Dinner At The Pirate's Loft

 

My sister Susan - seen in the photograph on the left - and I had dinner on the outdoor deck at the Pirate's Loft in Port Salerno, Florida yesterday evening. We have been dining at this restaurant for decades. When we would visit our mother Mary at her (now our) condo down in Stuart, we would always come here at least once during our visit. It was one of four restaurants we used to frequent, but the only one still left. Both Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty in Rio and The Admiral's Table in Jensen Beach were damaged by a hurricane in 2004 and never reopened. The Pawnbroker, which had a free buffet in the bar on Friday nights and, according to my mother, where all the action was in Stuart back then, closed a few years ago. But the Pirate's Loft is still here and very much the same. Although I did notice that the majority of customers last night were seniors. In other words, around our age.

The great thing about the Pirate's Loft is the view of Manatee Pocket and the boats docked there, although due to a fishing tournament that ended yesterday, an event tent that was not yet removed blocked part of our view. But no matter - we could still see the water, as seen in the photograph on the right. We arrived at the Pirate's Loft at 4:30, early for us, but since the sun sets at 5:30 this time of year, we wanted to make sure we had dinner when it was still light. Back in the day, we usually came down to Stuart in August, which was the slow time at the University of Denver Bookstore, where I used to work as the Finance Manager, and so having to arrive early was never an issue. Although I do remember that when we went to Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty, we had to be seated before 5:00 to get the "early bird special," which sometimes added a bit of stress to the start of the evening. Do they even have early bird specials these days? I suspect not.