Slick Lips Seafood & Oyster House tweaked his recipe from last
year, a move that earned his restaurant the top prize in the newcomer category.

“This is a gumbo with shrimp, fresh lump crabmeat, chopped scallops, crawfish, and
Andouille sausage. I think this year we’re going to bring it all home,” he said
prophetically from behind his Mardi Gras mask.

To attract the taste buds of voters, some entrants added a little something extra to
their gumbo offering. Herbert’s Specialty Meats doled out their fresh-sliced boudin
sausage, Dewey Destin’s plated jalapeño hush puppies, and Crab Island Cantina
dished up signature Spanish rice with their stew.

A few entrants really threw the Yankees for a loop, serving their gumbo atop potato
salad, rather than the more widely known rice base.

Native Louisiana Chef Lisa Carline with The Hunting Hookers booth scratch-made
her duck and oyster gumbo with potato salad – a 50-plus-year-old family recipe. She
said using potato salad is a Louisiana tradition born of necessity.

“Rice was so expensive back in the day, and Louisiana families didn’t have access to
rice. But everyone grew potatoes and had chickens, so potato salad was more of a
staple,” Carline explained. “This is what I grew up on; this is the only gumbo I know.”

New this year was a Bloody Mary competition, with 11 booths passing out this most
spicy of cocktails. The wharf became a veritable sea of crudité, and some
competitors got creative with the garnish. Hartell’s Village Diner used their Krispy
Krunchy Chicken and pickled okra, while Boathouse Oyster Bar used freshly
shucked raw oysters!

Representing Village Door Music Hall, Alvah Brooks shook up their dry rub
seasoning, honey, and house tomato juice blend, all garnished with a green bean, for
one of the day’s more unique offerings.

“Does this have cinnamon or ginger?” one curious patron asked, but Brooks only
smiled and shrugged, unwilling to give up the secret recipe.

Robin Evans of Colorado Springs, Colo., was impressed with the festival’s vibe and
seafood offerings – something she doesn’t get much of in the mountains.

“It’s absolutely amazing!” she said. “I’m so full already and we haven’t even done
half!” She pointed out Steamboat Grill’s gumbo as her early favorite.

Evans admitted her strategy for making it to every booth was to ditch the garnish.

“I just stopped eating the olives and stuff because that’s what was filling me up!” she
said. “The Bloody Mary is so thick, it just fills around all the gumbo in your stomach.”

A panel of judges – WJHG reporters Scott Rossman and Paris Janos, Phil Heppding of
30A Food & Wine, Jennifer Fitzgerald of Imperium Blue, and Bo Reynolds of
Highway 98 Country Radio – did a blind taste-testing to determine winners in
several categories, along with the people’s choice division.

Planning is already underway for the 31 st annual Sandestin Gumbo & Bloody Mary
Festival, Feb. 15, 2020. Money raised benefits the Sandestin Foundation for Kids.

*********

Best Gumbo: Non-Restaurant Participants
1 – ($300) Hunting Hookers
2 – ($250) Herbert’s Specialty Meats – Destin

Best Gumbo: 5 Years & Under Participants
1 – ($750) Slick Lips Seafood & Oyster House – Baytowne Wharf
2 – ($500) Hartell’s Village Diner – Baytowne Wharf
3 – (tie) Cabana Café (Miramar Beach), Hurricane Oyster Bar – Grayton Beach
5 – ($250) Boathouse Oyster Bar – Destin

Honorable Mention – ($100) SteamBoat Grill 30A – Seagrove Beach

Best Gumbo: Veteran Participants
1 – ($750) Harry T’s – Destin
2 – ($500) Marina Bar & Grill – Baytowne Wharf
3 – ($300) Crab Island Cantina – Destin
4 – ($250) Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. – Destin

Best Gumbo: People’s Choice
1 – ($400) Crab Island Cantina – Destin)
2 – ($300) Dewey Destin’s Harborside Restaurant – Destin
3 – ($200) Slick Lips Seafood & Oyster House – Baytowne Wharf

