The Beachcomber Dining Review - Big City American Bistro

Big City American Bistro: Sophisticated, Satisfying, Superlative 
171 SE Brooks Street, Fort Walton Beach, 664-0664

By Bruce Collier 

Big City American Bistro sits at the end of a short drive off the main drag of U. S. Highway 98, in a sort-of-artistic quarter of Fort Walton Beach. Like any true bistro, Big City links fast-food convenience with high-cuisine elegance. It’s a combination that has worked in France for more than a century, and it suits the Panhandle every bit as well.


Big City is a fairly large place, with high ceilings, exposed fixtures here and there, and a lot of tables. There’s outdoor dining, a romantically lit main dining room, and a less formal cafÈ area.
The menu runs the gamut from French/Mediterranean to American cooking, rack of lamb to mac and cheese. The menu is divided into appetizers, dinner salads, burgers, house specialties, “bistro fare,” and pizzas. There’s a daily soup, and a changing roster of desserts for which, trust me, you have to save room.


I ate with a group of six, so we had a good run at the dinner menu. Not all of us ordered appetizers, but the ones we had were uniformly excellent. I had a warm salad of potato and goat cheese, served with greens and herbs in vinaigrette. The disk of cheese was just warm enough not to melt, and rested on a potato and herb cake. I could have eaten two more. My onion soup-loving friend declared hers to be, perhaps, the one. We also had a shrimp cocktail with homemade tomato and horseradish sauce.


Some of the group had eaten here before, and each had their own recommendations. Overall, the table got grilled skirt steak, sautÈed cobia, Maryland-style crab cakes, and New York strip steak. The cobia was mine, and I had a little sample of everyone else’s stuff.


The cobia was served atop a mound of artichoke hearts and chickpeas, with basil pesto and a tomato saffron cream sauce. If that sounds discordant, it wasn’t. Tomato and basil is a classic combination, and the tangy artichoke hearts nicely set off the earthiness of the chickpeas.
The beef was all done as ordered, and the skirt steak’s cranberry barbecue sauce was such a hit with one of the diners that he asked the server to sell him a bottle. That wasn’t possible, but she offered to send him home with a to go cup of it.


The servers at Big City are uniformly efficient and unbelievably energetic, weaving in out among the tables carrying huge trays of food, with the grace and aplomb of Parisian garÁons du cafe. They care about their work, and our server even took a dessert’s price off the bill because she had mistakenly brought out the wrong one. Not necessary, but a classy move.


Also on the menu, though unordered by our party, are roasted beef filet with Roquefort butter, grilled lobster, taco and shrimp salad, rosemary grilled pork tenderloin, grilled salmon, chipotle-rubbed rack of lamb, meatloaf with onion gravy, mussels, roasted chicken, steak frites, mac and cheese with a pale ale and three-cheese sauce, and four kinds of gourmet pizza. Sides include sautÈed spinach, roasted asparagus, parmesan and garlic grits, mashed and roasted potatoes, and mixed sweet and white potato french fries. We got a special side of the latter, which were crisp, greaseless, and more than enough for two.


I mentioned dessert. There are regular dessert items, but not all are always available, and there are specials. Do not wait until after you’ve eaten to examine them, plan ahead. On offer the night we were there were a “black and white” (chocolate and vanilla) crËme br°lÈe, shortcake with strawberries and honey/almond sauce, a special chocolate mousse parfait, cheesecake, and caramel mousse. We ordered everything but the cheesecake.


I’d hate to have to choose which was the best, but I could happily die trying. Maybe it was the shortcake, house made and crumbly, with real whipped cream. On the other hand, the caramel mousse was dense and creamy, with an intense burnt sugar bite. The crËme br°lÈe had a bittersweet chocolate ganache base under the vanilla and sugar crust, a new twist on this familiar dessert staple. Go, and judge for yourself.


Some restaurants have food, some have atmosphere, some have both. Big City American Bistro has food, atmosphere, and a third, almost indefinable quality, personality. It’s all over the place, in the setting, in the service, and above all, in the cooking. There’s snacking food, comfort food, and the kind of food we dining professionals call fancy-schmancy. You can go there formal, or go there casual—they’ll be ready for you.