dining out |
4 COMFORT FOODS
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n the culmination of a year of uncertainty, Jean Le Boeuf, the nom de plume food critic for The NewsPress and Naples Daily News, put together a list of four dishes that are practically guaranteed to bring comfort. JLB takes it from here: These four dishes, found from Fort Myers to Naples, are my certain comforts. These are the foods I know won’t let me down, the ones I turn to when I want a reassuring hug, that’s also edible. I hope they bring you solace.
And where to find them | BY JEAN LE BOEUF ITALIAN BEEF SANDWICH
My pick: Chicago Beef Guy, 1127 Del Prado Blvd. S., Cape Coral; 239-772-0713; beefguycapecoral.com When I want to lose myself in a sandwich, I turn to Chicago Beef Guy. The Guy’s Italian beef sub is juicy comfort on a hoagie roll. It’s beef, slow roasted in house. It’s spicy-crisp giardiniera, also crafted in house. It’s the richness of the housemade dipping jus (soaking jus is more like it). It’s the fact anything the Beef Guy doesn’t make in house, it orders direct from the Windy City. It sounds simple enough but put it together and you get bites of delicious, time-erasing bliss. Also worth a try:
Beefstro’s Gourmet Beefs, Naples; Chicago Beef, Dogs and Pizza, Cape Coral; Chicago Boys, Fort Myers
SHRIMP AND GRITS My pick: The Rooster Food + Drink, 600 Goodlette Road N. No. 101, Naples; 239-228-5973; theroosternaples.com Southern food = comfort food. I don’t make the rules, I just report on them. And there are few more comforting dishes in Naples than shrimp and grits from The Rooster. Hearty pink shrimp rest atop a thick, buttery bed of grits sprinkled with bacon bits
under a blanket of pepper pan sauce. Makes me want to forget the world, get up early, smell the sweet Southern air and relax in a rocking chair to a symphony of crickets and chirping frogs as I tuck into another hearty bite. Also worth a try: Salty Papa’s Shrimp House, south Fort Myers; Slate’s, Cape Coral; Doc Ford’s, multiple locations
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA PARENT & CHILD » DECEMBER 2020 » 19
