The Florida Foodie:

A Case for The Ladies who Lunch

by Saucy Sarah

Ladies who Lunch. Wikipedia definition: “a phrase to describe slim, well-off, old-monied, well-dressed women who meet for social luncheons, usually during the working week. Typically, the women involved are married and non-working. Normally the lunch is in a high-class restaurant, but could also take place in a department store during a shopping trip. Sometimes the lunch takes place under the pretext of raising money for charity. Oftentimes, the women simply gossip about trivial and frivolous things.”

This concept is certainly a throwback to a different time and mentality. Nowadays, most women work and raise a family and have no time during the hectic workweek to take the time to lounge around a lavish spread with other ladies, sipping martinis at noon without a care in the world…Unless you are part of the 1% have the luxury of lunching.

As a working mom, myself, you may ask then, why am I here to make a case for bringing back the idea of “Ladies who Lunch”? I’m not saying I want to push the women’s rights movement back fifty years or so and have us tiddling away the weekday afternoon hours sipping on cosmos or mojitos before dashing off to pick up the kids from school. What I envision is a revitalization of a lost art. The idea of women coming together to de-stress and make connections through sharing an afternoon meal together.

We cannot deny the fact that we women like to go out together. The popularity of the “mom’s night out” or “girl’s weekend away” proves that women these days like to spend time together sans the man. I am a big proponent of the medicinal benefits of regular outings with just the gals. It is a delicious stress reliever to spend a few hours with the girls, good food, good gossip, and good drinks. It makes me a better mom, a better wife, and all-around better human to have a few hours of bonding time with my favorite female friends. This idea of women going out en mass is so wildly popular right now that I recently saw a Simpsons episode commenting on the growing trend of girl’s going out to blow off some steam together. It’s the way the “Y-chromosomed” bond.

Why Lunch, you ask? Well it all began with a day at the beach with my all girl crew. We went to lunch and then to the beach. It was something we had never done in the many years of “girl’s night outs” we had shared together. As we were sunbathing, my friend turned to me and from under the brim of her sunhat remarked on how extra special it felt to be out during the day while the kids were still awake, how going out at night, after the kids were already sleeping seemed to defeat the purpose. “It’s not really a break if they are sleeping, is it?” she asked, “And how nice is it to come home and have them already tucked into bed?” And it made sense to me. Going out while the sun was still shining and the kids were still rising hell somewhere far off did make the whole event more tantalizing. It was like a day off or a “daycation” as we began to call them. Sure, this would be the extreme end of the spectrum of “lunching”, but that’s the magic that can happen when lunch comes into play. This is how I got to thinking of lunch as more than just a mid-day meal; something we tend to have thrown through our driver side window and then proceed to push down our throats as we dart around town.

Lunch was the height of both men and women’s social circles from the roaring twenties up till the brink of the sixties. Men had five-martini  power lunches where they brokered big deals in cigar-choked clubs over fat steaks and creamed spinach. But, the art of Lunching bloomed in the social circles of the better-off women. From the elaborate outfits women wore – right down to how they chewed their chicken salad sandwiches and sipped their Tom Collins, the art of the Ladies who Lunch was a spectacular anthropological realm of discovery of all the wonderful and mysterious ways women interacted with one another. If there was a Ladies who Lunch channel, I would be the first to watch it.

What could be better than going out for lunch with your best gal pals? There are many reasons why lunch is an idea outing for a group of ladies. Usually, lunch is less crowded than a dinner shift which allows for less wait. The establishment can usually accommodate a larger party with more ease during the afternoon. Also, you cannot beat the South Florida weather and there are endless options for dining alfresco under the Florida Sun with an icy mimosa in hand. Lunch also gives you more time. You don’t have to worry about going to bed to get up early the next morning for that important appointment. There is time to shop, to take a drive, to go to the beach and bake under the sun for a few hours. Lunch gives you permission to relax like dinner can never offer you. Lunch makes you more comfortable for it only demands you wear that breezy new sundress or those blousy linen pants. Lunch just might be as ideal as it gets for a “girl’s day off”.

On a recent balmy Sunday, my tried-and-true band of ladies and I set out for Jupiter to Guanabanas. Located off Highway A1A and hugging the intercostal waterway (yes, it is a drive, but think of it as an adventure; this is your “daycation”, remember?) – Guananbanas is a dreamy oasis to spend half a day in your own little paradise.

