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The next best thing to eating at home or eating at your Mom’s house is at a local place. You know one of those joints that all the local yokels hang out at. It’s a meeting place of sorts for all sorts of people. Dolly’s on Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs is that place.
Today, I stopped in for lunch with “goofy Brad - the landscaper” and Al Gorithm. I got my regular “salad sandwich” (hold the onions & side of onion rings. It’s my own private Idaho) and listened to the toils and troubles of Brad, the would-be farmer. He just bought some acreage in Golden Gate that he’s working on. He’s not really had to deal with the perils of wooded land before and has gone through a variety of rashes, bites, stings, cuts, tick, tick removal, some sort of chicken parasite and he’s had to deal with a white cat with ½ a head - the likes of which belonged in a Steven King novel. It’s kind of like “Green Acres” but Brad isn’t married to a city girl.
This may sound like disgusting conversation for a lunch table, but:
- We know and expect this from Brad.
- Brad is funnier than all-get-out.
- The environment leads to comfortable conversation between friends, even if it’s skeevy subject matter.
I snapped some pictures that, of course, won’t do it justice. Where else in Bonita Springs can you dine in a restaurant that is always crowded that doesn’t take reservations? The original building was a fine Bonita Springs motel at one time. I’d suspect the ‘50’s. Next time you’re there, check out the ceiling. You can figure the floor plan and where the bathroom was. The doors are still installed and chain locked and painted shut across the front of the building. It’s a time capsule, a little bit of Bonita Springs history.
Other highlights include:
- None of the chairs really match.
- Most of the tables do not match.
- None of the dishes match.
- None of the silverware matches.
- I think the drinking glasses match.
- There are home made craft pictures from about the 7-8th grade art class.
- Adopted, framed needle point artwork.
- A Christmas wreath is still on the wall - and plugged in!
- There is a table of 100% authentic home made pies and cookies to eat in or take home.
- The potted plants on the window sill are in abandoned electric coffee pots.
- You can buy farm fresh “grown in Bonita Springs” tomatoes out front on your way home. Not really, the tomatoes are probably from Immokalee.
Dolly’s is THE place to see and be seen in Bonita Springs, Florida. Accept no substitutions.
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