Support for Food is Love is provided by Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood 100% Fisherman family owned independent seafood sourcing, Catching, processing and delivering seafood directly to the consumer's front door.

From caught to bought wild salmon direct from the Fisherman Information at WildAlaskaSalmonandSeafood.com Here's to the local restaurants, to the chef's owner operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night.

When we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind, from where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food is Love I'm crossing the Seven Mile Bridge in search of the place that I've heard about in every Jimmy Buffett song, each Key bringing me closer to the feeling I've been chasing since first realizing that I was a parrot head.

I came here to get away, sure, but what is it that I'm hoping to find?

Is it freedom?

an alternate way of living?

The proverbial cheeseburger in paradise Maybe?

Or is it some remaining sliver of Hemingway's Key West that's drawing me here?

I'm not really sure, but it's a safe bet that whatever I'm looking for has something to do with food.

As a chef, I need to stay curious in order to evolve.

For me, that means looking beyond a good meal to learn more about who made it and see what inspires them to cook, "La comida es amor" Every great city has great food.

I'm going on a journey around the world right here in St. Louis I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cook from the heart "I think it's the best" to prove that food is love "it's going to be delicious!"

Food is Love, love your food.

I finally made it.

Years of dreaming and looking for time outside of a busy restaurant has culminated to this moment, the Florida Keys.

As soon as you leave the mainland, there's a noticeable change in mindsets, a general lack of concern for timeliness.

It's pretty laid back place.

Maybe that's why they call it island time,.. but it's more than just a cliche around here.

It's an actual lifestyle, and it feels a long way from the streets of St. Louis About to dive into some stone crab.

It doesn't get any better than this!

The fishing around the Keys is considered some of the best in the world.

There's no better way to get around the Islands than on a boat A friend of mine has offered to take me out for a go of it.

So naturally I'm on my way to try to hook something myself.

It's rough waters today.

I've connected with several fish, but they seem to be breaking the line on the rocks.

Besides a few small ones here and there.

I don't have much to show for the time we put in so far, but just before throwing in the towel, I hook this beautiful grouper.

There you go.

That's what we need to say.

Not big by any standard, but big enough for a group or sandwich.

Good job Lasse.

Good job Lasse!

Unfortunately, it turns out that grouper isn't in season and returning home with nothing in hand isn't an option.

We talk about food is love all the time.

But down here on like, you have to actually get your own food, not in the supermarket, in the water.

So I call up private chef and friend Noah Rickman, who also happens to be a scuba instructor.

He's offered to take me diving for fresh lobster and I couldn't be more excited.

In my youth, scuba diving was a big part of my life.

I even thought I would be a marine biologist someday, but the reality is that I haven't Dove in almost 30 years, so I'm a little apprehensive to put it nicely.

The wind is rough and the weight belt and the scuba gear is heavier than I remembered.

This should be interesting.

There's a freedom and diving that I almost forgotten about.

We are diving about 5 miles from the closest Key, and despite the rough conditions, visibility isn't too bad today, and it feels good to be back in the water.

We went down on the Gulf side of Marathon Key.

We found a nice shallow ledge at about 15ft, looking for those nice antennas just sticking out them underneath the ledge to the tickle stick to bring it out of the little ledge.

And then with both of our efforts, we both got a hold of him We come up for lunch "Alright Ill measure it, "He's pretty close."

As we surface with our first lobster, we get word that the bilge pump is having issues and the boat is taken on water.

The trip is cut short, but with a lobster in the bag, at least it wasn't a shut out.

I would take a sinking ship in open water over the tourist traps that lay waiting on Duval street any day.

Plus, Noah has offered to cook up the catch for lunch.

so I really can't complain.

A little clarified butter and some finessing makes one of the most satisfying meals I've had here so far.

We have seven minute poached lobster shocked in an ice bath and then threw it into some cooked down butter, garlic, shallot, black peppercorn, caper and crushed red pepper.

I just brought the lobster back up to temp with that, and it's just sitting in a lovely rich bath of flavor right now And that's what we did, You know, my man hasn't been diving in a few years and looked like a pro out there with me.

It's very special to experience and share that with another chef as well Its another passion of mine and connect food with adventure.

Food is love.

This is what collaboration is all about.

There's nothing better than a lobster bathed in butter, and nothing better and sharing with another Chef.

that's right.

Food is Love.

Catching grouper, diving for lobsters and cruising around the Islands on a sinking boat would be adventure enough for most people "Are we going to make it back home?"

"I dunno" But for me, something is still missing.

As one last go of it Before heading back to the Lou, I chartered a day trip to the Marquesas Island on a vintage Hinkley yacht called Courage.

I'm told it's the only Hinkley in the Keys in fact I'm hoping this trip will bring some clarity or at least a little bit of peace and relaxation.

