Tucked into the corner of a rather unassuming strip mall, just a few blocks before hitting one of the scores of bridges that span the waterway between Pinellas county and its beaches, there sits a restaurant with seafood good enough to keep you on the mainland. Like its sister restaurant, Guppy's on Indian Rocks Beach, E&E Stakeout Grill has a way with fish, especially the wonderful varieties of grouper, snapper and amberjack that grace our local waters. In keeping with its Santa Fe theme, E&E also has a variety of Western-style steaks and enhances its seafood with wonderful — if incongruous — Southwestern accents.
The restaurant used to be decorated in a similar style, though in the past few years they've upgraded their look from vintage Roadrunner cartoons to a far more sleek and stylish interior. Now sandy colors, brushed metal accents and whimsically angular booth backs give the impression of rocky desert spires without all the cheesy cactus motifs (though they still do have those cactus-handled margarita glasses). The best addition to the décor, however, is a series of marvelous light fixtures that splash a prism of color worthy of any desert vista across the sandy walls.
I was able to enjoy the scenery at length due to E&E's greatest flaw — a seeming inability to provide good service. During one trip, I could forgive the less-than-exemplary work. It was a Monday night, and the place was swamped beyond what the no-doubt reduced Monday staff could accommodate. We did get our food in a relatively short period of time, but there were several glaring errors. Our harried waitress failed to ask how my dining companion would like his steak prepared, and then even when we stopped her later to complete our order, never did get around to querying which of the many side dishes he would like to have served alongside the beef. However, on that occasion, the management appeared well aware that their servers were overburdened, and made sure that there were plenty of busboys and other staff to make sure drink orders were served expediently and water glasses were kept full.
Another time they had no excuse, and the mistakes were far more glaring. During an easy weekday lunch break, my dining companion and I spent 45 minutes waiting in a half-empty restaurant for our orders. During 25 of those minutes, we had no appetizers to distract us, no drinks to quench our thirst and no kind inquiries as to whether we'd like more water (we did). In fact, we never saw our server at all.
Despite these indignities, which I hope will be repaired when the Powers-That-Be get their hands on this review (I know Guppy's doesn't have the same service issues), I still recommend E&E because the food — once it comes — is damn good.
Everything they serve is top of the line and includes some extra detail that propels the dish from enjoyable to extraordinary. The crabmeat quesadilla ($6.50) by course features large chunks of top-of-the-line crabmeat but is garnished with a rather unusual berry reduction sauce rather than more run-of-the mill salsa. But if you are looking for salsa, E&E has a sweet version on offer with its Santa Fe shrimp skewers ($7.50), which consist of large, fresh Gulf shrimp rubbed with Southwestern spices, grilled to perfection and served with the aforementioned sweet, citrus-pineapple salsa. Another great appetizer was the shrimp piccata ($8.50). Piccata in this instance refers to the bits of chopped tomatoes, olives and capers in white wine sauce that top the rock shrimp, and intriguing and unusual nut-encrusted eggplant rounds. As far as I'm concerned, you could lose the sauce and even the rock shrimp — my favorite thing about this appetizer was the wonderful eggplant, a touch that I definitely didn't expect but most certainly enjoyed.
Other recommendations include the grouper fajitas ($13.95), a whole filet of creamy white, flaky grouper served sizzling with onions, peppers and a variety of fajita-esque toppings (guacamole, salsa, sour cream). The only downside to the presentation is that they insisted on smothering the dish with fajita-unfriendly sharp cheddar cheese. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard to push the glom of cheddar to the side and get to the delicate fish hiding beneath. We also sampled an order of "South African surf and turf" (during our visit, $30.95), which featured a 6 ounces American beef filet and a 6 ounces of Tristan Rock Lobster (judging from the short essays sprinkled throughout its menu, E&E is as proud of its Tristan lobsters as it is its beef). After trying the two side-by-side, I admit that I'm a bigger fan of the rock lobster than I am of the beef. The lobster tail: delicious. The steak: decent, but I probably would have liked it more if it weren't so completely overshadowed by the restaurant's awesome seafood.
As with most restaurants with an eye for good fish, E&E's specialty menu often encompasses the finest of the day's selection. The chef goes out of his way to find a dish that would best highlight the strengths of the catch of the day, and savvy diners would do well to take the daily specials into account. Indeed, the regular menu has only a few seafood selections, leaving the daily menu to its flights of culinary fancy. Having sampled two of the chef's creations (a magnificent, potato-encrusted hogfish snapper filet served with potato pancakes and a garlic cream sauce for $18.95, and a delicate, flaky trout special with a caper green goddess dressing for $10.50), I predict that anyone putting their trust in E&E's best judgment will not be sorry.
The restaurant's attached Kokopelli Bar has a large martini menu (tip, avoid the gross Tang martini in favor of the dirty martini with blue-cheese stuffed olives, all $7) and a few margarita options more in keeping with its southwestern theme. I was a big fan of the Kokopelli margarita ($5), which included top-of-the-line blue agave tequila and Grand Marnier in the mix, though I was intrigued by the Stakeout version ($4), a sort of margarita-meets-cosmopolitan with it's splash of pink prickly pear juice. But Kokopelli's distinctive offerings are something to take note of, especially while waiting that interminable length of time for your food.
Like its sister restaurant, E&E Stakeout employs a tip-inclusive policy — 15 percent is already added to the bill. Though, as a former waitress, I've always claimed that the policy is a valid one, I wonder if the result at E&E has been to create a system of sloppy serving. The food at this imaginative and stylish eatery is phenomenal, and a slight increase in the level of service would most likely have raised my rating of this establishment a full point. As it stands however, it is the style, not the substance of E&E that could stand to be improved. Food: 10. Delivery: three.
Freelance Food Critic Diana Peterfreund dines anonymously and the Planet pays for her meals. Contact her at diana.peterfreund@weeklyplanet.com. Restaurants chosen for review are not related to advertising.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2004.