Local Places

I really try to put a positive spin on all my adventures, especially ones I do for the Chronicle Online.  If you read my post last week, you may have thought that it was rather bland.  I’m not a restaurant critic so I try to keep my personal opinions to myself—at least on the Chronicle!

My Chronicle Online Blog post was about our quest for the best chicken wing place in Citrus County.  Our first stop was the Cove Pub and Grub in Inverness.  I had been to the Cove many years ago, before they built the new one.  I remember having a great time. 

On this visit we went there with two other couples.  We’d had a fun day of checking out Lake Pana and all its fish camps, bars and restaurants.  The Cove was supposed to be the highlight of the tour.  We got there about 3 pm and we were practically the only ones in the place.  The server acted like she was doing us a favor by waiting on us.  We may have been on the loud side because we were all very happy, but hey, this is a bar!  Not fine dining. 

Most of us ordered wings, fries, and beer.  How hard can that be?  It took forever for the food to come out, there wasn’t much there, and it really wasn’t all that great.  When another group of six came in, they were seated right next to us.  Really?  This place is huge. 

We  joked with the other group (they had cake so we wanted to be friends).  One of the women resembled Paula Deen so everyone started calling her that and she was funny until she suddenly asked me my political affilitation.  When I replied, this woman turned UGLY!  I’m not putting her picture here because I’m afraid she’ll track me down and set fire to Perfect.   I have fears. 

A few weeks later Terry and I went to Lollygaggers on 19 just south of Crystal River.  We’ve been there a few times and it’s a really nice sports bar with a lot of TVs.  Although we made sure we went after the lunch rush, the place was slammed.  And there was only one server besides the bartender.  She told us that they stay busy until 3 pm.  Although it was crazy in there, the server was pleasant and quickly took our orders.  It took a while for our wings to show up but I expected that since that’s got to be a little kitchen!  The wings were really good and our one order of fries was huge.  I would go back there again—just a little later in the day. 

Last Thursday we finally made it to Coaches in downtown Inverness.  We have walked by this restaurant many times but never went in because the windows are all black–I really couldn’t tell what was in there.  But once we went through the doors, we were pleasantly surprised.  It’s very light and bright, has two pool tables, and 40 beers on draft!  And our server, Christine, was great.  There weren’t many other diners but we didn’t get there until about 2 pm.  I’m assuming most of their customers are from the courthouse and local businesses and lunch hour was long over.  Christine noticed my camera right away and after we had eaten our wings and drank our beer, we told her about the blog.  She was so sweet and let me take her picture.  In the future, when we are downtown Inverness, we will be going to Coaches.  And I think I’ll be taking Andrew, our future son-in-law, when he’s here in a few weeks.  40 BEERS ON DRAFT!

And the quest continues…..