The sign says, “Open seven days a week until midnight or until everyone is through singing.” A blue and gold macaw squawks, “Aye, matey,” as you enter the old world style barroom at Little Bar Restaurant, on the water at 205 Harbor Place in Goodland, where it is said that 19th century pirates hid their treasure in coastal waters.

Inside, the 100-year-old wainscoting from the owners’ childhood home, Windblown Farm, pieces of pipe organ salvaged from an antebellum mansion now on the national register of historic places and the dining room, paneled in wood from the famous houseboat, “Star of the Everglades,” that sank after appearing in the Walt Disney movie “Wind Across the Everglades,” with Gypsy Rose Lee and Burl Ives, and which toured the Everglades with passengers like presidents Eisenhower and Truman, vividly express the vision that founded this restaurant 31 years ago. You feel you are a part of its story, and it is a part of yours.

Then, there’s the menu; Lake Okechobee frog legs, $17.95; the best soft-shelled crabs in Florida from a secret source, $24.95; voodoo mahi, with Goodland grown avocados, roasted Immokalee red peppers and key lime cream sauce, $19.95; stone crabs fresh off the boat, $23.95 a pound and a half served hot or cold with mustard sauce; and wild-caught pink shrimp, $8.95 a half-pound.

“We keep it simple,” says owner Ray Bozicnik. “There isn’t that much to the preparation. Fresh, local grouper, swordfish or tuna are blackened, broiled, sautéed or fried. It’s the secret ingredients, the secret family recipes that make our menu unique. The recipes are my grandmother’s.” Everything at Little Bar is homemade from scratch, even the sauces and salad dressings. Little Bar staff will also cook filet mignon, Canadian back ribs, prime rib or New York strip steak to your liking.

If you go, you can dine in the “Papa Ray Room,” named in honor of the owners’ father, or the Boat Room, named for the boat that sank. “It was a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous boat,” says Bozicnik’s sister, Niki Bauer. “It had a grand living room, with two fireplaces.” Fine wines and cocktails are served in the wild western bar, where happy hour is from 3 to 6 p.m.

“We also have wonderful music here,” says Bozicnik. “Brian Lee is coming down from New Orleans in December, the Raiford Stark Band, The Wholetones, Rockin’ Jake, the Diddly Squats, from Texas; groups from all over, and local groups, too.”

Little Bar is open Christmas Eve, when you can make a dinner reservation until 8 p.m. The restaurant is also open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. For reservations, call 394-5663. For more information about Little Bar history, Goodland and local pirate lore, visit littlebarrestaurant.com.

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