Restaurants in Melbourne

Blue Lemon Cafe quells hunger pangs morning, noon, and night with café cuisine of the sweet and savory variety. The menu of crepes, fruit smoothies, ice cream, and hearty sandwiches won the admiration of Metromix in 2010, earning the eatery a Best Café nod. Like John Wayne’s impersonation of Charles de Gaulle, the café blends American classics with a French twist, inviting diners to sip glasses of wine alongside their cheeseburgers, or dive into Francocentric food such as niçoise salad and quiche Lorraine. Between lime-green walls, circular tables and streamlined eggshell-white chairs create a hip, laid-back atmosphere permeated by free WiFi.

Woody Mills is thinking of his mother, Grace Meyer. In 1980, she collaborated with Woody and his wife Yolanda to formulate three recipes that became Woody's sweet, hot, and tangy-mustard sauces—the linchpins of the first Woody's Bar-B-Q in Jacksonville. At that point, Woody became the guardian of the family's legacy of southern-style barbecue, which medal-winning pitmaster Paul Kirk and barbecue historian Ardie Davis went on to feature in their roaster's anthology America's Best BBQ. And while the recipes remain a secret, Grace Meyer's legacy is anything but. Today, Woody's Bar-B-Q franchises bring the celebrated marriage between pickles and pulled pork to eight states throughout the country.

The menu kicks off with battered okra—fried exclusively with trans-fat-free oil—alongside the hearty and hotly contentious Brunswick stew, which both Georgia and Virginia claim as their own unique creation. Two types of pulled pork and ribs star among a roundup of beef brisket, shrimp, and chicken, all of which can be packed into a sandwich for a quick drive-thru meal or spread on platters for catered events. Through helpings of garlic toast, Texas gets a special nod on nearly every plate, whereas signature baked beans and fluffy cream pies evoke a broader southern tradition of using rich comfort food for physical comedy.

From a young age, chef Wesley Campbell would watch, rapt, as his parents made jerk chicken and pork, steamed fish, and fried chicken at their restaurant in Jamaica. Realizing that this was his calling, he began his career as a prep chef at the age of 16 at the five-star Half Moon resort in Jamaica, where he was quickly promoted to head chef. By age 20, Wesley was offered the executive-chef position––which he turned down. His real aspirations were to start a restaurant in America.

In the time since, chef Wesley has been nominated to represent his country in the International Culinary Olympics competition, and traveled to the United States to hone his skills at four Washington, DC, restaurants. Today, he blends Jamaican, American, and continental preparations into the menu at Mo-Bay Grill, whose dynamic flavor profiles have earned the eatery four palms from Florida Today.

In its dining room, decor details such as palm-tree wall murals and wooden wind chimes evoke “an afternoon by a tiki hut on the beach of Montego Bay,” according to a 2006 review in Hometown News. As island music swoons over the speakers, servers ferry in authentic Jamaican dishes such as baked jerk chicken, apple-glazed pork chops, and hearty stews of oxtail, vegetables, and beef. Afterward, guests can dunk forks into desserts such as banana-rum cheesecake, which gives meals cheesy finishes without quizzing servers about their favorite knock-knock jokes.:m]]

Only a short burger's toss from the Atlantic Ocean, Locals Restaurant & Bar puts a contemporary spin on pub staples amid the glow of 15 plasma TVs. Corrugated dividers are strewn with twinkling string lights, which illuminate clam-studded pastas, fish 'n' chips, and artisanal flatbreads topped with gourmet ingredients such as truffle sauce, goat cheese, and honeydew melon. A full bar brims with fresh oysters and clams to awaken the palate for succulent morsels of filet mignon and lobster tail on the outdoor patio. Beneath a thatched roof in the tiki bar, 30 beers flow from the tap, filling steins with a wealth of suds rivaled only by a soap baron's bank vault.

According to the Viera Sun, when Loris and Rafaella Barsiola first moved to the United States from Italy in 1999, they didn't speak a lick of English. A year later they opened Bacco Wine Cafe and let their cooking do the talking for them. Though they're now well acclimated to the States, they still serve their pastas, chicken, and beef dishes they way they did in Savona, Italy: inside a Ferrari. In the kitchen, Rafaella prepares ever-changing menu selections featuring her family recipes. Loris curates a wine list with dozens of varietals from Italy and selects jazz music to play in the dining room.