Fine Gourmet Dining on the Water
by Dick Conklin
This week our featured restaurant is not a restaurant at all. It is a gourmet sunset dinner cruise that is unique, and ideal for, the Florida Keys. The setting, the staff, and the food are all first class–for an evening you’ll never forget.
Picture this. You arrive at the dock about an hour and a half before sunset. Captain Alex Aller and Chef Dani Lee welcome you and show you to your table, complete with white linen and sterling silver dinnerware, on the upper deck of a 33-foot Carver Mariner motor yacht. Chef Dani describes the evening’s dinner fare, consisting of her own unique appetizers, salads, sauces, entrees and desserts. Smooth jazz plays in the background. Capt. Alex slowly motors the yacht out onto Florida Bay, near some small offshore islands that block the evening breeze. You and your guests enjoy shrimp served in a hand-carved cucumber boat, crab meat-stuffed portabella mushrooms, and potato-goat cheese tarts, as the sun sets over the bay.
No, you aren’t dreaming. You are onboard Islescapes, a nightly sunset dinner cruise that sails out of Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada.
Although the captain is a gourmet chef in his own right, Chef Dani brings with her 12 years of experience as a personal chef aboard the mega-yachts of the rich and famous. These days she applies her creative touch to each Islescapes cruise, customizing the dinner fare for each new group of passengers. She starts with the three basic food groups of beef, fowl or seafood, and then narrows down the selections to accommodate personal preferences and the availability of freshly caught local fish, such as dolphin, snapper, grouper, or hogfish.
Following our appetizers, we were served a choice of salads–a Rosemary-Mango treat made from baby salad greens, balsamic/honey dressing, and rosemary-marinated mangos topped with toasted pecans and white cheddar cheese. A warm mushroom salad consisted of a warm sherry vinaigrette dressing topped with mushrooms, fresh basil, and Pecorina Romano cheese. If that sounds delicious to you, we can confirm your assessment. Did I mention the fresh-baked cornbread?
Two of us enjoyed grilled steaks, cooked to perfection on the boat’s outdoor grill, served with a tarragon-infused Bearnaise sauce. The rest of us were served snapper topped with the captain’s own Tropical Isle sauce made from passion fruit, white wine and peppers, and a delicious cut of dolphin served in a red pepper curry. But wait–there’s more. Two decadent desserts topped off a spectacular evening; a super-smooth, semi-sweet chocolate mousse; and a crème brûleé, made from a silky egg recipe covered by crunchy, caramelized sugar with a glaze finish complements of the captain’s blowtorch.
More information on Islescapes can be found on their Web site, islescapes.com, by calling (305)923-3319, or emailing the captain at captalex@islescapes.com. The vessel is berthed at Robbie’s Marina, Bayside, just west of the bridge at MM 77.5.