Capt. Dave’s on the Gulf: The Quality Stays Put
3896 Scenic Hwy 98, Destin, 837-2627
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By Bruce Collier November 2, 2006 Issue


If you’ve lived here for any amount of time, or if you visit here, you’ve likely been to Capt. Dave’s on the Gulf. The name is perfectly descriptive. Most tables in the dining areas have an unobstructed view of that increasingly rare sight, a bare stretch of beach. We ate there on a cool weeknight and watched the sunset, along with a solitary and picturesque pelican floating placidly out on the water.

Capt. Dave’s is simply and tastefully decorated, warmly lit, with framed photos of fishing subjects and a series of aquarium tanks along one wall. The principal decoration is the view, and the house knows not to mess with natural perfection.

The menu is likewise low on fuss and high on local and regional fish and shellfish. You can get shrimp, oysters, crawfish, scallops, soft shell crab, snapper, flounder, grouper, mahi mahi, yellowfin tuna, and seasonal fish such as cobia. The methods of preparation are deep-frying, grilling, broiling, and pan searing. Crabmeat stuffing, sprinkled Parmesan, and bÈarnaise sauce constitute the fancy side of the menu. Capt. Dave’s has been around since 1977, and I’d venture to guess the bill of fare has remained largely constant.

We started with cocktails and appetizers. My friend ordered coconut shrimp and I got scallops, wrapped in bacon and broiled with a maple mustard sauce. Both arrived straight from the heat, and both were excellent. There were about 10 shrimp, medium-to-large, with a sweet, crunchy and greaseless batter and about a soup bowl-full of sweet and tart fruit sauce. We ate a few, and my friend took most home for next day. I was a little hesitant about the combination of maple and scallops, but the bacon absorbed the maple and the flavor of the juicy scallops came through. There were at least eight, but I finished them and their tangy sauce with the help of a hot and crusty loaf of bread.

Other starters included soup of the day, seafood gumbo, crab claws, shrimp cocktail, peel- and-eat shrimp, shrimp remoulade, calamari, fried crawfish tails, cheese sticks, and fried oysters. There are also dinner salads with chicken, crawfish, or shrimp.

The main courses are fried or broiled fish and shellfish, steak, chicken, and combinations of same, parmesan-topped seafood, and chef’s specialties. The latter vary with availability. My friend got one of them, snapper Dijon. The fish came broiled with a mustard-dill butter sauce and about 18 fried baby shrimp on top of it. I ordered a fried seafood platter, featuring shrimp, deviled crab, oysters, scallops, and fish. It’s also available broiled. Side dishes are creamed spinach, rice, baked potato, fries, and twice-baked potato. We got the latter two.

My friend took one look at her snapper and called for more boxes. What she ate, she liked. Snapper by itself is hard to beat, and dill and mustard are great flavors to pair with it. The kitchen kept the sauce from overwhelming the fish, and the portion was generous.

Such was also the case with my enormous seafood platter. As with the coconut shrimp, everything was crisp fried, greaseless, and held together perfectly. All it needed was a little lemon juice and cocktail sauce. Seafood platters remind me of my childhood, when my family vacationed in Clearwater and we ate at family-owned fish houses, now long gone. When it comes to seafood, I’ve always found it hard to choose, so why do it?

Among the other specialties that night were teriyaki mahi mahi and scallops, seared yellowfin, and grouper Pontchartrain. Cobia is also listed, but isn’t available now, which gives me a reason to go back.

Neither of us had any room for dessert, but we know how you count on us, so we bit the bullet. Two bullets, actually, a Mississippi fudge pie and a Boston cream cheesecake. There’s also key lime pie, and assorted coffee-and-liqueur drinks. The desserts were pretty good, especially the fudge pie, barring their sticky artificial whipped cream, but that can be scraped aside.

The top price at Capt. Dave’s is $25, which is on the moderate side for seafood hereabouts. They’ve had nearly three decades to put their dining act together, and despite multiple hurricanes, storms, and encroaching development, the place will probably continue strong for decades to come. Let’s hope.

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