Florida Day 2 - Casablanca Cafe, Rocco's Tacos, Macabi's Cigar Bar - Ft. Lauderdale

Casablanca Cafe

Cyberspace: www.casablancacafeonline.com

Where to Find It: 3049 Alhambra St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Food Group: Mediterranean

How Much to Fork Over: $$$

The Grade: A

Faves: Outdoor Seating, Across the Street from the beach, Wine, Truffled Burrata Salad

Peeves: The name makes you think it’s a Moroccan restaurant

The Jibba Jab:

After meeting up with another of my Aunt’s friends, who I will call Hooty because she is a hoot to be around, we made our way over to Casablanca Café for some pre-dinner drinks and an appetizer.  Supposedly, this is a place that my Aunt and Hooty used to frequent back in the day, so I was excited to encounter their old stomping grounds.  I loved the place before even walking in because it was across from the beach, had a great patio that was packed with people and it just seemed to be calling my name; inviting me in to have some fun.  Of course, we couldn’t get a seat on the patio, so we sauntered over to the bar and luckily found 3 seats.  We took a peak at the menu, ordered a bottle of wine, and no hummus this time around, we chose to share the Truffled Burrata Salad (you know me and truffles).  Tip:  We turned it into an appetizer by asking for some pita bread, so we could use the burrata as a spread.  I could smell the truffles immediately after the server placed the dish in front of us.  It was a big ball of fresh burrata, which is basically an outer shell of fresh mozzarella stuffed with a mixture of cream and mozzarella, but with an addition of black truffles.  Outstanding!  It was so creamy, silky with a hint of the earthy pungent taste of truffles.  I wanted more, but decided to save room for our next food venture…..Rocco’s Tacos.

Truffled Burrata Salad

Truffled Burrata Salad - Inside

Rocco’s Tacos

Cyberspace: www.roccostacos.com

Where to Find It: 1313 East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Food Group: Mexican

How Much to Fork Over: $$

The Grade: B

Faves: Tableside Guacamole, Pulled Pork Taco Special

Peeves: Very Loud

The Jibba Jab:

We met a close friend of mine here, who just moved from Houston to Miami a few months ago, so I’ll call her H&M, for some Mexican grub.  Hooty recommended the place because she thought it would be a great place to write about on my blog.  The place was very vibrant and mobbed with people.  Loud music was bumpin’ in the background making it a little difficult to catch up with H&M even while sitting right next to her.  After desperately trying to here our server describe the specials, we were able to make out Pulled Pork Tacos, so we started with that, an order of tableside guacamole, and of course, margaritas.  Now, the tacos came out before the guacamole, and when the guacamole came out, it was already made.  Where’s the tableside?  We were quite upset!  Also, we noticed the table next to use first, get the tableside guacamole experience, and they got salsa on top of that.  Where is our salsa?  Apparently, you have to order it.  What?  A Mexican restaurant that won’t give you complimentary chips and salsa?  Toto, I guess we are not in Texas anymore!  What kind of state is this?  Well, I got over it after having some guacamole and then one of those Pulled Pork Tacos….Man, those were good!  We finished up our food and ritas, and headed to our next destination, Macabi’s Cigar Bar.

Margaritas

Pulled Pork Tacos

Non-Tableside Guacamole

Ummm....Not sure what my Aunt is doing
to that Indian

Macabi’s Cigar Bar

Cyberspace: http://cigarbarfortlauderdale.com/las-olas/

Where to Find It: 1221 E Las Olas Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Food Group: Bar (no food)

How Much to Fork Over: $$

The Grade: B

Faves: Cigars, Wine

Peeves:  The owners are a bit odd

The Jibba Jab:

This is one of Hooty’s favorite spots, but she thinks that the wife’s owner is far from nice.  I have to say they both were a little off their rocker.  First, the place is very small and narrow, and the bathroom is at the very back, so you can see who goes in and out of it.  The owners got a little freaked out about a woman who was supposedly in the bathroom too long.  They thought she was doing drugs back there, but it was quite obvious that they were far too paranoid because the woman seemed fine and she hadn’t been in the bathroom that long.  Next, they seemed to rush us out the door shortly after arriving.  They clearly wanted to go home and didn’t really care about their customers.  Oh well, I really didn’t notice all too much because I was in awe of the 2 Naval Officers in their whites sitting at the other end of the bar.  This is purely a fascination of Top Gun and nothing else because I am very happily married to a wonderful and dashingly handsome man.  I was quite obsessed with Top Gun when I was younger and even wanted to be a pilot because of it, so seeing these guys in their uniform made me a little giddy.  I had already had a few drinks, so it made it that much easier for me to go talk to them, and I am so glad that I did.  I told them my love of the movie and how thankful I am that they are fighting for our country.  They were extremely nice in return, and even ended up showing me pictures of their families.  Also, I found out that they are going to be in NYC at the same time I will be there for NY Fleet Week.  I was amazed, and they invited me to go see them fly.  I am so there!  They just made my day, and then some!

Hooty and H&M had to check out early because they had to get up for work the next morning, but my Aunt and I decided to keep hitting up the town.  We wanted to find a few other bars further down the street, so we tried to hail a cab, but found a woman riding a pedicab instead.  She was an interesting character, but very nice, and she took us to a spot where a few swanky bars/clubs were located.  We tipped her quite well.  Having no idea what bar to go into, we just picked the one that looked less bumpin', if that's possible.  Well, we didn't stay around there very long because the place was filled with "douche bag dumdums".  Now, we thought it was a good idea to head downtown......and we ended up dancing with Haitians at a Reggae bar.  Yep, that's the truth.  What a crazy night in Fort Liquordale!!

Myself with the 2 Naval Officers