Interview by Jason Schreurs
If you’re a punk rocker (or otherwise) and you’re in Gainesville, Warren Oakes’ Boca Fiesta is one of the first places you should think of going for a bite and a drink. But, according to the Boca co-owner and punk band drummer (ex-Against Me!, currently in Sunshine State), and one of the dudes who originally played on and helped write this website’s namesake song (Against Me!’s “Rice and Bread”), his restaurant is only one of many exceptional food spots in the small Florida college city. So let Oakes take us on a little tour of one of the coolest cities around.
Do you get a chance to go out to other places in town, or are you stuck at Boca Fiesta most of the time?
I do eat the vast majority of my meals at Boca, but there are a couple of spots that I get out to, and some things I can recommend. With the risk of making it too popular and there being too long of a lineup, the best place in all of Gainesville is called Caribbean Spice. It’s right on University Avenue, in this little place where you walk up to the counter and there’s only one guy who works there, the owner, and he opens maybe around noon during the week and he just closes whenever he runs out. And he only makes these little Jamaican hot pockets, basically, and you can get them vegetarian or with meat in them, and they’re a couple bucks each, and they’re all made by hand, and they are so fucking good, man. I can’t go past that part of town without stopping in and grabbing a couple of those. And he’s kind of got the perfect system, because it’s just the one dude; he just makes as many of those pocket things he feels like making in a day, and when he’s sold out, he flips the sign and he bails. So sometimes we go at like 2 pm and he says, “Nope, done for the day,” and we’re like, “Damn, you just had a three-hour day and you’re done. That’s awesome!”
There’s another neat little spot called Flaco’s. Do you go in there often?
Yeah, the Cuban sandwich place. Yeah man, I’ll rock Flaco’s from time to time. It’s definitely a good late-night option. And there’s not a lot of late-night options, that’s the one thing I’m calling out Gainesville for, is there’s not a lot of places that are willing to stay open after the bars close. And I get it; it’s an unruly clientele. But Flaco’s is one of those few spots that will stay open, and to be able to get a solid Cuban sandwich at 3 am is definitely much appreciated.
What are some other places that you like?
Um, there’s a sushi place called Dragonfly that’s downtown right near Boca and they do this traditional ramen soup that’s got the soft-boiled egg in it and the yolk will break when you crack into it. That’s my favourite dish in town right now. That and the hot pockets at Caribbean Spice.
Gainesville seems to have a lot of different ethnic foods. How would you describe the food scene to someone who hasn’t been there?
Yeah, there are some decent representations of different cuisines. There’s a new banh mi place that just opened, there’s a pretty decent Indian place that just opened… We have no Ethiopian food, which I could really go for. If there are any Ethiopian chefs reading this, please move to Gainesville [laughs]. The food-truck scene is starting to assert itself here as well, and a good dozen or so food trucks have popped up. Of those, I’d recommend Go Go Stuff Yourself; it’s my buddy Nigel, the former owner of Common Grounds, and it’s good stuff. I’d highly recommend it.
When I was there for Fest, for the life of me I couldn’t find a smoothie place. And when you’re Festing hard, you need a smoothie in the morning to get you going again. Can you recommend a place to get a good smoothie?
You know, that’s something that I’ve also noticed is a real gap here [laughs]. There’s only a couple of places. There’s a new spot called the Daily Green that does smoothies and fresh veggie juice. So they must have heard the call [laughs].
Other than the gator tacos at Boca, does Gainesville have a signature dish?
That’s a good question. I would say probably if there’s a signature cuisine to the area, it would be BBQ. And I would say my favourite spot, mostly just for the ambience, is a place called Pearl Country Store, and it’s actually outside of town in Micanopy. And it’s actually inside of a gas station. So they have a BBQ counter inside of the gas station, but they’ve got good BBQ and I’m definitely backing it. There’s also a spot called the Yearling outside of town and from time to time they’ll do an armadillo special, or possum, or raccoon; some kind of old-school Florida proteins. And I’ve tried a lot of weird meat, but I haven’t tried any of those that I just mentioned. I think when I was down there, the most exotic thing they had on the menu was venison, so they might have phased out some of the stranger meat, so maybe it’s only on special from time to time, like when they run something over [laughs].
Boca Fiesta is located at 232 SE 1 St. in Gainesville, Florida.
Sunshine State’s Pour is out now on No Idea Records.
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