Picture of Grits and Grunts

The stunningly appointed Neptune Room, located upstairs at the Seafood Shack Marina Bar and Grill in Cortez, played host to a literary and culinary treat on Wednesday evening with the Coastal Collaboration Dinner. The dinner featured collaboration between some of the area’s finest chefs and an author named Vanessa LaFaye, a Florida native now living in England and the author of the book Under a Dark Summer Sky. The book is a fictionalized account of the hurricane that swept through the Florida Keys in 1935, wreaking havoc on Islamorada. Vanessa read a riveting excerpt from the book and the chefs were tasked with creating dishes inspired by the enthralling read. Chef Dave Shiplett of Soma Creekside presented a Strawberry and Red Cabbage Slaw with Goat Cheese and wildly popular morsels of Duck Bacon and Chef Derek Barnes of Derek’s delighted the crowd with his Grilled Celery and Oyster Stew. Bread baskets filled with Johnny Cakes (cornmeal cakes) by Chef Dana Johnson of Sugar Cubed Bakery were devoured, as was Dana’s delectable dessert of Key Lime Rum Cake with Charred Peaches. The piece de la resistance came from Seafood Shack’s own Chef Gerard Jesse, who wowed with “Grits and Grunts,” a whole blackened Margate fish stuffed with white cheddar grits and conch-style butter sauce.

Picture of Grits and Grunts