Now, where exactly are we right now?

This is Boca Grand Island.

The Keys don't stop in Key West.

They keep going.

Continuing west, it goes Keys, Marquesas, which are behind us and then the Tortugas.

So we're about maybe eight to 10 miles west of Key West.

This is George Hansford.

As the captain of Courage, George flexes a disposition with his boat that leaves a little doubt that he was born on one To see him, You might think you're looking at a modern day version of Ernest Hemingway.

And maybe you are, the same kind of wandering spirit that led the fabled author to the Keys, has found George Ping ponging between his Rock Hill restaurant the Trainwrack Saloon and the southernmost island of the US.

That's right.

George is a native St. Louisan In fact, his restaurant is the oldest operating bar in St. Louis County I worked out in Soulard back in the early eighties and there was a place called Mike and Mins that was there It was just areal neighborhood Tavern that I loved it.

And I thought, you know, if I could find a a building with an atmosphere and an antique bar like Mike and Mins in the county, that's what I wanted to be.

And I found the one that was actually really close to where my wife and I grew up in Brentwood, right there in Rock Hill that had been there since 1890.

And I had a lot of history in the old bar.

And it was love at first sight.

It's the oldest bar in St. Louis county.

It's been here since 1890.

Okay.

Its an old Roadhouse and the original ninemile house coming from downtown.

So it's been there since Manchester was a dirt road, so it's got a lot of history.

I'm only like the third owner and 130 years.

Wow So yeah.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thanks.

Sure.

But tell me, what year did you.. 1982 Well, my wife and I both grew up here in Brentwood, which is right next door.

So I would say we both grew up here within 3 miles of here So this was just a natural transition into owning a bar?

Well, kind of, we just got married, and she told me to go get a real job.

So I went on bought a real bar.

Her dad told us that that place is a dump.

It's always been a dump.

Always be a dump.

But I think he should try it anyway.

So he got his blessing.

Your expertise in cooking.

Does that come just from.. where does it come from?

Well, I think it came out of need.

We save a lot of money and cooked.

My wife and I cooked for many years here in the kitchen.

But she was in the front and you were in the back?

Well, we were both in the kitchen some years, but the original years, she was in the front bar tending.

And I was in the back cooking, and she wound up in the back with me.

So as a business grew.

Yeah.

So we grew, too.

I've tried to restore it over the last 30 or 40 years.

Almost back to its original look at least or anything period about it.

The only thing that's really original is the back bar.

It dates back to 1890, and some of the pictures in the hall show you that they took the front bar out during Prohibition.

But then they reinstalled it after that, like 33.

This is during Prohibition, as this one is.

You can see the old back bar here.

This is right before Prohibition let out in 32 here's that old fan that's in the middle.

There, you see the fan.

I've always been a burger bar.

It's ironic that when we first started serving food back in 83 That all the other bars up and down Manchester, the roadhouses like that, all had flat top grills.

And to serve them in a little flat patty burgers.

So I decided to go to a thicker burger cooked on char boiler half pounders.

And it's been our trademark.

I think you know Thats ranch and that's blue cheese Do they come for the drink or for the atmosphere?

I think originally they all came from the drinks, and then the food became a force.

That's why we're here so long because of that food.

So when you started out there, it was just a bar?

For the first nine months.

What do we got, bison here, grass fed?

Grass fed here, a couple bison burgers and some chicken Should I flip a burger?

So I can say I worked at the trainwreck You wanna get back there in the back where its really hot go ahead and mark those suckers.

There you go.

Well,.. you want to turn them a quarter of a turn.. We can do that on the other side.

It's okay.

That's why that's.

Oh, that's hot up there.

Yes.

We got to get them all the way one side first.

I see.

So you do a quarter turn?

Quarter turn.

I see.

Its like a conveyor belt.

Start back here and then do a quarter of a turn, and then you flip it, do it.

And then you do another turn and then you cheese it And I don't think he's going to be asking me back now after I screwed it up the first time Ill take all the hands I can get What are you doing tomorrow?

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I know what you mean.

Its taught to get labor right now.

It really is.

And that's why I'm serious Can you come back tomorrow morning?

Help us out?

For lunch?

Yeah.

You'll be surprised that might show up.

I love cooking.

You do?

Oh Yeah.

Ihope you like doing it a high pace!

Yeah.

There's more coming out.

Theres a bacon Burger That's what we're known for, That chedder bacon right here, Lasse you have to try that.

This is the best of the sandwhiches .Okay.

Take that one right there.

Thank you.

WOW Wow.

It a Swiss cheese, honey mustard and mushroom, delicious.

It's chicken.

This is just the bison?

No cheese, the cheddar bacon soft chedder cheese.

Soft chedder bacon burger.

This one is the Double American grass fed.

This is provolone burger This is the gouda bacon chicken And that's the triple cheese bison Thats quite a spread!

