Crescent City
I decided to leave I-95 behind and travel on U.S. 17 for a bit. I spotted a little outdoor Mexican cafe on the East side of 17, just South of the light at Central Ave. It is called El Amigo, open 7 days a week until 8 p.m. They make their tortillas by hand, served nicely grilled. The food was cooked to order, tasty and reasonably priced. The most exciting part of the delicious meal were the sweet tamale options. There was a sweet corn, a guava and I think the third was pineapple. I had the sweet corn which was wrapped in the purple outer petal of the banana flower. It was lovely, subtlety sweet. Times like this I wish I was capable of eating much more!
The young woman who took orders at the window was knowledgeable, helpful and proud of their menu. English was not a problem. The diners were evenly split between Hispanic and non-Hispanic, and all seemed very happy with their meal. The menudo at the table next to me looked fantastic. The Florida heat made that option not too appealing to me...
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re: meatn3
meatn3
Sep 10, 2009 10:38 PM
This place is seriously good! Tacos, tamales $1.50 each. Really nice horchata too. They don't have all menu options every day, but there is plenty to choose from. They have some larger dinner plates too.
It is a lovely detour too - pretty country. There were some signs north(?) of Crescent City advertising elk jerky, but I never did spot the outlet...
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bcodom, Maybe you are thinking of the Sprague House , www.spraguehouse.com . I have stayed there many times when I used to attend the Catfish Festival in Crescent City., but I haven't been in years. I always loved that little city.
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re: bcodom
Bumstead
Sep 11, 2009 06:18 AM
My friend lives just down the street. He says the Sunday brunch at Sprague House is fantastic. We always walk down to 3 Bananas when I visit. It's a great place for a drink (or two or three) by the lake on a lazy Sunday afternoon. He reported seeing a small school of manatees just last week churning in the water by the boat launch. He watched for about 45 minutes before they all stopped and took off.
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Sounds delightful! My husband and I love to drive up that way (from Altamonte) once and a while and will definitely look for El Amigo on next trip.....thanks for posting.
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re: bcodom
meatn3
May 25, 2009 11:20 PM
I was on 17 from De Land to Orange Park. There appeared to be 6 or more BBQ possibilities, but it was Sunday and most seemed closed...Have you tried any on this route? I also had a chance to stop by the E. Palatka fruit stand (?) and bought their last datil pepper plant! I hope my non-green thumb can keep it going long enough to make some Minorcan chowder. The stand wasn't as big as I remembered, but then my last visit had been in '81!
The drive gave a nice glimpse of the Florida I remember from my youth, which keeps getting harder to find.
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re: meatn3
The only restaurant we've stopped at up that way is the some place on the lake In Crescent City whose name I can't recall -- two story older building with a deck on the water playing the ubiquitous (and so tiring) Jimmy Buffet music. Don't recall the food so it must not have been that great. That fruit stand sounds like another great find. Just give your pepper plant lots of sun and with all this rain, he'll do fine!
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re: bcodom
Crescent City,,,what a place!!
It's a growing town with a big mexican migrant worker population. Kinda like deleon springs. This whole area is very chow worthy if you know where to go. If you drive south towards Barberville take a right on hwy 40 until you get to the saint johns river.
There you will find THE BEST fried catfish in florida at a place called the Blackwater inn. There are several fried fish joints along this strech of road./
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