This weeks restaurant... Drifter's Marina and Grill.
Having only dined there once many years ago, on a recent visit I was completely and totally taken by surprise at the extensive menu, the staff and the overall general atmosphere of Drifter's Marina and Grill. It exceeded even my highest expectations.
On an impromptu boat ride, meaning we hitched a ride with someone who actually owns a boat...hubby points out that we do own boats... they are small and orange and commonly referred to as kayaks. I myself prefer the ones with motors if I am wandering say more than 50 feet from shore...I digress. So enjoying the company (that is code for boat) of our host and good friend Jimmy, we find ourselves tootling along at a quick clip of 5 mph through the Kiva area. This exhilarating speed with which we traveled caused us all to become famished. Jimmy pulled us into Drifter's. We take one look at our apparel and realize some of us will be staying on the boat.
Interestingly enough, as the only female on the boat I was the only one with enough clothing on to accompany Jimmy to the restaurant. Once we walked the length of the dock and visited with people we knew along the thatched roof outside dining area (all the while wondering why these folks hadn't told me about this great hide-away) we finally made it inside. We were greeted with smiles galore and blessedly cool air. How it was cool was beyond me as I saw a freshly made pizza moving through an open brick oven, hot flames licking the pizza.
Luckily Jimmy knew what we were going to eat for if I had to choose something from the menu it would have been an order that sounded something like this, "Um, well, one of everything please." 15 minutes later we headed back to the boat with to-go containers for all along with ice and drinks for the cooler on board. So this is really hard to picture, but when each testosterone filled creature bit into their lunches, the groans they produced were primal. Keep in mind...Jimmy had ordered all of us hotdogs. Yup, that's it, hotdogs. But evidently not just any hotdogs because these hotdogs had these guys groaning like there was no tomorrow. Lets not even talk about the beer batter french fries. The poor ducks begging by our boat went hungry that day for not one french fry was left, not even a small scrap of bun. Gone, devoured.
As they all lay back with their eyes rolling back in their heads succumbing to some sort of hotdog coma my son in law began the clean up process. It turned out not to be too hard, because the sweet waitress had seen us cleaning up and met him halfway to collect our trash. Now THATS service!!!
I hear from Jimmy that each time he has dined there it has been a great experience. Not one to take someone's word for such a thing I will just have to dine there again...and again...and again.
For more information on Drifters Marina and Grill visit:
http://www.driftersmarina.com/Site/Welcome.html
By, Charity Maness
(My little
disclaimer: 'To dine or not to dine' is meant to be a helpful - and
humorous - informational piece only. I receive no monetary compensation for
this column nor do I endorse any one eatery. This is simply my opinion. My
tastes will be different from others and I readily admit that I have no
culinary background, but I am pretty confident I know when food is cooked
correctly or not, whether a drink is poured well or not and especially whether
wait staff is first-rate or in need of a career change.)
