FLORIDA | Sweet Leisure

Category Archives: FLORIDA

KEY LIME PIE

We met in Miami when I was barely into adolescence. Despite being tender and impressionable, I fell deeply in love. Even today, much older and shamefully experienced, my desire remains passionately alive and unrelenting. Granted the object of my affection is as rich as sin and rich is a powerful aphrodisiac, but rich isn’t all. […]

MERMAIDS, THE WRECK BAR, RUM PUNCH & SHRIMP SALAD

Bet you think mermaids are fantasy beings. Hello! The captivating sea creatures are a real deal that you can catch frolicking, flittering and flirting outside the porthole windows of The Wreck Bar in Fort Lauderdale. (Sometimes they even shed their shell bikini tops and fishy fins just to prove how real they are.) The ship-shaped […]

¶ Posted 25 June 2018 † Susan Manlin Katzman § ACCOMMODATIONS § BARS § COCKTAILS § FORT LAUDERDALE § RECIPES § RESORTS § RESTAURANTS § SALADS § SIDE DISHES § TRAVEL ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: B Ocean Resort, Bacon Vinaigrette, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Mermaid, Mermaid Show, rum punch, salad, shrimp, The Wreck Bar, Watermelon

BEST RESTAURANT IN NAPLES, FL, & FLATBREAD RECIPE

Wish The Local restaurant was local—to me that is. The restaurant is local to lucky residents of Naples, FL, which I think is essentially unfair. It may be jealousy talking, but folks in Naples get all the breaks. They enjoy great weather, sand and sea and a cornucopia of other pleasures. I don’t see why […]

¶ Posted 29 August 2017 † Susan Manlin Katzman § NAPLES § RECIPES § RESTAURANTS § SALADS § SIDE DISHES § TRAVEL § VEGETABLES ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: farm-to-table, Florida, grass fed, Jeff Mitchell, Mediterranean flatbread, Naples, organic, recipe, restaurant, sea-to-table, The Local

KANE RUM BAR AT JW MARRIOTT ISLAND BEACH RESORT MARCO ISLAND

Yep. It’s true. I love rum. So imagine my delight discovering a rum bar at the newly refurbished and rebranded JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort. The bar is named Kane—I thought because rum is deliciously divinely made from sugar cane and drinking too much can muddle spelling, but not so. Marriott officials say that […]

¶ Posted 21 January 2017 † Susan Manlin Katzman § ACCOMMODATIONS § BARS § BEACH § BEVERAGES § COCKTAILS § DRINKS § ISLANDS § MARCO ISLAND § RECIPES § RESORTS § TRAVEL ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: Florida, Gulf Coast, JW Marriott, Kane Tiki Bar and Grill, Marco Island, rum, rum cocktail, Turtle Season Lights Out

FORT LAUDERDALE, LOBSTER OMELET, RUM RUNNER COCKTAIL

Remember the Fort Lauderdale of spring break madness—-with paradise lost to swarms of college students hoarding the town? Well hallelujah, today the spring-break kids go elsewhere, leaving Fort Lauderdale’s delights to locals and tourists wanting a comfortable, non-crowded, spring, winter, or anytime warm-weather break. What does the Greater Fort Lauderdale area offer visitors? Easy answer: […]

¶ Posted 04 January 2015 † Susan Manlin Katzman § ACCOMMODATIONS § BEACH § BREAKFAST § DRINKS § ENTREES § FORT LAUDERDALE § ISLANDS § MUSEUMS § RECIPES § RESORTS § RESTAURANTS § SPAS § TRAVEL § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Cap's Place, Fort Lauderdale, Las Olas Boulevad, Lobster, Lobster Omelet, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, rum, The Atlantic Hotel & Spa, The Bonnet House

WHERE TO EAT IN GREATER FORT LAUDERDALE

It’s only natural that Sweet Leisure asked Deborah Hartz-Seeley to suggest places tourists would like to eat when visiting Greater Fort Lauderdale. Debby knows all about South Florida’s unique cuisine. After all, she spent over 20 years as the prize-winning food editor for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That’s a Tribune Co. newspaper serving the greater Fort […]

¶ Posted 23 December 2014 † Susan Manlin Katzman § FORT LAUDERDALE § RESTAURANTS § TRAVEL ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: Calypso Restaurant, Casa Maya, Deborah Hartz-Seeley, El Tamarindo Cafe, Fort Lauderdale, Greek Islands Taverna, Il Mulino, Les Amis, Mai Kai, Nauti Dawg, NY Deli

World’s Best Carrot Cake

“Sweet” is not an adjective I would apply to Dolores Roux. “Energetic,” “outspoken,” “generous” seem more fitting descriptors. Yet, sweet is a word inseparable from Dolores as she owns and runs the well-loved Dolores’ Sweet Shoppe in Apalachicola, Florida. Located in the heart of downtown, the shop occupies a white frame house that was built […]

¶ Posted 18 July 2013 † Susan Manlin Katzman § APALACHICOLA § DESSERTS § RECIPES § RESTAURANTS § TRAVEL ‡ Comments Off °

COOMBS HOUSE INN and QUICHE

Connoisseurs consider the Coombs House Inn one of the best B & Bs in all of Florida and I know why. Her name is Lynn Wilson. Lynn, an architectural interior designer and decorator, discovered the house that would become the inn when vacationing in Apalachicola, Florida, in 1978. At that time, the mansion was uninhabited, boarded […]

¶ Posted 20 May 2013 † Susan Manlin Katzman § ACCOMMODATIONS § APALACHICOLA § BREAKFAST § BRUNCH ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: APALACHICOLA, B & B, Coombs House Inn, Florida, quiche

ROSEMARY BEACH RESTAURANTS AND RECIPES

ROSEMARY BEACH is aptly named: “Beach” for the glorious sparkling white-quartz sand that hugs the Gulf of Mexico and “Rosemary” both for the flavorful herb and, by extension, the flavorful food that thrives in the northwest Florida beach community. For a 107-acre town welcoming homeowners and vacationers—and an area where almost every rental accommodation sports […]

¶ Posted 20 March 2013 † Susan Manlin Katzman § ACCOMMODATIONS § BEVERAGES § BREAKFAST § BRUNCH § COCKTAILS § ENTREES § RECIPES § RESTAURANTS § ROSEMARY BEACH § SALADS § TRAVEL ‡ Comments Off °

APALACHICOLA, FLORIDA

Tucked into Franklin County, Florida, an area affectionately called the “Forgotten Coast,” probably because it lacks the hordes of tourists found in other parts of the state, Apalachicola (www.apalachicolabay.org) is a perfectly wonderful place to visit for a truly laid-back, maybe-fish-a-bit, maybe-hit-the-beach, maybe-see-a little-nature vacation. More village than town (only one electric street light in the […]