A Great Local Dive
Gulfport, Florida, USA
Dined in January 2016
By Sean Overpeck (CFE)
When you arrive in Gulfport, a very quant and small community near St. Pete Beach, it makes you think about small town America from the 1950’s with their shops, a post office inside a market style store, and several restaurants, along with an old casino building. Tucked away in one of these corners is Stella’s, a small restaurant serving Breakfast, Lunch, and Brunch daily. They also have recently started serving a dinner menu. When you look at their logo, you might think, why is there a nun being advertised for a local dive? Move about Aunt Stella from the owners below…
Scroll down to read the main review, accolades and wine tasting notes
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****
The worlds best restaurants, based on the
That I visited and reviewed on this site…
****
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From the restaurants home page:
Stella’s is located toward the end of Beach Blvd on the west side of the street. (The original location of Caldwell Reality – the oldest business in Gulfport.) Established in 2009, this waterfront eatery caters to tourists and locals providing tasty breakfasts all day. Many consider this cozy restaurant the “Cheers” of Gulfport. You will find all the locals or regulars have hung their personal mugs on Stella’s “MUG SPOT” wall. Take a seat inside at the counter and enjoy a great meal and friendly conversation with your neighbor.
Aunt Stella was born October 21, 1910 in the lower east side of Manhattan. Following high school, Stella decided to devote her life to the church as a nun. She served with Dominican Congregations in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, which allowed her to stay close to her family.
What I loved most about my time with Aunt Stella was her love of cooking and family dinners. I can close my eyes today, picture her cooking in the kitchen and can still smell the aroma of fresh spaghetti sauce on the stove. Those memories were some of my favorite as a child and the inspiration for my restaurant. When I decided to open Stella’s in 2009, choosing the right name was easy for me. I wanted a place where my customers would feel like family, and the food would remind them of home. So who better to represent everything I value than my Aunt Stella.
Main review:
My family was visiting St. Petersburg that weekend, so my fiancé and I took them out to Gulfport to see the old town style as they were from up in Ohio. We stopped in for a late breakfast sitting on the patio which was attached to the main street sidewalk. If you want to bring your pet along, don’t worry, they are dog friendly. Besides the dining area on the patio and inside the small store front which used to be an insurance office, they have gelato’s which are very popular year round but especially in the summer and a full deli. Their menu is broken down by:
- Starters and Salads
- Breakfast and brunch
- Omelet Station
- Lunch Sandwiches
- Dinner Menu
- Dog Bone Menu
- Desserts
New Dinner Menu:
- Starters
- Breakfast Classics
- Fan Favorites
- From The Grill
- Aunt Stella’s Pastas
- Desserts
If you bring along your four legged friend, then they have a dog bone menu for them as well. Their overall menu is very diverse with a lot of items to choose from being in such a small location. We all concentrated on breakfast, but from their starters menu they had a few interesting items that I would love to try when my fiancé and I return such as their fire island Reuben egg-rolls, and the classic southern fried green tomatoes.
My fiancé enjoyed a special that they were having that day of a grilled cheese sandwich, while my sister-in-law had some of the buttermilk pancakes with a cinnamon sugar butter topping. It is a shame that my sister-in-law couldn’t really enjoy the pancake flavor since she put an entire bottle of syrup on top of them, then wonders why she is high risk for diabetes. The pancakes made from flour, so as a carbohydrate turning itself into sugar when its in the body, then added sugar syrup to the mix…hmmmm, well it's her body.
Other Stella’s Sweet Stuff section of the menu included Texas-style barrel french toast, and Belgian waffles. From their favorites section they had ham, burritos, biscuit with gravy, Gulfport beach salmon lox platter and the Stetson Breakfast sandwich on a toasted bagel.
My brother went for the Omelet Section where you had the choice to build your own, or choose from their selection. He had the Spanish omelet with chorizo, onion, peppers, cheddar cheese, topped with salsa. Other selections on this menu included a traditional western omelet, Greek goddess, a shrimp and an Irish omelet with corned beef. If you are vegetarian then the Greek omelet is the way to go, possibly even the western if you remove the ham.
