Local Places, Local Faces

Although Terry and I were crazy busy all of December with friends and family, we did squeeze in three visits to local restaurants for chicken wings. After all, we do have a goal of hitting all of Citrus County restaurants that serve wings and not even the holidays can stop us!

The first restaurant we stopped at this month was Gator Cove which was highly recommended by some friends. They liked the quality of the food, the prices and the service. Gator Cove is a small waterside pub located in the Bella Oasis Hotel in Homosassa Springs. We arrived about 1:00 and we were both surprised at how busy the place was. Almost all of the tables and the bar were full but we were quickly greeted by the server and in no time we were munching on wings and fries. Terry had dry rub and I had medium wings with blue cheese. The beer was served in a very frosty mug which was a nice touch. Our friends were right about their recommendation.

We returned to the Shamrock Inn for our second visit of the month. The Shamrock Inn won our little wing contest in November. But we had a friend visiting us from Houston and I wanted to take her to Floral City plus Terry didn’t get to participate in the previous judging. As usual, Terry ordered dry rub and this time the flavor was blackened–but too much blackening. He had to shake it off before he could eat the wings. Cheryl had hot wings which she said were very good. We also had onion rings, french fries and jalapeno poppers which were all yummy.

Our final wing challenge was at Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steakhouse in Old Homosassa. We went there on Sunday since their wings are 50 cents each on Wednesday and Sunday! So Neon Leon had two things going for it before we even arrived–close to home and cheap! There was a group of five for this judging. We arrived after the lunch hour and before the band starts so it wasn’t very busy. Everyone had the hot wings except for Terry who had cajun dry rub. Our son-in-law Andrew also had the jambalaya and said it was excellent. The french fries were so good that we made a second order after devouring the first. I really liked that they gave us baskets of blue cheese and ranch dressing in little containers. Our server was friendly and was quick to notice when we were out of drinks. Terry said that these were the best wings for the month so Neon Leon’s is our winner!

Any suggestions for wing locations for January, let me know!

Our friend Cheryl flew in from Houston a few weeks ago for the most happiest day of the year–Cookie Day! Only girls allowed and we spend an entire weekend baking cookies–and laughing. Since Cheryl was here a day early, we thought we’d show her a unique spot in Citrus County—Floral City.

There are two ways to get to Floral City from Homosassa. We decided to take the scenic route—Stagecoach Trail. As we drove, Cheryl said she was a little concerned about being left in the Withlacoochee State Forest to find her way home. Silly girl!

Once we made it to Floral City, we parked at the library and stopped at the meditation garden, a very lovely spot. Then we ate a late lunch at Shamrock’s—chicken wings and other assorted deep-fried treasures. Terry missed out on the trip to Shamrock’s last month so we needed to get his input for the great Chicken Wing Quest.

Next we picked up some fresh produce and visited with Aunt Martha who was as friendly and full of information as ever.

Getting across Highway 41 from Aunt Martha’s Produce Stand to Frog Holler is next to impossible. While there is a light and a button to push for walkers, there’s no sidewalk. When we finally got a break in traffic and darted across, some guy honked at us.  But I’m going to assume he was just welcoming us to Floral City. At Frog Holler we checked out the little shops, concrete creatures, chickens, and plants then walked to the Florida Artist Gallery and admired the art. The artist on duty that evening was cheerful and entertained us with stories about several of the displays.

We took the route back to Homosassa through Inverness so we wouldn’t scare our guest on the back roads after dark. It was a great afternoon and we enjoyed sharing one of our favorite places with a friend.