The friendly warning is posted on the wall before you even order: this will get messy, and the garlic butter will stain your shirt. That is the honest promise of this Florida seafood spot, where a gigantic shellfish platter has been a messy tradition since the 1950s.
The building started as a small roadside tavern. The signature garlic crab recipe was a happy accident, cooked in a secret family sauce that has never changed.
Today, the wooden mallets bang against cracked shells, the paper towels stack high, and the laughter stays loud. The platter arrives heaped with shrimp, crab legs, clams, and mussels, all swimming in a buttery, garlicky broth begging to be sopped up with crusty bread…