In Miami, when it comes to food, you don’t have to look very hard to find top

notch cuisine. Whatever style of food you’re searching for, you’ll have no
shortage of choices. But I’m not about to start talking about Miami cuisine; I’m
only interested in one place. One place that has been a permanent fixture in
Miami for years, serving up some of the most delicious food you can find:
Shorty’s BBQ. For pretty much as long as I can remember I have loved Shorty’s.
It has everything you could want from a restaurant: great atmosphere, great
service, and most importantly, great food. Shorty’s and I are a match made in
heaven. When I lived at home I would eat at Shorty’s almost every Sunday
night. It was the day I looked forward to the most every week. However, one
visit to Shorty’s was especially delectable; It was a very different visit to
Shorty’s, a visit that I will always remember as my favorite.

I remember the day clearly. It was Sunday morning, April 13, 2008. My family
and I were eating a casual Sunday morning breakfast. It was a very typical day;
the sun was shining and flooded in through the kitchen windows. My dog Pepsi
was outside basking in the warm glow, watching us through the half drawn
curtains. My parents were discussing their plans for the day when my brother
suddenly interjected, “Can we go to Shorty’s tonight?” My father immediately
replied yes without even skipping a beat in his conversation with my mother. I
looked down at my meager breakfast and thought of the incredible BBQ that I
would be eating later that night. My mouth began to water at the thought of
Shorty’s sliced BBQ brisket. I wanted to be as hungry as possible for the banquet
that I would have later, so I had one last bite of pancake and stopped eating
breakfast to save up room. Little did I know that the bite of pancake would be
the last thing I ate for a very long time.
Having completed all my homework on Saturday, I had the whole day off. I
decided to call my friend Sean to see what his plans for the day were. My
parents didn’t like Sean very much because he tended to get me into bad
situations sometimes, as is the case in this story. He said that he knew of a
concert that was going on in the park that day and sounded really excited about
it, so as soon as my parents said it was ok, I got in the car and went over to his
place. Supposedly the concert was a low key type of affair and only some local
bands were playing, but it still sounded like fun. Besides, what else is there to
do on a lazy Sunday?

When I arrived at his house we immediately jumped into his car and set off for
the concert. I had been up late the previous night so I decided to let myself doze
off in the passenger seat, figuring I would awake when we got there. I
remember dreaming of Shorty’s. I dreamt I walked through the screen door and
was immediately seated, no waiting time. All of the usual business was going
on, waiters going to and fro, the cooks grilling up all of that delicious food,
however I was the only customer there. Everyone was working extra hard just
for me. I was immediately served. Six waiters came out carrying an entire
mountain of ribs. It was probably the best dream I have ever had, however it
was cut short by a large thump. I snapped out of my dreamland and looked
around. We were in the middle of a forest for some reason and apparently we
had backed into a tree. I then realized that a lot of time had passed since I went
to sleep. Four hours to be exact.
 At that point I realized this was no longer going to be a typical Sunday and
there was no way I would be eating at Shorty’s that night. Sean explained to me
what was going on and as he did, my anger rose higher and higher. Apparently,
Sean explained the location of the concert to me incorrectly. On the phone he
said it was “at the park” which I assumed to be local as in, “Tropical Park,” the
park that is very close by. However it turned out this park was actually up near
Orlando, an important detail he for some reason neglected to mention. At some
point during the trip however he got lost and wound up in some completely
unknown area. Instead of waking me up he decided to keep driving around,
hoping he would find his way. Eventually he found a park, thinking it was the
park we were looking for, he drove inside and looked around. Realizing he was
in the wrong place he tried to do a three point turn and ended up hitting a tree.

There we were, lost in the middle of some random park, and worst of all, I was
getting very hungry. For some reason neither of us had been responsible and
brought cell phones, so we had no choice but to start walking down the road.
We were in the middle of nowhere; we walked for what seemed like miles
without seeing anything. I couldn’t believe the situation we had gotten
ourselves into. I was so angry that I began to lose hope. However, just as I was
ready to just sit down right on the side of the road, we saw lights in the
distance. We had finally reached town. Sweet relief washed over me but was
immediately replaced by terror as I realized we were about to have to call our
parents and explain everything that had happened. But then something
incredible happened just as I was about to dial my mom. Someone was walking
by me on the street while on their phone and mentioned that they were going
to eat… at Shorty’s! I immediately hung up the phone and stopped the man
and asked him “Did you just say you were going to Shorty’s?!” He looked at me
like I was crazy and replied very calmly, “Yeah, its right over there…” I looked
where the man was pointing and saw that what he was saying was true. There
was Shorty’s, clear as day. So to further delay all the trouble we were about to
be in, we decided to go in and have the meal of a lifetime. Apparently this was
the original Shorty’s that was built over 50 years ago. It was a very old place,
made almost entirely out of wood, and compared to Miami’s Shorty’s, it looked
like a relic. But I didn’t care about looks; all I cared about was the food. I was
starving from our ordeal and ordered roughly three entire meals. I had ribs,
baked beans, coleslaw, French fries, texas toast and my favorite, brisket. I
couldn’t tell if this Shorty’s was actually better than the one I had been going to
all my life, but after the entire ordeal it was one of the most amazing meals of
all time. I took my time to savor every last bite knowing that I would probably
be grounded for a very long time afterwards.

Everything worked out in the end, our parents came and saved the day, we both
got in a ton of trouble, but I barely even remember those details now. All I can
remember now is that I wanted BBQ, I got it, and it was the best Sunday
Shorty’s ever.