One boat, a stack of permits.

Coastal Grill opened in the spring of 2009 with seventeen tables, a small bar, and a chalkboard menu that changed twice a day. We had one boat, a stack of permits, and a lease on a building that used to be a bait shop.

Manny Lopez was a line cook in Tampa for twelve years before he and his wife Cara took the leap. The plan was simple, even if it wasn’t easy: cook the kind of food they’d want to eat themselves — fresh, unfussy seafood that tastes like the Gulf, served in a room that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Most of our seafood still comes from boats Manny knows by name. Snapper and grouper out of Madeira Beach. Stone crab from Cortez when they’re running. Apalachicola oysters when the bay is open. We don’t have a fryer the size of a swimming pool, and we don’t buy anything frozen if we can help it.

The room

The dining room seats forty-something, with another thirty out on the deck under a string of warm lights. We open the front windows when the weather’s good, which is most nights. There’s no dress code. There’s usually a Cuban record on.

What we care about

Good ingredients, treated with restraint. A drink list that doesn’t need a decoder ring. Servers who know what they’re carrying. Plates that come out when they’re ready, not all at once because someone said they had to. A bill that feels fair when it shows up.

We’re not chasing stars. We’re trying to be the place you go on a Tuesday because you don’t feel like cooking, and the place you bring your in-laws on a Saturday because you want to look thoughtful. So far, so good.

— Manny & Cara Lopez
Treasure Island, Florida