We arrived at 11:45am, just as breakfast was easing into lunch and found we would have to wait 25 minutes for a table by the water. You can request to wait less for a table that is not right on top of the waterway, but this is lunch after all and why not go for the best?  Besides, waiting at Guanabanas is not a hassle. The ladies and I quickly got curvy glasses filled with one of the best frozen pina coladas I’ve ever had. Sweet, full of coconut and pineapple flavor, not watered down the slightest; I was already going to a very happy place. We strolled down to the dock where you can arrive via boat and tie up to catch a bite to eat. We found some very comfy Adirondack chairs under a line of palm trees and watched the paddle boarders slowly make their way down the water. It’s easy to be patient for a table when you are smack dab in the middle of what appears to be a scene right out of Elvis’s “Blue Hawaii”. The entire restaurant is outdoors. The tables are dotted along winding coral rock pathways and palm fronds make the roof over your heads. There are little grottos for sitting and sipping carved out of the dense tropical growth. There is also a stage for the numerous live acts, hosted by Guanabanas. You can go to their website to check for upcoming performances.

Guananbanas deals mainly in fresh fish and seafood which is very fitting for their location on the intercostal waterway. They also offer an interesting array of “South of the Border” fare , salads and sandwiches,  and the old standbys; steak and burgers. It’s not a huge menu, but there is something to please everyone in your group and give reason to keep coming back to try everything

Once we were seated at our table overlooking the water and the docks, our friendly server, Tara, arrived and took our drink and appetizer order. To get our taste buds going, we chose the Coconut Fried Shrimp with Sweet Jalapeno Jelly, $9.95, and Sweet Fried Plantains, a steal at $1.95 a plate. Both appetizers came quickly to our table. There were six shrimp perfectly fried in a light wet batter with fresh coconut. They were sweet yet savory and the surprise was that you could actually taste the shrimp. A rare thing in the world of heavy, greasy coconut shrimp which seems to be the norm around South Florida. The Sweet Jalapeno Jelly was the perfect accompaniment to the shrimp. Not spicy, but you definitely got the pepper flavor along with the sweetness. The fried plantains were also a delight. Plump, deep golden hunks of plantains, molten hot, but you still eat them too fast and burn your fingers and tongue. The creamy sweet/savory innards burst in your mouth mixing with the caramelized sticky outer shell. For a few moments we all were silent, a rare occurrence in our group of jabber-jaws, but the food was too good to talk around.

For our entrée, we all chose the fresh catch of the day done in different ways since this was what Guanabanas was all about – fresh fish. One gal pal chose the Golden Tile fish coated in a cornmeal crust and dressed with a lemon garlic butter sauce. Another of my lady friends chose the Macadamia and Coconut Crusted Golden Tile with Mango/Pineapple salsa. I opted for the Potato Chip enrobed Pompano with Shallot Jam as a topping. The fresh catch prices vary from day to day depending on market price. All three fish dishes came out perfectly cooked. White flaky filets. The lemon butter Golden Tile was garlicky with a zing of lemon. The coconut and macadamia nut crusted Golden Tile was a bit too subtle on its own, but when topped with the pineapple mango salsa, the dish gave a good range of tropical flavors in the mouth, with a little snappy crunch from the macadamia nuts. The potato chip crust on my pompano was a perfect fit; light and crunchy. You may want to ask for the onion jam on the side. I found the amount put on top of my fish was a bit overwhelming and had to push a good deal off to the side, but paired together the shallot jam and the fish had an almost fruity quality.

You get two side dish choices with your fresh catch. We all chose the, soon to be famous, corn pudding as one choice. It’s not the prettiest thing you’ll ever eat, but get past the fact that it kind of looks like a corn omelet gone wrong and you won’t be sorry. Bursting with whole corn kernels in creamy custardy corn goodness, you will finish every bite and not care it probably just cost you forty weight watchers points. This is a “daycation” after all – we don’t count points today, ladies.

My companions and I also tried the House Salad with Guanabana Vinaigrette. The salad came on the plate with our entrée and was loaded with field greens, cantaloupe, Queso Blanco cheese, and cherry tomatoes dressed with a house vinaigrette. I wasn’t sure I would like having cantaloupe in my salad, not being a big fan of fruit infused salads, but I was pleasantly pleased by the lightly sweet, fresh, and savory elements and how well they worked together.

When food is this good it makes you lean back in your seat and soak in the surroundings. It makes you laugh a little more, toast a little more often. You put each forkful into your mouth and chew slowly. You breath in the salty air. Even though there was no band playing while we were there, I imagine that Guanabanas is even more magical when live music is involved.

So let’s hear it for the ladies who lunch. I propose we bring this lost art back into style and make it work for the lives we lead. There is something rejuvenating about spending the day with your best gal pals re-connecting over a table full of good food and drinks in a beautiful place. I highly recommend you plan a little “daycation” with your “besties” to Guanabanas and raise a glass to the ladies who lunch of old. By God, I think they were on to something.

In her previous life, Sarah, a Palm Beach County Native, spent ten years working in various high-end eating establishments around South Florida. She is currently a fiction thesis candidate in the MFA program at Florida International University where she also teaches creative writing and rhetoric. If that is not enough, Sarah is also the owner of Cakes by Sarah, a local custom cake shop. Sarah lives in Lake Worth with her husband and two beautiful boys. “Food, fiction, and family are my life.”