Below the omelet selection was their Benedict's which catches my interest every time I see them on a menu. I was torn between their lox Benedict with smoked salmon, tomato, spinach and shaved onion, or their crab cake Benedict seasoned with old bay, with a more lemony flavored hollandaise then the other Benedict's offered. I went with the crab cakes, and my god was it stunning. I can’t wait to go back and try the lox. The dish was served with some hashbrowns. Other Benedict selections include a fried green tomato, florentine for the vegetarian crowd, and a ham steak Benedict as well. With all the dishes you could choose between red bliss potato home fries, the shredded hashbrowns, or creamy grits. It’s a shame they didn’t have stone ground grits, then I would be in heaven.
My fiancé and I look forward to going back for lunch and their new dinner menu. Items on those menus consist of a variety of sandwiches, mxi burger, a veggie burger, wraps, and clubs, while their dinner menu has a good selection of starter dishes from mac and cheese bites to scotch eggs, breakfast all day long, sandwiches, and some pasta and steaks. They even step outside the box of traditional Southern American Cuisine and offer a Vietnamese Bahn Mi.
Attractions & Shopping in Gulfport:
Bo-Tiki | Red Hot Tiki | Domain Home Accessories | Gulfport Beach Bazaar | Karens Florist of Gulfport | Dive Gulfport | Gulfport Artwalk | Tuesday Fresh Market | LocalShops1 | City of Gulfport | Gulfport Area Chamber of Commerce
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So, with the meal complete, and our culinary appetites fulfilled, lets see how RESTAURANT rates overall shall we….
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5 stars
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is Extraordinary
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4 Stars
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is Outstanding
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3 Stars
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Exceeded Expectations
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2 Stars
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is Above the Average
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1 Star
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is an Average Dining Experience
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No Star Rating
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The Restaurant is Basic, Poor, or Appalling
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Read below for a full breakdown on the conclusion to these ratings
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Overall Star rating by Wine, Dine, & Play:
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2 of 5
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Ambiance:
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5 of 10
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Quality of the Food:
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7 of 10
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Plate Presentation:
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4 of 10
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Customer Service:
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5 of 10
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Wow Factor:
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4 of 10
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Wine Selection:
(See the full list under the review basics section below)
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? of 10
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Rating Breakdown And Analysis:
Professional Restaurant reviewers like the New York Times, Zagat, Chowhound, Gayot, or others base their reviews on either a single experience, and give in their opinion a specific rating to that restaurant. While some return a few times to get a better scope, and provide a fare well rounded review. These reviews and accolades tell the whole story and inform the diner of what to expect. Now social media from Facebook, Yelp and Trip Advisor have started to replace the traditional media, and a large majority of diners will look at these social ratings and write-ups and judge the restaurant on them versus the use of review sites like this one or the others I mentioned above. Social media is now the new make or brake to a Restaurant. Instead of being skeptical to the social review, people will see that others have given low ratings, and they will likely bypass and go to a neighboring restaurant. Whether it is here on Wine, Dine, and Play, or Zomato, the one thing we do is give an unbiased opinion and base our write-ups on what we experienced, giving you the most information we can. The ratings I give on Wine, Dine, and Play are based on the overall experience, so use this review as another source of information to help make your decision. From the tasting of the Chef’s specials to the lists of wines, prices, customer service, the property, setup, flow, and cleanliness; are just a few of the items I look at when giving a rating for a review. Sometimes I visit a place once, or many times, and I base it on the facts, versus a user on social media who writes a bad review because he had a bad day, or has a personnel dislike to an employee. I am one of many thousands of reviewers on this Earth, and my main job is to inform you the diner. I do this for fun as it is something I truly enjoy. You may end up having a completely opposite experience then the ones I write about, but in the end it is all in the eye of the beholder. I’m just giving you more information then what you see or here on social media.
Here on Wine, Dine, and Play, I have an overall star rating scale of six levels with the lowest being a poor or appalling experience with zero stars, up to an extraordinary experience rated at five stars. From there I brake down the individual experiences such as wine, plate presentation, ambiance, wow factor, and food quality on a scale from zero to ten, with ten being the best. The overall zero to five star rating takes all the individual experiences such as into account, and combines them to give my final rating score. In the next paragraph, I brake down how and why I come to the conclusion of the rating numbers listed in the review chart above.
