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New York Times: Visiting the Florida Panhandle

Teresa avatar
TeresaSoWal Guide
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Visiting the Florida Panhandle.
This article highlights Seaside and some of our restaurants. And a touches on the Customary Use battle...

New York Times
AUG. 5, 2019

White Sand, Clear Water

Every year, families pack up the minivan
and head to the Florida Panhandle for a
beach vacation with a Southern accent.

By SHANNON SIMS AUG. 5, 2019f

Excerpt
... "Of all of the communities along 30A, perhaps none draws as much attention as Seaside, a remarkable feat of modern urban design, which was aimed at creating an utopian neighborhood of bike paths, cul-de-sacs and central plazas. The community of 475 “cottages” is so idealistically and tightly masterplanned that the town served as the setting for the film “The Truman Show,” as a showcase of stifling perfection. But the intention, says Robert Davis, the community’s founder and visionary architect, was to recreate the feeling of his childhood in the 1940s and 1950s.r

Mr. Davis, who now lives in San Francisco, said in a telephone interview that his idea was “big screened-in porches and ceiling fans, built off the beach so it wouldn’t float away when a hurricane came.” His concept, which is considered a touchstone of the New Urbanism architectural movement, was that every home was a walkable distance from the town center, and the success of that concept along 30A is evident: New communities mimicking Seaside, like WaterColor and Rosemary Beach, have cropped up and continue to grow in popularit
“The main thing people got about Seaside,” Mr. Davis said, “was that here you could have free-range kids, and often it was for the first time in these kids’ lives.” Indeed, Seaside’s narrow streets are busy with unchaperoned elementary-age children passing by on beach cruisers, and packs of teenagers flirting in front of the ice cream spot. “I find the mating ritual really amusing to watch,” added Mr. Davis with a chuckle.

"There is, though, one hitch in paradise, and it’s a relatively new one. Last year, a Florida law passed that has restricted public access to the beaches of Walton County. Now, the sand in front of some beachfront buildings and private condos is cordoned off by ropes that run nearly to the water, identifying their sandy property. Public access is only permitted on the wet sand portion of the beach, which varies day to day with the tides. It’s a controversial change in this region where beach traditions are so strong. The good news is that state parks, just off 30A, like Topsail Hill Preserve State Park and Grayton Beach State Park,leave beach access open to the public, and offer clean bathrooms as well.

The cuisine also reminds you of where you are; it’s a blend of Atlanta meets New Orleans and low-country meets Cajun, with excellent local seafood. At Stinky’s Fish Camp at Santa Rosa Beach, with its views over the lilypad-covered lagoon brimming with turtles, your choices span the region’s palate: creamy Louisiana crawfish pie, grillades and grits, frog legs a la meunière. Just be sure to try the hush puppies: fried balls of cornmeal that take the edge off the spice. Hurricane Oyster Bar in Grayton Beach, the self-declared “Pearl of 30A,” stays true to its name and serves both hurricanes — a super-sweet, high-octane cocktail usually found on Bourbon Street — and Gulf oysters. At Bud and Alley’s, the central food hub for the Seaside community, you can sit up on the beachfront roof deck and dig into crab cakes and drafts of summery local IPAs like the 30A by Grayton Beer Company or the East Pass by Destin Brewery, all with a breezy view of the sea. And for decades visitors have considered no trip to this region complete without an evening spent on the crowded, rounded porch at Elmo’s Grill, dunking gator nuggets in spicy sauce, peeling shrimp, hammering crab claws, and making friends at picnic tables as a guitarist performs “Sweet Home Alabama” and the crowd sings along..."

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White Sand, Clear Water

Edited

Replies

11
bob bob avatar
bob bobBeach Fanatic
#2
Advertisements for all-you-can-eat buffet deals are often mounted on the back the offshore oil field service vessels that circulate the area, usually depositing drill pipe and chemicals out to the platforms too far to see on the horizon. Wedding proposals to Britney and Ashley soar by in the sky.

Don't you love it bloggers make it up and mix it all up?

And the photos :bang:

Give SoWal a link back and ask for REAL SoWal photos.
Teresa avatar
TeresaSoWal GuideAuthor
#3
Don't you love it bloggers make it up and mix it all up?

And the photos :bang:

Give SoWal a link back and ask for REAL SoWal photos.
Yep some of it is good information about our area but some is about all you can eat and high rises. Hmmmm. Someone needs to help edit. And yes good photos would definitely help.

I like some of our restaurants mentioned.
Emerald Drifter avatar
Emerald DrifterBeach Fanatic
#4
Great. New Yorkers have ruined South Florida, and some of the Tampa Bay area. Let's keep the Florida Panhandle SOUTHERN.
PoppaJ avatar
PoppaJSoWal Insider
#5
:doh:
30A Skunkape avatar
30A SkunkapeSkunky
#6
Great. New Yorkers have ruined South Florida, and some of the Tampa Bay area. Let's keep the Florida Panhandle SOUTHERN.

I heard AOC was spotted in Seaside recently.
Jimmy T avatar
Jimmy TBeach Fanatic
#7
I heard AOC was spotted in Seaside recently.
I heard she has a house there.
bob bob avatar
bob bobBeach Fanatic
#8
I heard she has a house there.
I guess that's where she was sent back to.
Emerald Drifter avatar
Emerald DrifterBeach Fanatic
#9
I heard AOC was spotted in Seaside recently.

Very good to know. She is a cutie. Love Puerto Rican girls...
Big GeorgeBeach Lover
#10
I heard AOC was spotted in Seaside recently.
If we’re lucky she’d here.
SUP ViewBeach Lover
#11
I heard she has a house there.

Those NY bartenders must make good money.
ShallowsNole avatar
ShallowsNoleBeach Fanatic
#12
Police wife here - advertising unsupervised elementary-school age children running free ties my spine up in knots. Not because I don't like children, I love them. I am afraid for them. Creepers are everywhere.
And don't get me started on teenage mating rituals at the ice cream shop. :blink:

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