Several years ago, acquaintances in the dive community opened a lovely wine and cheese shop in Key Largo. They sold other gourmet-type items and it was kind of like having part of a Whole Foods available. Corks and Curds was an appropriate name. I don’t recall how the transition came about, but they eventually decided to install a wood-fired grill and become a restaurant. The thing is though they aren’t open at lunchtime and they aren’t on the water. They are ocean-side on Overseas Highway, just as the highways splits in Key Largo. (This landmark doesn’t mean anything if you don’t live around here) Anyway, while they specialize in pizza, they have other items and we kept saying we were going to have dinner at some point.
We decided okay, this year for my birthday would be it. I have mentioned in other posts that if you have a restaurant in the Keys and aren’t on the water, you have sort of two ways to go decor-wise. You can stick with the ocean-theme with art, etc., or you can go the opposite way which a few places do. C&C, as it is referred to, went with the industrial, loft-like look of exposed brick walls and wood. It works well although it is also a noisy place with not being very large and putting in as many tables as possible, plus a bar that seats twelve. At least they don’t add loud music on top of it so the feeling is definitely one of camaraderie. We didn’t intend to have pizza – sold only in the 12-inch size I think – and I should have paid more attention to the many variations they offer. They have about six non-pizza entrees on the regular menu and nightly specials. I went for the sirloin topped with roasted shallot butter and Hubby had the special of lobster and crab lasagna. We split a salad and obviously had a nice bottle of wine. Interestingly, the portions are not designed for leftovers which is fine. The food was excellent.
The only other slightly unusual aspect was an espresso focus. That’s the only coffee they serve and at least two of their desserts are espresso-based. I was surprised there was no chocolate cake option, but the key lime parfait we shared was delicious.
