"You're going to f...ing love these," my spunky server promised, "and when you're done, just throw the shells down here behind the bar."
How have I avoided this place until now? It's only three miles from my house, the house I've lived in for almost 18 years. I've known about it, heard good reviews, passed by the tacky exterior a thousand times. Today I simply did what had to be done.
Opened in 1950, in the same spot and in the same building it's in right now, Lee & Ricks is an institution in Orlando. Walking into this place is like walking back in time ... way back. Only with the freshest damn oysters in central Florida. "We probably go through about 300 bushels a week," explains another woman standing behind the bar. I learned that it takes four big buckets full of oysters to make one bushel, and that they get their famed oysters from the Apalachicola region of Florida's panhandle.
"Come back soon, OK?" said my f-bomb-dropping new friend as I stood up to leave. Oh, hell yeah, you know it.