I have been to Stella’s once, but can tell you that I do intend on returning again.
I rate ambiance on several factors from the most important being cleanliness of the dining room and restrooms, to organization and flow. I look at the atmosphere, character, the tones, artwork, and the design styles to see if they match the themes of the food. During the daylight hours natural lighting versus electric is also a strong enhancer of enjoying a meal, and of course the styles of furniture, or if it is inviting and comfortable. The patio was fantastic on a bright sunny winter day, the inside however was a typical country style store dining room, so it didn’t rate high on the ambiance with a 5 out of 10, but the home feel to it was very inviting, and thus bumped the rating up a few points.
The quality rating I base by an essential or distinctive characteristics that the food offers, or if I see that it is of a high grade, superiority, or excellence. Also important is the taste. Did the chef pair or match distinctive ingredients together, and did he send my palette on an adventure? I was on a culinary adventure indeed with a score of 7 out of 10. The food was wonderful and of good quality, except for all the syrup on my sister-in-laws pancakes which to me ruined the flavor.
The plate presentation is near at the midway point. I base this rating on the art of how the food is but together and displayed as it is brought to the table. Does it look unique, or have interesting garnishments, or built right at the table? Does it make you look twice and go “wow”? All of these attributes help add to the rating. I give them a 4 out 10, as the show was in the quality of the food without much wow as to how it was plated, but that still did not take away from the wonderful taste.
Customer service can make or break a restaurant. You can have the best quality of foods, plate presentations that put Escoffier to shame, the most beautiful of ambiance, and a fantastic wine or bar list. However if you have a service staff that is not attentive to the needs of the guest, or has an unclean uniform, smells like a cigarette after returning from a break, does not act professionally, or lacks knowledge on the menu, food, and restaurant then you have a major problem. On the other hand a great server can bring a customer back over and over again even if the food is mediocre. People go to restaurants for the show of food thinking they are experts because they watched a reality tv show on the Food Network, but what needs to be understood is that as amazing as a kitchen staff and Chef’s may be, the front of house is just as great. I gave our server a 5 out of 10 as she was somewhat attentive, but could have more so. She didn’t really recommend anything from the menu, and though we didn’t get the feeling we were just a number, at times it did come off with that impression.
The “wow” factor as I like to call it is a quality or feature that is extremely impressive, or it can be something that is seen or done that is funky, surprising, or pleasing. It is something that just makes me go “wow”. This rating is also the hardest to get high marks for. The wow factor is a combination of what ambiance, quality, plate presentation, customer service, and wine or mixology. I gave the “wow” factor a rating of 4 out of 10. I give them credit for the wonderful diverse menu, gelato’s, the deli, and being dog friendly while catering to all groups of people, so though a low score, it was still a nice chance to see.
The wine selection can vary from restaurant to restaurant, and I base the ratings not just on the quality of the wines offered but also the selections. Wine is grown everywhere around the world these days and the demand for it has increased ten fold. Distributors in every major city whether they work for a large named company like Empire or a small boutique company can provide services to any restaurant if that restaurant wants it. Some restaurants will choose to have very basic wines and that to me will lower a rating faster than a plane nose diving. If they make an effort to have even a small selection with variety such as a wines from Napa California, Willamette Oregon, Bordeaux France, Stellenbosch South Africa, the Yarra Valley near Melbourne Australia, or the Piemonte in Italy, to name a few, then that rating will shoot up higher on my review list.
I do not have a rating on their wine list as a request was made for it to add to this review, but the restaurant did not contact me back in regard to the request. If they do after this article is published, then I will amend this section.
Finally the overall star rating from Wine, Dine, and Play that I give to Stella’s is a two our of five stars, meaning that it was above the standards of an average restaurant, and my expectations are set at a high standard compared to others. I came to this conclusion based on all the other factors and how they rated.
