Weekend Cooking- A Trip to Amelia Island

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Last week my husband had a conference in Amelia Island in Florida, so I went along and his brother and sister-in-law met us there for a fun little weekend.

One of my coworkers at the Book Cellar, the used bookstore where I volunteer in NYC, has a brother who owns two restaurants in Amelia Island, so we stopped in for lunch.

It was the coldest day in a long time in Amelia Island (57 degrees- I know, I know, my Central New York hometowners are laughing at that right now) when we visited Cafe Karibo for lunch.

We walked into the cheery and inviting bar area, which has three shiny vats of small craft beers on tap for the beer drinkers in the crowd.

KariBrew- clever name!

Just outside the bar area is a beautiful outdoor patio with a huge stone fireplace which was all fired up on the cold day we visited. It is so lovely!

The inviting patio area

I had the Pig & Apple sandwich, which was delicious, as was everything we ordered. I really liked their inventive pub grub menu, there were so many things I would have ordered.

The next day we visited Cafe Karibo's sister restaurant, Timoti's Seafood Shak, similar to ones we visited in Cape Cod. We placed our order for fish inside, and headed outside to soak in the warm sunshine at one of the picnic tables.

My husband and I ordered the fried fish and sweet potato chips, and the others ordered blackened and grilled grouper. All of our meals were fabulous, some of the best fish we have had. The blackened grouper looked like a work of art.

Grilled, fried and blackened grouper

It was Super Bowl Sunday when we were there, and we headed over to the Falcon's Nest sports bar located at the Omni Resort where we were staying on Amelia Island. The gang decided to start with a HUGE platter of nachos, topped with smoked brisket, chicken and guacamole. We weren't sure we could eat it all, but that was an unnecessary worry. We demolished it!

Nachos!

For dinner on Monday we visited Le Clos, a lovely French restaurant in the downtown area. My husband and I each had the escargot appetizer, which was fabulous. I ordered the shrimp dish, which was served in a white wine reduction of shallots, garlic, fennel, sundried tomatoes, herbs and chevre over pasta. It was so light and tasty.

Shrimp dinner

My sister-in-law had her favorite, scallops, served with a citrus beurre blanc sauce over spinach and pasta.

Scallops

The ambiance was very intimate and it feels like you are in someone's beautiful home as you dine. If you are looking for something a little more upscale, this is the place.

We enjoyed all of our dining experiences in Amelia Island, I can recommend each of the restaurants we visited. In a future post, I'll share some photos of the other fun places we saw in Amelia Island, including a wonderful bookstore.

 Cafe Karibo's website is here.
Timoti's webiste is here.
Le Clos' website is here.