So, George, why don't you just open a Trainwreck in Key West?

Well, you know what I mean?

I could do it real easily because of all the Flagler overseas railroad connection and stuff like that.

I just don't feel that I have the connections in Key West.

I could run a restaurant in St. Louis from Key West better than I could run a restaurant from Key West in Key West.

So how did you end up with the other Trainwreck out in Westport?

This restaurant did so well that you wanted to open another one out there?

You know what, I needed some new friends to drink with.

So I opened another bar.

I chased all my drinking friends away here.

So I was trying to find some new friends, but you know what they but you know what they say?

There is seriousness behind all humor, right?

Oh, yeah.

So it's a situation that almost seems made up, a reformed drinker who owns the Trainwreck Saloon and at the same time operates a private yacht in Key West.

But how you ask and why?

Once you know the answers, it all starts to make sense if I was going to have a bar next to a railroad track, you know, I did want to be the depot or something kind of lame like that So I thought Trainwreck is a great name for a bar.

Turned out to be a great name for me.

You're a train wreck?

I was.

I was definitely a train wreck.

It took a while, but I got there.

The boat is called courage.

Yes.

Well, you know, I was quite a partier for a long time in the bar business, that happens to a lot of people.

And it was time for me to get sober.

And.

And I knew that I would have to change everything in my life and Courage comes from the serenity prayer.

"God grant me a serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

I hope my next big boat will be wisdom.

But I'll probably stick with this one.

Trainwreck to Courage Yeah.

Some of that decor inside of your restaurant is very familiar to me because I got a little bit of the same old history pictures and stuff.

Well, the neat thing about Annheuser Busch and stuff in St. Louis is that before Prohibition The breweries at that time were able to be kind of owners and give you bigger things.

Like today, they give you neons and stuff like that.

Back then, they could give you the back bars.

And since Brunswick was in the Midwest, Annheuser Busch went to them and their saw Mills because they were making bowling alleys and ornate pool tables.

So they had them commission bars for them out of the hardwoods and the Oaks in St. Louis in Missouri.

Things like that.

And that's why some of the most beautiful bars are from the Midwest like that.

Wow I didnt know that I mean, this is one of the most beautiful boats I've ever seen Well, thank you.

It's a 1998 Hinkley.

Hinkley started making boats in the 30s, sailboats.

They didn't start making power boats until the 90s, when millionaires up in Main didnt have the time or the crew to take their sail boats out.

So they invented this particular boat.

It's a Hinkley, classic picnic boat.

It's just not a pretty girl.

It does a lot.

I bought the boat up in New York, and I took it to Rhode Island to have some work done on it.

And then my wife and my dog and I drove it all the way from Rhode Island all the way to Key West.

It took me, like, two months.

It was much more than a boating experience.

It was a cultural experience for me because I had done it before when I was drinking.

You realize a lot of different things when you're sober, I found out that the seafood changes so much between New York and Key West because of the fishing industry and the different types of fish that are caught there.

And each place cooks it a certain way, a different way.

Like up in New York, they have a flounders, and they have a lot of white fish up there.

When you get down in the Chesapeake and you get into all the crab cakes and stuff like that.

And then when you get down in the Carolinas, you get down in the low country, low country cooking.

Those things are delicious.

And then you get down to Georgia and have a Southern style fish And it wasn't really until I got to Florida that I got into the by kind of fish that I'm accustomed to and that's grouper and snapper.

So you get a real feel for the change in cuisine coming down the coast like that.

You've been down here How long again?

Oh, 30 years.

I would say You were here before It was this condensed with people.

Was it a little it less populated?

I would say so somewhat.

Yeah.

I mean, it wasn't as touristy than it is now.

It's always been laid back.

It's gone from the Bohemian, gay populated town to more of a tourist town.

But it's it's evolved into what it is.

It's still laid back, I don't consider Key West, part of Florida, and I don't consider Miami part of the UnitedStates.

I'm learning about island time down here because we're so used to living this rushed life where when you say 8:00, you're there five minutes before.

So now we're figuring out that when people tell us 8:00, they really want us to be there nine and the whole day is...

But we want to get so much while we're here, right?

And it doesn't jive with the people that live here because they have no worries or hurries.

People think when they come to Key West they got to do Duval Street They got to go jet ski and pairasail and hit all the bars, Fish, do everything they possibly can.

And in the shortest amount of time that exists ...when you decompress and you get on island time and just get into the Key West mode It is just laid back.

Just decompress from what you're doing in life and just take it easy Key west is just a different whole atmosphere than any other place especially the East Coast, with Fort Lauderdale, Miami compared to the West Coast with Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Pete.

That's a whole different atmosphere.

Than when you come down here, That's the first thing I do when I come down here to just start eating fish.

