Carrie stands in front of our favorite lunch spot!
I have many “favorite places” along the Georgia coast. One of them is Captain Joe’s Seafood Restaurant in Midway. I know there are various Captain Joe’s locations and I’m sure they’re all good. But the Midway location feels like home to me, and I love to stop there as often as possible when I am in the area.
My friend Carrie introduced me to Captain Joe’s a year ago. I had passed it numerous times on my many trips up and down Highway 17 but never stopped there. That’s definitely my mistake. All those years I could have been enjoying the delicious fare and welcoming service…
Well, I won’t make that mistake again! Captain Joe’s is one of my most important stops, and more than once I have had a hankerin for grilled shrimp and figured since I hadn’t been to Midway in, oh, a week or so, maybe it was time to head on down!
I am addicted to Captain Joe’s salad bar, that’s for sure. It’s been a long time since I have enjoyed a salad bar so much. Salad makings are always absolutely fresh and appetizing. Every time I am there I know I really need to stop with my salad of fresh lettuce and vegetables and all my favorites, but I just don’t want to. I know there are so many other delicious menu items to enjoy!
On the salad bar you will also find homemade jacket potato chips as well as sweet potato chips, yummy creamy salads, fresh cold fruit, a selection of breads (including Captain Joe’s famous cheese biscuits), soups, and desserts. Seriously, the salad bar really is a meal in and of itself. But pace yourself because you don’t want to miss all the other offerings.
To be honest, once I fall in love with something, that’s it for me. So my sampling of Captain Joe’s menu is fairly limited but that’s only because I can hold only so much food! My favorite menu items are grilled shrimp and grilled mahi mahi. I’m not a great fan of fish, which is unfortunate and I am making an effort to change that. But if I lived close enough, I’d have Captain Joe’s mahi mahi every day, if I could. I have sampled Captain Joe’s fried fantail shrimp and I can truthfully say it’s the best I’ve ever had.
While Captain Joe’s serves excellent food, it’s not just the food that keeps me going back. A restaurant can serve the finest food in the world but if its service stinks, well, so does the restaurant. Captain Joe’s servers are the nicest, friendliest, more helpful people you will meet anywhere. Carrie and I have never walked through the door that someone has not been all over us, seating us immediately (at our favorite table), smiling and acting for all the world like they were just waiting for us to arrive.
And there is a reason for this: it’s that the management knows it’s the employees that make a business successful. By one server’s own admission, she feels more like a daughter to her employer than an employee. It’s refreshing to watch the interaction and smiles exchanged among those who keep Captain Joe’s running, and it makes the experience that much more special.
Before we are even settled in our seats looking out at the giant live oaks and palm trees, cold drinks arrive. And I am not talking a glass of iced tea or soda. I am talking a PITCHER of iced tea or soda along with your glass so you can refill your own. I love this. Not only can I keep my drink exactly as I want it, but it saves the servers time and energy. I think this is brilliant and just another example of how well Captain Joe’s understands the business of service.
If you happen to be in Midway, do stop in at Captain Joe’s and abandon yourself to a wonderful coastal Georgia seafood experience, offered by a warm and friendly staff who knows how to do it and do it right! Look for me and Carrie at the corner table, and stop by to say hello!
Click here to visit Captain Joe’s website.
Posted by summer1565 
