Mothers Day – Not!


We always celebrate holidays like Mothers Day before the actual day. We usually go out to lunch on the preceding Saturday so the restaurant is not as crowded. That strategy worked to the extreme today – but I’ll get into that in due time.

Our usual Saturday routine is to get up go to Waffle House followed by a visit to Lowe’s to see if they have any good Saturday morning discounted merchandise. Then we go home and do what needs to be done.


Today after Lowe’s we did whatever Penny wanted to do for Mothers Day. That meant shopping and going out to eat. Today Beal’s had one of their periodic “Take 70% off the listed price plus an additional 40% off “ sales. It’s a great way to pick up clothing, shoes, and household items of good quality for very reasonable prices. We usually enjoy this type of shopping and we weren’t disappointed today.


After Beal’s it was time for lunch. Our newspaper’s food column had rated a new pizza place in Miramar Beach as outstanding. That’s where Penny wanted to go. The problem is we didn’t know exactly where it was. The place is named Fat Clemenzas Brick Oven Pizza.

http://www.emeraldcoast.com/dining/article_display.php?a=97

After cruising through a couple of strip malls on Highway 98 we finally spied it a place called Fountain Plaza and I made a hasty right turn off the highway into their parking lot.


At first we weren’t sure they were open because there were no cars in the lot. The door was open and we went in. They had the newspaper write up posted in their entryway. We found we were the only customers there. No one else came in the whole time we were there! Everyone there spoke Italian (and of course English). Penny took advantage of having the place to ourselves by chatting with the chef as he prepared our meals. He was from Rome.


A neat brick wood-burning oven dominates the small restaurant. The oven has no door on it and we could see the hot glow of the 700-degree fire and our food as it baked. I ordered a sausage and mozzarella pizza and Penny had a Puglese Calzone (chicken marinated in rosemary, white wine, roasted garlic and olive oil with cheese and spinach). We watched the chef slide the food into the oven and I expected to wait at least 15 minutes for it to cook. It was out in about 5 minutes! The pizza was luscious. It reminded me of the ones we got in Italy with thin crust and easy on the sauce – very tasty. Penny enjoyed her calzone and although it was the size of a loaf of bread she stuffed herself and ate most of it. She consciously made the decision to stuff herself with the strategy to stop at Fresh Market on the way home and pick up a desert of tiramisu to eat at home later. Then she proceeded to get the worst case of the full hiccups I have ever seen her have. We laughed at that.


We asked our waiter if the place was usually busier and he said, with an Italian accent, “Yessa, in the Spring Break they line up outside”. We were happy to hear that because we know we will be back and we don’t want them to go out of business. While I was eating I was anxiously watching for other customers to come in. I find myself doing this when I am in a small restaurant that has good food. I want them to succeed.


We did execute Penny’s well-laid plan to get take-home dessert at Fresh Market picking up some apples and pears while we were there. We’ve found that their fruit is not outrageously priced and is better than anything we get at the local supermarkets.


Penny will, of course, get special treatment tomorrow on Mother’s Day. Breakfast will be her current favorite, banana pecan pancakes. This celebrate-Mother’s-Day-early strategy actually makes the celebration last 2 days. Not bad.