Saturday, January 7, 2017

January 7, 2017


Location: Marsh Landing Restaurant, Fellsmere

Marsh Landing for breakfast is always a treat, despite the frequency with which we partake of it. The building in which Marsh Landing is located has throughout it’s history, been used as the land sales office for the Fellsmere Estates Corporation, headquarters for the Florida Crystal Sugar Company, and a municipal building. Fran Adams, the current owner of the building and restaurateur, purchased and began restoration of the building in 19951.

This restaurant and the building itself are truly the heart of Fellsmere. The tables are all inlaid with newspapers from around the 1920's-1930's that provide a glimpse into the history of the town. The newspapers include everything from an article about a piano recital held at a residents home, to ads for men’s razors and special elixirs, to women suffrage (Fellsmere was the birth place of women’s suffrage in the state of Florida). We eat here often, and it’s always fun when we are seated at a table at which we haven’t eaten before, just so we can read the new (old) articles.

Another draw of the restaurant is it’s bird history. As described in a series of photos in the main dining room, when Fran first bought the building, there was a barn own living in there. That barn owl was relocated, but there are still barn owls on the property. In fact, I have been having our annual South Brevard Christmas Bird Count dinner here for the last few years. In 2015, my team had the area around Marsh Landing. When we stopped for dinner, Fran asked us if we counted her owl yet. She then (from right inside the dining room) pointed to an owl box just outside the restaurant, and a Barn Owl poked his head out to say hello to us. I was so excited as my team had not yet had a barn owl for the count, and that was our final bird of the day.

If you zoom in on the above picture, you can see a crazy sign with some frogs on it. This an advertisement for the yearly Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival, which "...holds 2 Guinness Book World Records for The Most Frog Legs served in the course of one business day and the Largest Frog Leg Festival in the world"2. Fran Adams was one of the instigators of the very first Frog Leg Festival, which over the past 25 years has raised over $600,000 for recreation for the Fellsmere community2.

Sources:
  1. Marsh Landing web site
  2. Frog Leg Festival web site
Photo and text © 2017 Dee Fairbanks Simpson

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