Cabbage Key Inn and Restaurant Outdoor Dining

Cabbage Key Inn and Restaurant. Wesley K.H. Teo

Every city has a legendary restaurant that everyone knows — and recommends to visiting family, friends and strangers alike.

When it comes to iconic restaurants, Florida has plenty, including several open for more than a century, including Tampa’s original Columbia Restaurant and Miami Beach’s Joe’s Stone Crab.

While some are special-occasion restaurants, others are everyday favorites.

Here’s our list of some of Florida’s most enduring (and endearing) restaurants, presented in alphabetical order, from USA TODAY Network contributors from across the state.

Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant, Bokeelia

Water taxi available at Pineland Marina, 13921 Waterfront Drive, Bokeelia; 239-283-2278; cabbagekey.com

Simply getting to this 70-some-year-old inn is an adventure. You’ll need a boat. Or a ferry ticket. You’ll want some time and some flip-flops and some sunscreen, too. Once you dock at Cabbage Key, things slow down. It’s an island without cars or paved roads. It’s Old Florida at its Old-Florida finest, as is the key’s lone bar and restaurant.

Legend has it, this is where Jimmy Buffet found his inspiration for “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” You can order that cheeseburger for yourself, with lettuce, tomato and Heinz 57 – just not the french-fried potatoes. The restaurant doesn’t have a fryer, though fans swear by its potato salad. If you’d rather have seafood in paradise, there are Gulf shrimp and, in season, local stone-crab claws. The bar is stocked with ice-cold beers and rum-fueled cocktails. There is, of course, Key lime pie for dessert.

Nicknamed “The Dollar Bill Bar,” the walls of this open-air restaurant are dripping in dollars left by patrons. Feel free to do the same. Once a year, the fallen dollars are collected, counted and donated to local charities. It’s a sweet ending to one heck of an adventure.

Hours: Open daily, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. — Annabelle Tometich, Fort Myers News-Press


This is an excerpt from an article by USA TODAY Network that originally appeared on jacksonville.com.