Boat to Table, Peace River Seafood

Here at Edible Sarasota, we like to get together as a group and road trip around this beautiful stretch of utopia that we’re all lucky enough to call home. We’ve eaten fresh shrimp on Pine Island and enjoyed specialty cocktails on Boca Grande. Most recently, we explored that glorious little oasis to the south known as Punta Gorda. <Insert sounds of brakes screeching>

Punta Gorda?

That’s right, we headed south in search of some fun and we wound up at a picnic table covered with buckets and platters of fresh blue crab, headless jumbo shrimp, middle neck clams, and steamed Apalachicola oysters, all the while murmuring to each other those three little words everyone wants to hear: Peace. River. Seafood.

Peace River Seafood is pure Old Florida: a sprawling crab shack under leafy trees with a big backyard, a seafood market, and a landlocked receiving dock that takes in the daily fresh catch pulled out of the nearby waters. There’s a talking parrot named Gaspar hanging out on the front porch, and if Tori Opsahl is your server then she’s also your best bet for fresh catch updates because her husband, Brad, is one of the fishermen.

You can feel the community vibe in the air at Peace River Seafood. The team is led by General Manager Levi Lowe, and his passion for the property is evident in the way he seems to be everywhere at once. You can find Levi checking on satisfied guests busily eating lobster bites washed down with cold local beers; or you can find him on the receiving dock chasing down an errant blue crab; or he’s holding open the door for a shopper at the little seafood market on the side.

What we love about Peace River Seafood is not just the family atmosphere, the cheeky pirate references, or the fresh seafood, it’s also the unexpected touches like a build-your-own-smoothie menu with items such as flax seed and collagen to go with the strawberries and bananas. We’re also here to tell you that you can bring your pickiest friends to Peace River because there’s a great big hamburger on the menu for the non-seafood eaters.

In keeping with the Old Florida aesthetic is the nomenclature of certain menu items such as one of the Starter Plates. <Is that supposed to be an appetizer?> “A Night at Whorehouse Point” is described as “a pound of shrimp, a dozen clams, and a dozen oysters all steamed to perfection” served with sweet, summery corn on the cob and buttery new potatoes all for $38.95. Reactions to the name of the dish vary according to the patron’s own knowledge of the area’s colloquial vernacular. Whorehouse Point is technically Mangrove Point but has been known by the more colorful descriptor since as far back as anyone can remember. If you call it Mangrove Point… then you’re probably new here.

Peace River Seafood: 5337 Duncan Rd, Punta Gorda; 941-505-8440; peaceriverseafood.com