The Hess Select South Beach Seafood Festival is this Saturday, October 19, turning the area around 9th Street and Ocean Drive into a small village of pop-up restaurants.
Some of Miami's finest restaurants will participate, serving delicious offerings straight from the ocean like calamari, octopus, grouper, mussels, oysters, and (yes!) stone crabs.
In fact, you might just be getting your first taste of the season at the festival.
See also: Hess Select South Beach Seafood Festival: Pop-Ups on the Beach
Participating restaurants include A Fish Called Avalon; Cafe Avanti; Catch Miami; City Hall; The Park Central Hotel; Poseidon Restaurant and Outdoor Lounge; Cibo Wine Bar; Red the Steakhouse; Tarpon Bend; Temari's; and CJ's Crab Shack. Each restaurant will offer several seafood-centric dishes for you to try, with prices ranging from $5 - $15.
General admission is $25 and includes entrance to the event and access to interactive demos, live music, and kid zone. (Food and beverage is available for purchase.) VIP admission is $150 and includes access to the VIP pavilion, which includes all-day open bar, food samples, and VIP promotional giveaways. A portion of the event proceeds will support the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce's Education Foundation and the CI Foundation. Tickets are available online at sobeseafoodfest.com.
Short Order has two four-packs of general admission tickets to give away to some lucky readers. To win, just tell us why you love stone crabs in the "comments" section of this blog. You could write a poem, a haiku, or just a note to this fruit of the sea that make Miami so special. Also remember to add your Twitter handle or email address so if you win we can notify you. If we can't get in touch -- we can't give you the tickets!
We'll pick two winners on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. and announce it. The tickets will be waiting for you at our offices in Wynwood at 2750 NW Third Ave., Suite 24, so be sure you can pick them up between Thursday and Friday.
Good luck and stay crabby, Miami!
Updated: Congratulations to Early Night Owl and WJH_00. You won the tickets. Check your Twitter feed for more info.
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