Locally Grown: Good Food, Good Drink; The Ice Plant Bar

I’ve been super lucky as of late. I find myself in St. Augustine, Florida quite a bit as of late- the land of my ancestors. I’ve written before about them: the Minorcans, a group of Spanish (and some Greek and Italians) who would come to America as indentured servants to New Smyrna Plantation- south of St. Augustine. Nearly 3/4s of them would perish in the harsh conditions of indigo harvesting before a few would make the journey to St. Augustine, then a British holding, and plead for asylum. These are the people who look like me, so when people ask “what I am” in reference to my dark skin and hair- these are the people I look like.

 

It’s been several years since I’ve really spent a lot of time there, and a relationship is what brings me back to the area of my ancestors- rather appropriate, right? For love to bring me back to my roots. Anyways. I’m happy to find that St. Augustine has more to offer than just the tourist traps for food and drink. By far, my favorite place so far is the Ice Plant Bar.

 

The Ice Plant Bar will be my St. Augustine “home”, much like Dovetail is in Macon. Not only do the feature locally sourced foods from Florida (and even some grass-fed beef from Georgia), but they freeze and cut their own ice! While you may think hand cut ice is simply a novelty, it’s something that can truly affect the quality of the perfect cocktail.

 

 

The art of the artisanal cocktail, and it’s hand cut ice, has even made it to the airwaves of National Public Radio. NPR did a piece on October 21st of this year, speaking of a restaurant/bar in Washington that charges $1 per hand cut piece of ice. NPR would go further, speaking with Joe Ambrose- a bartender in the Washington, D.C. area who has co-founded Favourite Ice.

“If you’re gonna get a drink that’s $15, it better have the best ice,” says Joe Ambrose, a bartender at the W Hotel who co-founded Favourite Ice, the company that’s hand-chiseling frozen water for about 30 restaurants and caterers in the D.C. area. There are several similar fancy ice ventures around the country.- NPR

 

The Ice Plant also makes their own ice locally, from their website: ” We carve our variety of ice daily from large blocks of slow-frozen filtered water.  The result is clear, hard ice, free of imperfections.”

 

Free of imperfections? What does that mean? The NPR piece may provide clarification on this point:

 

Regular ice is cloudy because of the minerals like calcium in tap water, Ambrose says. (Editor’s note: Air bubbles that form as water crystallizes also contribute to the clouds, as some commenters pointed out.) So he filters water, and then puts it in a big machine made by Clinebell — the same machine that makes those huge blocks for ice sculptures.

 

So, they have great ice, clearly. (No pun intended I swear.) But they’ve also got amazing food. My only complaint is that when I went for dinner it is a little bit dark in there, and so I did not get any clear pictures of my food. But really, I should have been there earlier in the day and I should have had my *real* camera with me.

 

 

 

I don’t usually order duck, but I did this time: maple duck confit with Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes. The Brussels Sprouts and sweet potatoes were in some kind of hash, diced and mixed together with the maple coated duck atop. Sauce amounts are something I am highly critical of: too much and I wonder what you are trying to hide. This was not the case here, as the dish practically sang it’s way off of my plate. It’s the best meal I’ve had in a while.

 

A friend got their burger, which I had to laugh about because everytime I’ve seen him he’s gotten a burger. It serves as his test to the restaurant quality, and as he said, he compares them all to the Rookery.

 

 

 

He would also sing the praises of the burger. Now, since I didn’t have a decent camera with me, I felt the need to grab some of the shot from their Facebook page to really show you what they can do:

 

 

 

 

 

If you find yourself anywhere near St. Augustine,  the Ice Plant is well worth a special trip. They even give tours and classes on how to make great cocktails.

 

This place is also special to me because my first night there I had a chat with an off duty bartender, and while chatting I told him I am Minorcan- and his response was “yeah- you look like them!” So thank you, it means something to me to not be looked and asked “what are you???” as so often happens in Macon. And thank you for the great food and cocktails, I will be back soon!

 

Love to all y’all,

 

Molly