Eat at Joe's

In 1913, Joe Weiss opened up a small lunch counter on Miami Beach. Back then, Miami Beach was just a quiet, backwater town -- folks stopped in to chat and for a top-notch fish sandwich and fries. This, of course, was only the beginning, and what happened next is a story worth telling. You see, Joe discovered that the stone crab was not only edible but perfectly delectable -- and he was the first to serve them up in a way that simply could not be beat: chilled with Joe's special mustard sauce and/or drawn butter. Then the town began to boom, with movie crews filming in the area and big entertainers and wealthy vacationers flocking to Miami Beach, and Joe's son Jesse came on the scene. With a heart and smile so big he could win over anyone who walked through the door, Jesse brought the celebrities in to Joe's by the carload. Growing up right in the middle of this was Jesse's daughter, Jo Ann -- who runs Joe's today. For 80 years, no visit to Miami has been complete without stopping in at Joe's Stone Crab. From the beginning, it has always been the love of food, family, and friends that has brought in customers and kept them coming. This is the experience that we have tried to capture in this book. It's loaded with 50 recipes, recipes that have kept the name of Joe's on every food lover's lips for all these years -- crispy Shoestring Potatoes and tasty Cottage Sweets, Joe's savory Mustard Sauce, and the never-before-revealed secrets of Joe's Key Lime Pie, to name just a few. We've also packed in 80 years of Miami Beach history and Joe's lore, as well as more than 100 vintage and brand-new photos. So come meet the Joe's family, take a stroll through old Miami Beach, catch a glimpse of a celebrity or two, cook up a restaurant specialty, take a peek into Joe's scrapbrook, or just pull up a chair and listen to the story of Joe's. You're always welcome -- to eat at Joe's!Bass, Jo A. is the author of 'Eat at Joe's' with ISBN 9780517595633 and ISBN 051759563X.