Old Packing House Cafe

Friday, January 25th, 2008
Now……Our review.
This week took us out to J.R.’s Old Packinghouse Café - known for good food, cold beer, and live entertainment; originally it was used for packing locally cultivated celery beginning in the 1920’s. While celery can still be found in the “Celery Plate with Dip” they are really better known for their southern cooking and live music six days a week.
Surprised to find this great place hidden amongst warehouses in a mainly industrial setting, where Bahia Vista meets Cattleman, we arrived at 7pm to find the regular crowd packed in enjoying the live music of Randy Tracy’s Trio of Doom (although their third did not show up, the duo played on in fine form!). We had to wait for a table to clear so we joined Charlie (a fixture at the OPC bar) and enjoyed an icy cold beer while he shared fun stories of times passed. He has been frequenting OPC for 25 years – note this is also how long owner J.R. has been running the place. Both old and young were enjoying the rustic décor, photos of good times, and folksy blues music.
It took about fifteen minutes for us to get settled at our table. We were enjoying the music so much including shouting requests to the band (Corrina Corrina, Muddy Water, Rolling Stones Dead Flower, various James Taylor and Neil Young tunes to name a few) our waitress politely reminded us that she was ready to take our order. We had the Catfish dinner, blackened, with southern style vegetables, along with famous OPC Special potatoes (also blackened) served with cheese, real bacon bits, and sour cream; and the Pork Loin center-cut, Mojo spiced with grilled onions served with black beans and rice. Good ole’ home-style Southern cooking. The pork dinner, which came unexpectedly thinly sliced, was good for the first bite or two, but there was so much on the plate it became redundant to the taste buds. The black beans were a nice touch, but portion of all was overwhelming – perhaps meant more for a truck driver than a diva. We loved the catfish dish (hey that rhymes!) the potatoes were decedent and the overall meal was perfect for the atmosphere!
For a finishing touch we snuck in an order of bread pudding – thank goodness only one to share – it was bigger than our heads!!!! (We try to keep this a diva rule – eating nothing larger than one’s head) We made an exception and enjoyed the delicious creation anyway – swimming in the live music, taking in the setting and décor, the divas truly enjoyed this lively, fun, and fulfilling outing for under $20.00 each including our beer and wine.
J.R.’s Old Packing House Café is located at 987 S. Packing House Drive. They can be reached at 941-371-9358. Check out their website at www.oldpackinghousecafe.com