Matlacha restaurants: Blue Dog Bar & Grill is un-revolutionary — JLB review

Bring two lifelong locals to Blue Dog Bar & Grill on Matlacha, and it becomes mullet madness. 

"There's smoked mullet in the fish dip!" one shrieks. 

"And fried mullet tacos!" the other squeals. 

There are mullet sandwiches and mullet scampi, too. There is grilled mullet, blackened mullet, sauteed mullet and seared mullet. You can smother your mullet in lemon-caper sauce, mango salsa, malt-vinegar aioli. You can drape it over pasta or atop a gooey crock of macaroni and cheese. 

Mullet is life on Matlacha. Or it was. It's the humble fish that fed these islands when they were little more than clouds of mosquitoes knitted together by mangroves. Over time, though, tastes change. Grouper and snapper, sweeter and meatier, became more readily available, and the bottom-feeding mullet disappeared from mainstream menus. 

Not Blue Dog's. 

Restaurants and chefs are often lauded for being revolutionary and innovative. Blue Dog is, in some ways, the opposite. It's an un-revolution. An earnest throwback to simpler seafood times. And it's thanks to two Floridians. 

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Blue Dog's owners, Jesse Tincher and John Lynch, met in high school in Miami. They went to Florida State together and worked at the same oyster and wings bar, The Phyrst, on W. Jefferson Street in Tallahassee. They went their separate ways for a bit, Tincher working as a chef in the Keys, Lynch as a firefighter in Cape Coral. But they never stayed apart long. 

"Our paths kept crossing," Lynch said. 

"I can't seem to get rid of him," Tincher replied, laughing. "I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say?"

Lynch, who's lived on Matlacha for almost 30 years, was nearing retirement from his fire district and looking for something else to occupy his time. He called his old friend and talked him into opening a restaurant. Something by locals for locals. Something that celebrated the fruits of Pine Island Sound and paid respect to the folks who fish for them. And so, Blue Dog came to be. 

Seven years, a few hurricanes and one global pandemic later, Blue Dog is a Matlacha mainstay. A place that attracts Floridians from all over, including those two mullet-loving lifelong locals I mentioned, one of which (the squealing one) was me. 

Mullet is only the beginning at Blue Dog. In a quite literal sense. Lynch and Tincher wander across the parking lot to pick it up from Barnhill Seafood Market next door, along with their seasonal soft-shell crabs. Then it's across the street to Island Seafood to meet the anglers unloading their bins of just-caught snapper. Next it's a hop, skip and left-turn at the stop sign to Island Crab Co. for wriggling bushels of Florida blues. 

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When the timing's right, Blue Dog sources its wild-caught Gulf shrimp from Captain C.J., a local boat with which the restaurant has close ties. 

"His daughter works here," Lynch said. "It's funny, we'll get people at the bar saying how great the shrimp is, and she'll say, 'Well good, my daddy caught those.'"

Blue Dog is so dedicated to local sourcing, it doesn't have a "fish of the day" but a "fish of the moment." If the red snapper runs out, someone heads next door or across the street to see what else has come in: hogfish perhaps, maybe black grouper or cobia. 

This is the part of the write-up where I tell you how delicious all of this is. How Blue Dog is one of the only places where I can reliably order conch, because it nails it — tender with a slight chew — every single time. How these crab cakes are meaty, masterful and so delightfully crisp. How fantastic those shrimp are as simple, shuck-worthy peel-and-eats. How this local dedication allows Blue Dog to keep its menu prices almost absurdly low ($19.95 for a full pound of shrimp?!? $8.50 for fish dip!! (There I go squealing again.)). 

I want to tell you about the gracious servers and the genuine camaraderie they inspire in this always-bustling dining room. And how, when you order a bottle of wine, it comes in a Pine Island Reebok (aka: a white rubber fishing boot) filled with ice, and how absolutely brilliant that is. 

More so, I want to wish Blue Dog a happy almost seventh birthday. Is that 1 in dog years? Or 49? Either way, from one Florida local to two others: Cheers to this un-revolution. 

Jean Le Boeuf is the brand under which our restaurant critics have written for more than 40 years. This article came from staff writer Annabelle Tometich. Follow our critics at facebook.com/jeanleboeufswfl or @JeanLeBoeuf on Twitter and Instagram; email jleboeuf@news-press.com. Connect with this reporter: atometich@news-press.com; @abellewrites (Instagram)

Blue Dog Bar & Grill

4597 Pine Island Road, Matlacha

Price: $$$

Web: bluedogmatlacha.com

Call: 239-558-4970

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, closed Sundays

Etc.: Masked staff; outdoor seating available; beer, wine and wine-based cocktails served

Sample menu*

Appetizers

Smoked fish dip, $8.50

Wings (10), $9.95

Peel-and-eat shrimp (½ lb.), $10.95

Entrees

Fish tacos, $11.50

The Black and blue burger, $12.50

Crunchy blue crab cakes, $17

*Prices subject to change

What the symbols mean

$ - Average entree is under $10

$$ - $10-$15

$$$ - $15-$20

$$$$ - $20-$25

$$$$$ - $25 and up