Best Gumbo: Community Broadcasters Award – ($1,000 advertising package)
Slick Lips Seafood & Oyster House – Baytowne Wharf

Best New Participant – ($100) Hartell’s Village Diner – Baytowne Wharf

Best Bloody Mary – People’s Choice
1 – ($400) Crab Island Cantina – Destin
2 – ($300) Sunset Bay Café – Sandestin
3 – ($200) AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar – Destin

Best Display – ($50) Hurricane Oyster Bar – Grayton Beach

Beach fare to please the crowd

By Stephanie Burt

By its nature, 30A means family-friendly, and family-friendly by nature means pizza. Pizza feeds a crowd, pizza pleases the kids, and pizza usually pleases the parents, too. For those who don’t want to get out of a bathing suit, it’s the perfect call-and-pick-up order, or for those who do but are a little too tired to dress up for the evening, an in-restaurant pizza party makes sense, and everybody goes home happy.

So, it makes sense there are plenty of places to score a pie on 30A, but here are three slices of pizza heaven – starting with a restaurant with four locations – that need to be on your radar this season. They celebrate families and they welcome guests into theirs with pizzas made fresh, hot from the oven.

Pizza By the Sea

Pizza by the Sea has just opened its newest location on Highway 98 in the Market Shops of Miramar Beach. It’s the fourth for the 30A mainstay, and although expanding was not in the original plan for owners Jason and Kristi Beer, they went with the flow.

“We bought this business, and it had one location, in 2011 from wonderful brand creators,” Kristi said. “We’d been tourists here for about 10 years, and we thought we were going to slow down a bit by moving here, but Pizza by the Sea staff members were just ready to grow, and we went with it.”

It’s important to the couple that all the restaurants have a child-friendly and general family-friendly environment, and they encourage their team members to get to know guests, many of whom return annually on vacation. Additionally, Pizza by the Sea focuses on local community involvement, from supporting school teams and recreational leagues, to donating food and funds to a variety of charities.

To that end, the Beers stress that each one of their four locations has its own feel, its own vibe, which grows organically out of the community that grounds it.

“We work to try to adapt with that,” Jason said, “not fight it and make it cookie cutter. It’s fun to see how the different places evolve.”

The menu has evolved a bit as well since he and his wife have taken over the business. There is still the popular Kickin’ Chicken, with basil pesto, grilled chicken, feta cheese, bacon and red onions, and of course, plenty of pies with sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella, but these days Pizza By the Sea offers a gluten-free crust option and Yum bowls: all the toppings of the pizza sans crust.

Kristi explains that “We love eating here, but we needed a lower-carb option since we eat here so much. We created the Yum Bowls for us but they’ve really caught on for the customers. It’s a fun twist.” And that’s the motto of Pizza by the Sea: familiar but fun twists made for family-friendly meals, with a smile.

With locations in WaterColor, Gulf Place, Seacrest, and Sandestin, visit them online at www.pizzabythesea.com for contact information and hours.

Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta

This iconic 30A eatery has been open since 1993, so it’s easy to say that many children have grown up with Angelina’s cheese bread being as much of a tradition of their beach vacations as the sugar sand beach afternoons. The green and white striped awning is a mainstay along this stretch of 30A, but it’s what is behind it that really keeps the customers lining up on a busy Saturday evening.

Angelina’s is a family atmosphere, welcoming families to eat and with a staff that in many ways functions as one. That vibe seems to carry over to the menu as well. Italian classics like Veal Marsala and Linguine with Clam Sauce are available in addition to the pizza – something unusual for “pizza joints” in these parts. There’s been a little updating through the years – the prices have changed with the times and the tickets are no longer handwritten – but the New York style thin crust pizza, hand-tossed and delivered hot to the table is still the same, calzones are just as stuffed with cheese that oozes with every bite, the Antipasta Salad is just as cool and filling on a hot day as it always was, and familiar faces greet you with a smile.

