Gracie Rae Grill worth trek to Panama City

I normally like to support locally-owned restaurants, but on a recent holiday with my wife to Panama City, Fla., we tried out a restaurant on the water. At just over an hour and a half drive from Dothan it’s a manageable trek to the Gracie Rae Bar & Grill nestled in the St. Andrews community.

Gracie Rae Bar and Grill is located in the back of the Shrimp Boat restaurant on the waterfront community at a location shared by the St. Andrews Seafood Market.

My wife, Liz, and I each started out the meal with appetizers. Liz ate the Low Country Gumbo which included brown rice and okra. Usually I’m not a big gumbo fan because I don’t like shrimp or crab, but I tried the gumbo because Liz really had to search for the seafood. But the awdoui sausage gave the bowl of gumbo an added spicy kick. The gumbo wasn’t very pricey either coming in at $5.99. I veered away from a seafood starter and stuck with cheese sticks.

For my main course I enjoyed a grilled grouper Po-Boy sandwich with loads of what the menu called Creole mayo for $10.99. The special dressing sure did a good job of disguising the fish inside the Po-Boy roll. The Po-Boy came with a generous order of crispy tasty fries and a cup of cole slaw. I left the cole slaw for Liz, which she described as “yummy” and fresh. She also thought the cole slaw tasted homemade not soupy as it comes at some restaurants.

Liz said she really enjoyed the Greek shrimp and crabmeat salad for her main course, which came to $12.99. The salad, which the bartender called his favorite, came with a great combination of seafood, a roma tomato, Kalamat olives, peppers, cucumbers and feta cheese along with a tasty Greek dressing. 

We enjoyed most of our meal inside at the sports bar area to take in the Monday night NFL football game of the Miami Dolphins play the New York Jets. But after dinner we took a stroll through the deck overlooking the water, where several other people finished off a later dinner and drinks.
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Gracie Rae Bar & Grill
Location: 1201 Beck Ave., Panama City, Fla.
Hours: Open daily for lunch and dinner starting at 11:30 a.m.
Phone: (850) 785-8761.
Rating: Three stars out of four