Felix’s

We were in Ocala for the day and decided on the spur of the moment to stop in at Felix’s. We’d heard of it and just wanted to take a peek — we weren’t looking for a meal. The building is very distinctive and really nice both inside and out. We wandered in at around 4 on a Saturday afternoon, half an hour before they open, but they still invited us to come in and have a drink at the bar. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we ended up staying until 10:30, which was half an hour after they closed. Even then they told us we were welcome to stay and watch the rest of the game with them. Such wonderful, fun people.
Details … it’s hard to know where to start. They have a nice, reasonably priced wine list. It’s not an extensive selection of wines, but it does cover a pretty good range from decent inexpensive wines to some really nice bottles with correspondingly higher prices. We started with wine by the glass — it was pretty hot outside so we wanted something light and refreshing to cool off. I had Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve chardonnay at $ 10 a glass and my friend had Silverado «Millers Ranch» sauvignon blanc at $ 9 a glass. We also sampled their tasty homemade Sangria. They have it sitting in a big jar up on the bar so you can see all the fruit floating around in the wine, which apparently also has a touch of peach schnapps and a touch of vodka in it as well. Then we switched to red wine and a bottle of a meritage blend, but unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment. Whatever it was, we liked it so much we ended up getting a second bottle later on in the evening. Hey, we were there around 6 hours … that’s only about one glass of wine an hour for each of us.
After we were there a few hours, just enjoying the hell out of talking with Jessica/​Jessie the bartender … ask her about her tattoos, guys :) … we started getting hungry so we ordered dinner. I had the 20 oz. bone-​in cowboy ribeye and my friend had the lobster risotto. My steak was big, juicy, tender and delicious. It was so good that even my friend, who doesn’t eat red meat, had to try a few bites. She’s thinking maybe she’ll start eating steaks now. Her lobster risotto came with 2 lobster tails. She enjoyed it and, though I’m not much of a fan of either lobster or risotto (it’s a texture thing for me), I have to admit it was pretty tasty too.
Dessert was difficult because there were so many things we wanted to try. We asked what we shouldn’t miss and were pointed to the oatmeal cake. We’d been eyeing that already since it’s something you don’t usually see. It was warm, moist, chewy, coconutty, brown sugar goodness and I’m not a dessert person.
Although we didn’t go that route, they offer half portions of most things on the menu. We’ll have to go back so we can sample more extensively. And I expect we will go back. It’s pretty rare that I’ve ever felt so welcome at a restaurant.

Soup: Lobster Bisque
«Musky», «grainy», and «sludge brown» are just some terms that we wouldn’t want associated with our Lobster Bisque; unfortunately in this case they happen to be the most accurate. Also there was no trace of lobster flavor despite the specks of what I think may have been lobster in the soup. I took two bites simply because I could not believe how awful the first one was.
Sandwich: Cuban Sandwich
It was just off. I could have sworn I tasted horseradish (?!) in there somewhere. I think maybe I had the sandwich that was prepped and fully dressed (mustard and what-​have-​you) yesterday! No flavors were present other than horseradish. (again…WTF!?) In short:
Felix’s Cuban Sandwich = Pressed Horseradish Mush on Baguette
Dessert: Crème Brulee.
One of the glories, indeed the point, of Crème Brulee is the distinctive thin veneer of burnt sugar from which its name is derived. That element, which I really look forward to, was almost entirely missing! There was a dime-​sized disc of it floating off-​center on a pool of what resembled soupy and bland vanilla pudding in both flavor and consistency.
Espresso:
Scary dirty water.
In full disclosure the Monte Cristo, and the «Tsatsiki Chicken Sandwich» looked really good. Actually, everything LOOKED good (well…maybe not that Lobster Bisque).