Angelina’s Pizzeria & Pasta can be found at 4005 East Co. Hwy. 30A, in the Seagrove Beach area of Santa Rosa Beach. They serve Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Visit them on the web at www.angelinas30a.com.

Southside Slice

One of the newest kids on the block, Southside Slice in Rosemary Beach, delivers just what it promises: slices of pizza without the commitment to purchase the whole pie, though, of course, whole pies are available, too. Slices are $6 a piece with toppings $1 each, so variety is the name of the game, which makes it perfect for large parties or quick trips off the beach.

Beyond the slice menu, the specialty pizza menu has some standouts, namely the Surf & Turf Pizza, topped with shrimp, pork belly, and shitake mushrooms, all atop a white sauce. Rich and decadent, the large size usually assures that most guests will go home with a leftover slice. The sub sandwich menu is also substantive, and there’s beer, wine, and plenty of soda choices for your Southside pairings. It’s casual, convenient, and yet there’s plenty to come back for at Southside Slice.

Southside Slice is at 74 Town Hall Road, Suite 1B, in Rosemary Beach. Hours run 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Find them online at www.slice30a.com.

The Terrace Restaurant

Classic restaurant touches live on in Inlet Beach

By Stephanie Burt

Sometimes it is the lapping waves that attract someone, gentle and clear blue as they wash up on white sands. Other times it’s the slower pace, the quiet nights or the mornings punctuated by the sound of palm fronds whipping in the wind. And for some, such as Chefs Thom and Kathy Kindos, it was all of that and more.

“Originally we were just visiting though the area, passing through, and fell in love with the quiet, surreal area surrounding us,” Kathy remembered. “At the time, New York City had become very overwhelming and we wanted a little tranquility and peace.”

So the couple left the city and the Kindos’s long-standing family tradition in the New York restaurant business. They expanded that tradition to 30A with the opening of The Terrace Restaurant in August of 1990, and have been serving guests in the same spot ever since.

“We have customers that have been coming here since August 1990, and we have served three generations of their families,” she said proudly. They’ve been serving food to families in the same building since the beginning, which is nestled in the curve of Highway 98 before it intersects with 30A a short distance to the west.

Inlet Beach is essentially a quiet, residential neighborhood, despite its proximity to the more popular Panama City Beach. Many of the families who visit like to keep things quiet and build traditions, and that includes at least an annual trip to The Terrace Restaurant. What keeps them coming back? Well, the food of course, which is fresh and flavored with Mediterranean tradition, often while using local seafood as the star of the plate. To Kathy, the appeal is simple.

“We just offer great variety of seafood, steaks, poultry, lobster and lamb and accommodate everyone’s appetite,” she said. “You can really tell that each dish is prepared to order using the freshest ingredients – and you do not feel rushed!”

Chef Thom helms the savory side of the menu, with popular items such as the Grouper Gourmet, pan-seared in a Chardonnay Sauce of artichokes, wild mushrooms and fresh herbs, or Parmesan-Seared Chicken, served with fried shrimp. Each entree comes with a choice of Greek or house salad, a classic restaurant touch that is hard to find these days. That’s an example of the attention to detail – which also includes homemade tartar and cocktail sauces for the fried plates – that keeps patrons coming back.

If patrons save room for dessert, Kathy tempts them with a variety of treats, the most popular of which is her coconut cake, a fitting dessert for a dinner in a beachfront paradise.

In a world of “restaurant concepts,” “fast casual,” and tasting menus, The Terrace Restaurant is a throwback in the best sense of the word, mainly because they have never stopped doing what they are doing: providing good food to families in a relaxed atmosphere. They are a true “Mom and Pop” place, run by two people who fell in love with the area and decided to make it their home. They hope you feel at home, too, after a visit to their restaurant.

The Terrace Restaurant is situated at 13741 U.S. Highway 98 in Inlet Beach. For reservations or more information, call 850-231-5202 or visit www.terracer.com. Meals are served Tuesday to Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.