Miami, FL: Books & Books

Before I went to Miami I had researched cheap eats in the Miami area and I kept finding restaurants that sounded great but they were off the strip. I find it irritating when my meal is off course from the rest of my day. I never rent cars when I go on vacation because I’m not willing to drive 40 minutes away from the beach to eat great seafood at a bargain price. If I have to spend twenty dollars on gas to eat cheap seafood then it’s not cheap seafood.

The last time I was in Miami, Florida I was lucky enough to have my friend Jessi Ballard from college meet me for lunch.

Ms. Ballard took me to a Food Find right in the heart of South Beach. Books & Books is a local, independent, book store located on the famous Lincoln road. It is the New York equivalent to Strand but with food; just a quaint, clean, local book store, with readings, affordable books, and great food!

I had actually passed it a few times and noticed there was a small café on the side of the book store where people were enjoying salads and drinks, but I underestimated the range in menu.

I ordered the crab cake sandwich with fries and a salad. The crab cake was cleverly shaped like an actual crab and golden fried on crusty, fresh focaccia bread with a generous side of fries and vegetables. Not bad for about thirteen dollars.

The crab cake tasted like it was pure lump crab meat, which is the key to a really fresh tasting crab cake. Other places often use claw meat, which some people prefer, but the flavor is a little too intense for me. Lump crab meat to claw meat is like comparing chicken breast to dark meat chicken.

I was too full for dessert but I never go to Florida without eating key lime pie, and I had been on a hunt for key lime pie all week. Finding a good key lime pie was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be so after confirming Books & Books served freshly prepped food I ordered two slices of key lime pie for the road, one for me and one for my honey who was back at the hotel.

Books & Books key lime pie tasted like fresh frozen key lime pie. The crust was a freshly crumbled graham cracker, butter crust. It truly tasted like a rustic homemade pie.

My second love to food is reading. Reading feeds my mind, and if I get the chance to eat while reading, well that’s just about as good as it gets.

$ | 927 Lincoln Road | Miami Beach, FL 33139 | (305) 532-3222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (305) 532-3222      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Charleston, SC: Magnolias

My First time in South Carolina I wanted my meal to be a real, southern, meal. Complete with all the things Southern fare is known for; rich ingredients, natural flavors, sea food, etc. Naturally, I went to Magnolias, a well known restaurant that boasts traditional southern food in an high class neighborhood.

I enjoyed the fried green tomato and lump crab BLT sandwich with sweet potato fries for only eleven dollars. Crab is my only vice so of course I opened the menu, saw the word crab, and knew I had made the right choice.

Green tomatoes are not as sweet or soft as their red sister but they complimented the crab flavoring well. Green tomatoes on crab cakes aren’t something I see often but it was on almost every dish at Magnolias. If you’ve ever noted the taste between a fresh garden tomato and one that’s been pumped with hormones and shipped across the country to your local grocery store than you know the distinct flavor of a fresh tomato and that’s exactly what I tasted as I bit into the sandwich.

Magnolias makes their sweet pickles in house, and garnished my plate with three dark green pickles. They tasted better than any sweet pickle I’ve had, although I am a New Yorker after all, I like my pickles kosher and from a Jewish deli, so I can’t say I cared for a sweet pickle with my crab sandwich but it wouldn’t be southern fare without a homemade sweet pickle.

I ordered a sweet tea. In any restaurant south of the Mason Dixie line you have to order a sweet tea. Even if you don’t like sweet tea, there’s no easier way to spot a Yankee than to see who didn’t order the sweet tea.

Magnolias was the perfect gateway to the south. The ambiance was warm, and classy. The restaurant truly captured the South with the portraits of Southern gardens and Magnolias along the perky, peach, walls. Located in the heart of Charleston this was a great lunch time pick. Magnolias is normally an expensive restaurant but if you come at lunch it is much more affordable. This is something I suggest doing to enjoy any high class restaurant while avoiding the high priced bill.


$$ | Magnolias 185 East Bay Street | Charleston, SC South Carolina 29401 | (843)577-7771