Verandas Bistro & Wine Shop in Apalachicola, Florida

Head Chef and co-owner of the Verandas Bistro & Wine Shop, Ian Williams is a very good listener. He picks up on small subtleties; things that even my observant wife can miss. However being a small business owner in a destination city like Apalachicola FL probably helps you get acclimated to the rhythms of people's speech quite quickly. On a recent visit to the area, Ian invited us out to dinner at the Verandas Bistro & Wine Shop. Williams is a native Floridian but he's not just some country boy who one day decided to open a restaurant; he is in fact very well traveled and has worked in New York City at some of the finest bistros around. However Apalachicola Florida is blessed with his skills and folks keep coming back to enjoy his culinary delights night after night.

We visited Verandas Bistro late for dinner on the night that we were staying in the neighboring town of Port St Joe at the Turtle Beach Inn. Verandas is part bistro, part wine shop, part nighttime watering hole, part live music venue (with the hopes of adding on a banquet facility). The thing about all these disparate elements is that they can come smashing into one another in a seemingly harmonious discord. On any other night in mid-April, it might have been slim pickings at Verandas Bistro. However Ian and his crew were running full throttle; partly because the crew is logically a shell of its summer self; partly because Verandas had just hosted upwards of sixty people for a wine tasting in their dining space. Many of the folks who attended the wine tasting were having such a good time, that they stayed on for dinner or more drinks. This has been the success of Verandas Bistro and this intoxicating allure is made all that much more real when people get the full experience firsthand.

To many this economic ebb and flow would be maddening; but so it goes for Verandas Bistro. Despite the lagging sentiment in the broader economy, things appear to be just chugging along without regard in this secluded bay community. The way Ian described it to me, "it sort of happens while you were doing other things. Next thing you know you're slammed; it just gradually builds and builds." Were it that we could all only be so lucky.

On the evening that my wife and I were at Verandas Bistro I ordered the red wine braised chicken which came on a breast and on a wing and my wife ordered the Jerk Seared Mahi-Mahi topped with shrimp. We both got the same veggies and starch with our meal; green beans and wild rice.

My chicken was a lot of food. The breast and the wing were too much for me to enjoy all of. However the wine braised recipe was quite good; I wish I'd had a doggie bag to take the remains away in. The breast was tender and the wine flavoring in my chicken wasn't nearly as prevalent as I thought it might be. I was actually preparing myself to be overwhelmed by the flavor so the fact that it was subtle was maybe why it felt so drastically different.

My wife's Mahi-Mahi was cooked to a lovely perfection and was described as melt-in-your-mouth goodness. I was able to sneak a taste or two and I was very impressed. The tenderness of this fish was every so flaky; the bites I tasted peeled apart effortlessly. My wife is also not one for the Jerk flavorings typically; so she was blown away by the volcanic eruptions from the flavors she tasted.

For our side orders; my wife and I were in general agreement. The wild rice tasted a little too salty in my guesstaimation; I don't know if that's their regular recipe or if it was just the luck of the draw but if you're turned off by salty flavors, you may wish to consider an alternate side (Verandas Bistro also serves potatoes). The greens we got this night were quite good and were dressed in a light butter which was not at all overpowering.

Dessert at Verandas Bistro was no less delectable. While you won't find these items on their website, the fact is that Ian Williams is always bringing in new flavors and creations and offering them for consumption. The evening we were there my wife tried the White Chocolate Crème de Caramel and I had the Flourless Chocolate Cake. My dear sweet wife didn't stand a chance at her desserts sweetness; it took her out by a long shot. The White Chocolate Crème de Caramel was just what it sounds like; the white chocolate came in an almost pudding like creation with the congealed ability to stand on its own. The white chocolate dessert came with a whipped cream and had a surrounding caramel sauce. My Flourless Chocolate Cake was a little more familiar but no less exalted. The density of this cake was one that even my endless appetite couldn't get through. By the time we were served our desserts, we were so far gone that there wasn't even any discussion.

Unfortunately my wife and I felt so guilty for consuming all of that goodness that we missed a golden opportunity to more fully engage the head chef. Ian emerged from the kitchen and we chatted briefly but we really could have done more to take things a little slower and really have dissected the brain of this gifted, worldly chef. So I leave it to you: when you're ever in the Apalachicola area, stop over and join my friend Ian Williams at his Verandas Bistro. If you're lucky enough to meet the man himself, take the minute that I didn't and learn all about what lurks inside the masters culinary mind.