Couple aim to feed locals in off-season
During the summer months on Pine Island, not many tourists or snowbirds are around.
But Mel Meo and her boyfriend, Fred Lodsin, decided that the locals need a place to grab a bite to eat at a reasonable cost, using locally purchased food items.
So they spoke to John Skorupski, who owns Old Fish House Marina, and took over the kitchen for the summer.
Meo is an artist by trade, but the couple has done catering on the island — The Mullet Wagon — so it was just a matter of opening the venue and getting to work making the homemade goodies.
“We’ve been here two months,” Meo said. “We are a take-out restaurant. Everything is fresh.”
Four boats supply grouper, mullet, snapper and shrimp.
“We get all of the fish locally,” she said.
They are open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday.
The menu items range from $1 to $15.
They sell fish tacos for $4, and a burrito with a special salsa verde drizzled over blackened mullet with all the trimmings for $7.
“And my famous mullet fritters, and they are famous,” she said.
The couple also makes a smoked mullet dip.
“My favorite thing on the menu is a mullet dog,” she said.
It is a crispy fried mullet on a grilled potato roll with homemade tartar sauce.
They have homemade macaroni and cheese, key lime pie, chocolate cake, cole slaw and a key lime cloud cake.
“Everything on our menu is reasonable,” Meo said. “We tried to feed the locals. They have to eat, and we wanted to provide them good, fresh seafood.”
What has not been decided, or even discussed, is what happens in the fall when the tourists and snowbirds come back.
“Somebody will definitely be open,” she said. “We will always have our wagon and cater and do parties. You can follow The Mullet Wagon, but we would love to be here in season.”