Petzo

On our way to work one day, Alan and I caught a glimpse of a prominent billboard. Its main image, a heaping plate of black-tipped crab claws, was difficult to ignore.

That's when Alan said, "The next time we go out to dinner, let's try Joe's Stone Crab." So for my birthday this year, we made our way to the famous restaurant, deep in the heart of Caesars Forum Shops.

We were led to a booth from where we could see much of the inner section of the place. The restaurant, just like its menu, is straightforward. It wasn't ornate nor intimidating. The walls were a pale color accented with dark wooden beams. On the walls hung pictures from circa 1940s, detailing the restaurant's rich history which now spans almost a century. While Louis Armstrong's crooning provided background music, I couldn't help but smile. The waiters in their tuxedos reminded me of characters from The Sopranos.

For our main entree, we opted for the obvious excellent choice: steak and stone crab. We didn't realize that our timing was slightly off. Stone crab season in Florida actually runs from October 15 through May 15. Nevertheless, we savored every bite of the succulent seafood phenom. The stone crabs -- all claws -- were served chilled with the crab shell already cracked for ease of consumption. The best way to enjoy it, we discovered, is to dip it in the killer sauce a.k.a. Joe's signature mustard sauce. Finger lickin' good! Even the filet mignon with its special spices and the sides --creamed corn and lemon-garlic buttered broccoli -- were all magnifico!

The menu included some background history on the humble beginnings of Joe's Stone Crab as well as trivia information about the popular delicacy. I found out that:

1. Stone crabs are captured by trapping.
2. Only one claw is removed and then the crab is returned to the water. In about 12 to 24 months, the crab will grow back its claw into "legal size" again (about four inches from the first joint all the way to the tip). By removing only the one claw, these stone crabs can still defend themselves from predators.
3. It is not allowed to declaw female stone crabs.

To learn more, visit http://www.joesstonecrab.com/
Our dinner experience was wonderful! Service was attentive and yet unobtrusive. But I didn't want to leave without getting the name of the bread we were served with our dinner. So I flagged down a busperson and asked, "Excuse me. The bread that we had earlier -- was that what you call a baguette?"

The friendly gentleman who sounded like Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite quickly responded, "Oh, Petzo."

"Pet...zo?" I repeated hesitantly.

"Yeah, Petzo! You want some more?"

"Oh no, no, thank you. I was just curious," I said feeling a little embarrassed.

But I had a nagging feeling that I didn't get the name right so I asked again when our waiter came back to our table, "Is there a special name for that salty bread you served us earlier?"

He blurted, "Nah, we're not fancy around here. It's just pretzel bread."