While we were in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, Michelle's parents took us to a restaurant near their house called Grouper's. Not surprisingly, they specialize in grouper. For those of you not familiar with grouper, it's a big, ugly, yummy fish. We don't get much grouper here in Seattle, so I always try to get a bunch while I'm in Florida.
Anyway, over the years, I've had a lot of grouper sandwiches, filets, etc. but this was easily the best grouper I'd ever had at any price. I had an incredibly delicious blackened grouper wrap; it was spicy, fresh, and cooked just right. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal too. It also helped that Renee Holt, the owner, and her staff were super friendly.
Renee explained they only serve fresh grouper; they have a boat they work with nearby to bring them fresh grouper. Apparently a lot of restaurants have to rely on frozen grouper these days due to higher prices. Well, our meal was definitely worth every penny.
If you're ever in the St. Pete Beach area, you must stop by Grouper's. Say hello to Renee for me too.
Grouper's Seafood Grill & Market
9524 Blind Pass Rd # 19
St Petersburg, FL 33706-1344
727-367-9000
(BTW, I wanted to link to the Encarta Encyclopedia article instead of Wikipedia. Frankly, it was better written, plus I have some loyalty to my old team. Unfortunately, for some reason, this article was selected to only be available to Encarta Premium subscribers. As a shareholder, I really understand why we want to make some money off of Encarta, but there must be a better way. You can't make money charging for something as good that someone else is giving away.)
Giselle Reply
Ummm... I'd been a die-hard Grouper's fan until today! On Saturday, my friend and I purchased a little more than a pound of Stone Crabs from Grouper's on St. Pete Beach. We were looking forward to the same, excellent quality this little gem of a restaurant had always provided. Later that night, we took them out of the bag (cause, you gotta have your stone crabs cold) and immediately, a foul odor hit us. We steamed them thinking it might help matters. As soon as I started pulling the meat from the first claw, I knew we'd gotten a bad batch. Hey, it happens, right?
This was on a Saturday night. Sunday, the restaurant is closed. Today, my friend took the ENTIRE order back in and talked with Owner Renee Holt (who's always been so extremely gracious and pleasant in every other encounter with her). Ms. Holt was less than friendly, not even apologizing for the bad batch, commenting a couple of times that noone else had had the same issue, and even being quite slightly rude. She started to pull cash from the register (the wrong amount), but my friend asked if it could be credited to the card on which the purchase was made. Ms. Holt agreed to refund an amount less than the purchase price.
I phone Ms. Holt to offer to fax my receipt showing the correct amount and she was just rude. No apologies, no nothing!
I don't know if they're having a bad day over there, but Grouper's has lost what would have been a string of lifelong customers.
Too bad customer service is dead these days. What a shame.
Tony Reply
Wow, that's too bad. I'm sad to hear this. I'm surprised that Renee would be so rude. I hope it's not a pattern for them.