Monticello, FL – Monticello Pizza Kitchen

I mentioned in my first Monticello, Florida blog that Monticello is my hometown.  I left there when I was 12 and, after exploring much of the state, now call St. Augustine home.  This post is one of my Road Trips from a recent trek to Tallahassee, FL & my hometown.

On this trip to Monticello, we decided to eat “in town” one night.  None of the cute little restaurants downtown were there when I was a kid.  Now there is a Cafe, a BBQ joint, Pizza place & Mexican restaurant downtown.  I let the children choose and they voted to try Monticello Pizza Kitchen.

Farmhouse tables fill the center of Monticello Pizza Kitchen.

A friendly waitress called out to sit where we pleased.  There were 6 of us, so we chose a large farmhouse table in the center of the restaurant.

protip: If you’re a small dining party, eat on the sidewalk under the trees for the best ambiance!

Once we were situated, our server brought the kids coloring books & took our order.  I decided on a salad for me, pineapple & onion pizza for all & a cinnamon roll for dessert.  

The salad bar was surprisingly good!  Mixed greens greeted me instead of the dreaded iceberg I expected.  I topped mine with cranberries, beets & sunflower seeds and headed back to the table… but not before I watched the pizza masters in the back toss dough up in the air to form our pizza crust!

protip: Ask your server to tell you when they’re tossing your pizza and go watch through the window for a fun pizzeria experience!

The kids ordered their favorite- pineapple & onion pizza.

I wasn’t a huge fan of our pizza.  The crust was not soggy {that’s a good thing} but it also lacked flavor {that’s a bad thing}.  I bet if you ordered pepperoni or a supreme, the flavors of the meats would balance out the overall pie.  But since our kids’ favorite is pineapple & onion, that didn’t happen.  Next time I’ll try the lasagne.

After our pizza, a regular came in and stopped at our table.  She recognized us as not-from-around-here and chatted with us about local goings on.  She then introduced the kids to a game she brought, Shut the Box.  I never told her I grew up there and it didn’t matter- she was welcoming us into small town life.

I really wish my hubby was there.  See, he {being a Yankee from Long Island} does not understand why I {being a Southern gal from Monticello} chat it up with everyone I meet.  “Can’t we just tell the server thank you & go on our merry way?” he wonders?!  Well, yes.  Yes, we can.  But what fun is that?!  I didn’t realize how much my small town upbringing shaped who I am today until that moment in Monticello Pizza Kitchen!

Back to the food, though.  The pizza was… fine.  Salad bar was good.  And then this appeared:

Monticello Pizza Kitchen takes pizza dough and makes this fun, kid-friendly dessert: Cinnamon Rolls!  We loved the gooey cinnamon sugar filling.  The icing wasn’t the homemade kind I’d hoped for but the kids didn’t care- and that kept me from eating the whole plate so it turned out to be ok.  I don’t know if they always cut them up like this or if it was for ease of sharing amongst many… we liked them being bite-sized.  This sweet ending made my littles happy which made mamma happy.

Monticello Pizza Kitchen
168 E Dogwood St ~ Monticello, FL
(850) 997-7437 

Monticello, FL: Johnstons Meat Market

The Road Trip section of my site is where I share our wanderings from the lovely city of St. Augustine, Florida {Viva St. Augustine! Viva!}  This post is from an annual trip to Monticello, Florida- my hometown.

It has been said that while love is what makes the world go round, bacon is what makes life worthwhile.  Not to start a debate… but I’ve found something that tastes better than bacon.  Let me introduce you to the mother of all meats {well, father, actually}- Johnston’s Meat Market in Monticello, FL.

When I was a kid, we’d go to Johnston’s FRM Feed Store to get bags of food for our sheep, to take sheep that we wanted to, err… process, and also to buy the best breakfast sausage in the whole, wide world.  It was great to have this one-stop-shop.  Johnston’s sold grass-fed, fresh & local beef before those were buzz words.  I suppose that’s one reason I’m so passionate about feeding my family “real food”- it’s what I grew up on.

Enter as strangers… leave as friends.  Unless you’re a cow or pig.  Then leave as sausage.

Now every time we’re anywhere near Monticello, we return to Johnston’s Meat Market for some good breakfast sausage.  The store has changed a lot from the old painted concrete block, bare floor, wide open doors feed store I knew.  For starters, there’s air conditioning and a front porch with chairs & a friendly welcome sign:

One of my favorite memories is the gum machine.  It was dark inside the cavernous feed store but I’m pretty sure I remember a beam of light falling perfectly on that gum machine.  And a halo around it.  Oh, and angelic voices when I approached.  Yes, I’m certain.  You see,  it only took a penny to make the metal handle click-click-click and deposit a handfull of colored gum squares in my palm.  It’s the only penny gum machine I have ever encountered in my 30-something years of life.  And to make this memory even more magical, if Mom didn’t have any coins, Mr. Johnston would give me a penny.

I don’t remember how many times that happened, and ok there was no shaft of light anywhere in that earthy-smelling warehouse.  But I loved it in there.  It wasn’t shiny or clean- I think I remember concrete floors and dusty bags of farm supplies- but it was a happy place to be.  For me.  Not for those cows or pigs or sheep…

Now, it’s bright, clean and air conditioned.  The gum costs a quarter.  But the sausage is still good- same family recipe!  Y’all stop in sometime.  Order some links for me.

Johnston’s Meat Market
Monticello, Florida