I really enjoyed my experience at Stella’s, though there are a few things they could work on. But what restaurant doesn’t need things to improve upon. I would compare my experience here at Stella’s to Samantha’s in Canton, Ohio which had the same style and type of family atmosphere with menu, and to the meals served at Fugitives Drift Lodge in Zulu-land, South Africa.
Other Gulfport / St Pete reviews on Wine, Dine, and Play:
Gulfport Tuesday Market
La Cote Basque
Spinners Rooftop Bistro in St. Pete Beach, Florida
Hurricane Seafood Grill in Pass-A-Grill, Florida
Level 11 at the Grand Plaza Hotel
Beachcomber Bar & Grill at the Don CeSar
Castile Restaurant at the Hotel Zamora
Food Prices
(excluding, alcohol, taxes & gratuity)
$£€¥ - Under 50.00
$£€¥ x 2 - 51.00- 99.00
$£€¥ x 3 - Over 100.00
$£€¥ x 4 - Over 200.00
$£€¥ x 5 - Over 400.00
**Currencies chosen reflect the world’s major travelers and restaurant connoisseur’s**
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My food bill:
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Currency:
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Price chart:
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$49.00
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United States Dollar (USD)
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$
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£34.00
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Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP)
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£
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€43.00
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European Union (EUR)
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€
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$63.00
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Canadian Dollar (CAN)
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$$
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67.00
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Australian Dollar (AUS)
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$$
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¥319.00
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Chinese Yuan (CNY)
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¥¥¥¥
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Review basics:
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Restaurant style:
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Casual
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Reservations:
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Not Required, But Recommended
Walk-Ins:
Accepted, but not guaranteed
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Dress code:
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Casual attire
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Child policy:
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The Restaurants reviewed on this site may have a child’s menu or cater to them; however for full enjoyment of food and wine, it is recommended for children not to be in attendance, unless they have been trained in proper etiquette.
Hire a Babysitter.
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Cuisine style:
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Contemporary, American, Southern, Beach food, Vegetarian
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Experiences:
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Great outdoor dining, Rustic, Scenic views, Great brunch, Hole-in-the-wall, Tourist grabber, and a Neighborhood gem
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Payments:
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Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express
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Parking:
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Street Parking
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Wifi
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The restaurants reviewed on this site may have Wi-Fi, but do not require you to go online, because the excitement of the food and wine alone will keep you too entertained instead of checking your social media and emails.
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Noise level:
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Low to Medium
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Smoking:
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Nonsmoking restaurant, and nonsmoking patio
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Patio:
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Yes
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Restaurant address:
3119 Beach Blvd South
Gulfport, Florida
33707
GPS Coordinates:
27.738253
-82.708074
Contact Information:
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Reservations:
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+1 727 498 8950
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Restaurant Website:
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Serving Hours:
Eastern Standard Time (GMT - 5:00)
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Daily: 7:00 am - 2:00 pm Dinner: 3:00 pm - 9:00 pm |
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Email:
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Groupon:
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Social Media
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Accolades:
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Reviewed by:
Sean Overpeck (CFE)
Picture below was taken in Jordan on the Israeli border of the Jordan River in 2012
About Sean:
I am based out of St. Petersburg, Florida working in the food service industry for the past twenty years, and am currently with the American Embassy as the Executive Chef in Basra, Iraq. Formally I have worked with groups contracting in Afghanistan, Dubai, and Antarctica, also working in restaurants in and around Atlanta prior to the wars. I have also owned a catering company and served proudly in the United States Army Food Service Program. The idea for the Wine, Dine, and Play started in late 2012 after a trip to Jordan, when I was asked by friends to write down the experiences from a few Jordanian restaurants, plus the wine from the region that I tasted, and locations of interest such as Petra, and the culture. Since that time, over 200 articles have been written on restaurants, including fifteen from the worlds top 100 lists of San Pellegrino and the Elite Travelers Guide; exotic world locations such as Dubai, Petra, Victoria Falls, and South African Safari’s; food recipes & Grand Food Dictionaries; country cuisines such as Afghan and Peruvian; and of course wine from vineyards in California, Oregon, the Carolina’s, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia
Who is John Galt?
“Culinary perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things,
But in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
-Angelique Arnauld (1591-1661)
TTFN
