Sanibel Has "The World's Best Breakfast"!

Since we hadn't shopped last night we just HAD to go out for breakfast! We'd read that the Lighthouse Cafe has "The World's Best Breakfast" so we decided to see for ourselves...

As you might expect from the name, the Lighthouse Cafe (http://www.lighthousecafe.com/) is located right down the street from the Sanibel Lighthouse, and capitalizes on this with a decor of walls filled with photos, drawings, & paintings of lighthouses around the world. Shelves contain lighthouse figurines.

OK, to the food...Lisa selected the Eggs Benedict ($8.95), which was classic in its ingredients of the English muffin base (you could have it "Lighthouse-style" by choosing a croissant for $1.00 more) with ham and poached egg but took a different turn with a Key Lime Hollandaise sauce. You're served two "Bennies" sided by "Lighthouse potatoes", which are really delicious cubed home fries with onions. Lisa turned out be a little disenchanted with the tang of the Key Lime Hollandaise sauce and would have preferred the standard preparation.

I had the Blueberry Whole Wheat Hotcakes ($6.95) (the menu states, "Our own recipe made from Whole Wheat Flour, Brown Sugar, fresh Eggs and whole Milk")...there were three large beauties on the plate, chocked full of small fresh blueberries. They serve these with a small pitcher of warm blueberry sauce but I opted for the warm maple syrup (purist that I am). I selected a side order of smoked sausage links ($3.50), which had all the qualities one wants in a sausage...lucious links of smoky, salty, "porkiness".

The Lighthouse Cafe has tons of other breakfast items like "Pan-Handled" egg dishes, omelettes, frittatas. I filed the "Ocean Frittata" away for a future visit...it has shrimp, scallops, "krabmeat", broccoli, & mushrooms with artichoke hearts and an Alfredo Sauce topping.

Try the Lighthouse Cafe when you visit Sanibel Island! You won't be disappointed!

Gourmet Librarians go to Sanibel Island (Post #1)

We're spending the Memorial Day weekend on Sanibel Island, on the southwest coast of Florida. Since we'll be here until Monday, we'll let you know where we eat and how it was! Since we're staying at a nice little apartment we also can cook so we might create some island specialities!

Tonight we ate out since we were tired and didn't feel like shopping. Some of the guests who'd signed the guestbook in our unit recommended the Island Cow restaurant (http://www.sanibelislandcow.com/), and after reading the menu in the magazine here, we decided to try it. They also have outdoor seating and we're able to take our little Maltese, Poco, to dinner!

The menu at the Island Cow is HUGE...both in size and selections! It was hard for me to decide what to have. I eventually chose what they call the "Holy Cow!" basket ($23.99 with grouper). It was a fried seafood lover's delight of calamari, clams, scallops, oyster, shrimp, and a filet of the catch of the day. I chose grouper. Fries and Tropical Cole Slaw (with small pineapple chunks) and two hush puppies joined the seafood in the very crowded basket. Small cups contained cocktail sauce, marinara sauce, tartar sauce, and 1,000 Island Dressing.

This very ample dinner was crisply fried with not an ounce of oil anywhere! I needed a box to tote some leftovers back to our unit...

Lisa had the "Fishin' Rules" dinner, which basically lets you create your own plate...choose a fish (Lisa had mahi at $18.99), choose your preparation method (Lisa had them char-grill it), choose two sides (cheese grits & steamed veggies for Lisa).

The mahi was tasty with a pleasant grilled flavor, and the veggies were delicious. Unfortunately, the cheese grits were a bit watery.

We'll likely go back to the Island Cow before we leave Sanibel because, as their menu states, they have "Udderly Great Food"! We agree!