A Piece of Wildwood on the Gulf of Mexico

It figures that I escape to St. Pete Beach, Florida, for a vacation, and the Jersey Shore follows me. The restaurant at my beachfront motel? Wildwood BBQ & Burger.

The restaurant is attached to the Postcard Inn, which was an old, crummy motel on the Gulf of Mexico that has been renovated into a funky spot drawing a younger, hipster-ish crowd. When Postcard opened in October of last year, Wildwood opened with it. The owners named it after the annual New Jersey State Barbeque Championship, which is held in Wildwood in July.

“While researching for the restaurant, we went to check it out since it’s a great barbeque event. It gave us the chance to try some great regional barbeque and meet a lot of barbecue enthusiasts,” says “Big Lou” Elrose, who is pit master and corporate executive chef for the Wildwood BBQ & Burger in Florida and a second location in New York.

“We thought the name alone was fun,” says Elrose. “It also served as a double entendre since we use a variety of different woods in our smoker to reflect the regional style.”

The menu is what you’d expect: pulled pork, brisket, fried green tomatoes, baby back ribs. Most nights I thought I caught a whiff of campfire, but it was the wood-fired smoker. I’m not a huge fan of barbeque, but I sat at the bar sipping cold beers anyway. With Wildwood in the title, how could I resist?

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