The Dish: Oyster House is pearl of Everglades City dining

Everglades City has been around since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of stone crab harvests and alligator hunts. Known as the outback of the Everglades, it has one of only four kindergarten through twelfth grade schools in the United States, the country’s second-largest national park, and some of the best seafood in Florida.

The Oyster House Restaurant, 901 Copeland Avenue, is the way to get to know this place the way space shuttle astronaut Craig Melnick, Seminole Indian Chief James Billie, Sean Connery, the Miami Dolphins, Joe Peschi, Danny Glover and the crew of “Gone Fishin’” did. Bring your camera and some friends, and step into the story of Everglades City.

“This is Vegas,” laughs owner Robert Miller, reminiscing about celebrities who come to Oyster House. He tells a story about the time a famous alligator wrestler brought a rattlesnake into the restaurant and spent the evening kissing it. On his next visit, he brought his pet five-foot gator, sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. The alligator latched onto his face and could not be pried loose. A Boston Tribune reporter who happened to be seated at the bar photographed the whole thing, which then became national news.

Oyster House serves sautéed alligator as an appetizer, served with salsa made from scratch every day for $12.95. Alligator hamburgers and French fries are $10.95. According to Miller, the restaurant serves 1,000 pounds of fresh alligator, which comes from alligator farms in LaBelle and Homestead every month. Try the stone crabs, all you can eat, for $24.99, with homemade sweet potato hushpuppies and fresh seasonal vegetables.

“Everglades City is probably the largest commercial stone crab supplier in the United States,” says Miller. “Before stone crabs, they harvested alligators here, when they weren’t protected yet, and sold them all over the world. If you went to China and bought a pair of alligator shoes, the alligator pelt may have come from here. At one time, alligators went for up to $40 a foot.” According to Miller, alligators grow a foot per year, but can be commercially grown in heated alligator farming pens five times faster. Alligator hunting seasons opens in Everglades City in September.

Miller owns the restaurant with his son, Bobby. Bobby Miller, one of Miller’s seven children, studied to become a professional chef and created Oyster House’s signature dish, grouper macademia, now the number one grouper recipe on The Food Network’s Web site, and soon to be featured in Food Network magazine. Grouper macademia, at $19.95, is prepared with a marmalade mustard sauce to bring out its flavor, and served with two side dishes and soup or salad.

Miller, a New York City developer and entrepreneur, accustomed to buying and selling businesses, liked the uniqueness of the area and access to local supplies of fresh fish and stone crab. He bought Oyster House in 1992 and renovated the interior, using Georgia hardwood pine, old shrimp boat latches and Seminole Indian woodcarvings, and then updated the marina behind the restaurant, on Lake Placid Canal. Regional artist Skip Gage was commissioned to paint a lifelike mural of Chokoloskee Bay in the dining room.

Since then, Miller has focused on the town, becoming one of Everglades City’s most influential philanthropists. “Everglades City is made up of people who come from nowhere, and from everywhere,” observes Miller. “It takes baby steps, and keeps on climbing. You meet different people every day, and nobody has to be like anybody. You can be who you are in Everglad

es City. That’s what I like about it.”

Miller points out that Everglades City, originally developed by the Barron Collier family to build the Tamiami Trail, later became a haven for smugglers, poachers and outlaws. Today, it is second only to Disneyworld as a tourist destination, attracting more than a million visitors and seasonal residents each year, and still growing, in spite of current economic conditions.

“Everglades City is a small city of good people,” Miller goes on. “When there are problems, they are there for each other. They stick together, and help each other, as family.”

Oyster House is open from 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, offering live entertainment every weekend, from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. Happy hour is from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily, featuring two-for-one cocktails, beer and wine.

For more information about Oyster House, call (239) 695-2073, or visit oysterhouserestaurant.com. To find out how to get to the marina, there’s www.gladeshaven.com. For information about Everglades City, visit florida-everglades.com.