The Spot

Recapturing the joys of youth can mean buying fancy Lego sets, rifling through vintage Playboys, or dreaming of the day you'll finally enjoy the touch of a woman. For delicious joys from someone else's childhood, hit The Spot.

From two Bronx-bred brothers and a Virginia chef who all happened to long for the hole-in-the-wall fish joints of their youth, The Spot's a simple little red and black tiled space on Alton Rd serving seafood-centered comfort grub with a New Orleans/Southern influence, and keeping the doors thrown wide open into the wee hours of the morning, when your mouth is frequently thrown wide open. A rarity on the beach -- po' boys -- take center stage, with shrimp, pollock, or chicken that's either rolled in lightly seasoned flour and fried, or given a jerk treatment; all come with your choice of standard condiments or house-made Cajun Remoulade sauce concocted via a clandestine recipe the chef won't tell you, no matter how many buttons you undo. Platters come w/ slaw and hush puppies, and include your choice of fried or jerk shrimp/fish, conch fritters, fried calamari, or "The 3 Spot", with any trifecta of meats; other sides include spiced fries, sweet potato fries, and weekly specials like black-eyed peas, collard greens cooked w/ ham hocks and bacon, and the chef's grandma's "skillet" sweet potatoes, cooked for three hours with nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon so as to break down into a texture of "chunky mash" -- producing the Charles Emerson Winchester III of side dishes.

For non-fried stuff, there's deli sandwiches w/ smoked turkey or roast beef, plus Caesar salads w/ grilled jumbo shrimp, chicken, or local mahi, as well as house-made iced tea and lemonade, which'll conjure up fond memories of your roadside entrepreneurial venture, which provided your sole contact with females until...oh, god, someday!