Fish, fish, fish, fish.

Because why would you eat anything other than shellfish, fresh fish?

So I kind of try to find out where they are on my scale and how good it is.

Yes.

You know what's down here?

There's a lot of good fish markets also.

cook your own fish at home.

We do that a lot.

Yep.

There are fisheries.

Keys, fisheries.

Oh, they got good fish.

I'm going to get my fill of fish here in the Keys.

And then I'll have a bison burger with you.

That would be great, because, you know what?

I never get a good hamburger down here anyway.

So when I get back to my own restaurants, I love to have a bison burger Only 90 miles from Cuba We are closer to Havana than Walmart.

So even before Batista, there was guys back there they hated, you know, living in Cuba.

And we would call them terrorists now.

But they used to call them revolutionaries So rather than get thrown in jail, they migrated to Key West, and what they did was they brought their money and they started cigar factories.

Here in Key West And what they did was tobacco was really cheap in Cuba, which cigars were expensive because of the tax So in Key West, they would import the tobacco grown in Cuba and bring it to Key West.

And they had these cigar factories.

They would put like an encrypted message inside the band of the cigars that they sent back to Cuba, that they could decipher and know what was going on.

George's knowledge on topics like cigars and Cuba lends to the romance of being here.

I think I'm really fortunate to live in both cities, which is nic3 even though I'm there eight months of her only, like, three or four months that it's a really nice lifestyle.

I like coming up here, especially this time of year when it starts getting green.

You think Key West is green?

It's not even close to being green the way this is.

When you get grass that's green and bushes and stuff like that, like palm trees don't have that much green to them.

I had a completely different thought on what it would look like going down there.

It's a beautiful drive, isn't it?

Well, I mean, for me, like the first couple of Islands were just like Costa Mesa, California.

There was so much stuff, and I didn't think it got really romantic until I actually got the Key West.

Oh, really?

Okay.

The Key West Island, you could tell, has a lot of history, right?

Where some of the other ones, they're strip mall after strip mall, after strip mall.

And then when you came into Key West, you saw the old buildings, the old style you know, you saw when Hemingway was down there Have you been watching the thing on PBS about Hemmingway?

I haven't watched all the episodes, but it's good.

But you can tell this place has so much history.

Just looking at all the pictures and people really have to think about, you know, the history when they come and see a place like this, always inspired by places that have been able to keep themselves relevant year after year after year and the decade after decade.

We wanted to go and see the sun the most point.

And there were 200 people in line to take a picture.

Right.

And that was kind of hot breaking, too, because it's so touristy, and it's an effort to get down there.

And then, of course, you want to take it all in.

But you need more than a few days.

That Bohemian feel..

I thought Key West would be different because I watched old shows about Key West and everything.

And I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan.

I thought it was different..

Sometimes what you find on a journey isn't what you set out looking for.

This is what was missing, an ironic connection that inevitably brings me back to St. Louis I learned when stone crab is in season, there's no better place to get it than here.. and as for that cheeseburger.

Even despite the song, it wasn't easy to find a good one in the Keys.

At the end of the day, That only intensifies my appreciation for the Lou.

It gives me another reason to head back to St Louis You might think you're looking at a modern day version of Ernest Hemingway.

And maybe you are.

But unlike Hemingway, George has it figured out, he found the courage to change the things he needed to change about his lifestyle.

And long ago, he developed a strong sense of balance.

You're quite a success story, I think, You're too good to me.

Well, I mean, I'm looking at what you have done, and it gives me courage.

You know, you should understand that You know what,..

The risks we've taken the restaurant business are only the risks that we take in life.

And so another risk down there was not a big deal for me because Ive been doing this my whole life.

Courage.

Courage.

Food is love.

Food is Love, I love ya.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Love you.

A dead eye for navigating his boat.

George has it figured out, he knows a cigar and a burger at the corner table at his Rock Hill restaurant is exactly what you need after working on a boat in the Keys for several months I guess you can say it keeps him grounded.

Okay, bad joke.

There was no cheeseburger in paradise.

We had to get the St. Louis to get it And it's right here.

This may be the cheeseburger in paradise...

I don't know.

How can you not love this burger, brisket and bacon extra cheese anybody?

Food is love.

This was the cheeseburger I couldn't find in Key West, a surf and turf the best of its kind.

Food is love!

So maybe we should start a restaurant together down here.

No, I'm doing exactly what I need to be down here.

No employees.

Support for food is love is provided by Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood 100% Fisherman family owned independent Seafood sourcing catching, processing and delivering seafood directly to the consumer's front door.

From caught to bought Wild Salmon direct from the fisherman information at WildAlaska SalmonandSeafood.com Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs owner operators, the staff the ones who love being in the weeds night after night, when we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind from where we source our food to how we deliver it Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service Proudly supporting Food is Love