• EAT: Part neighborhood watering hole, part sports bar, Flanigan's Seafood Bar and Grill has a secret life as a family restaurant. This South Florida chain, started 50 years ago as a liquor store-lounge by Joe ``Big Daddy'' Flanigan, offers one of my daughters' favorite ``I'm starving'' value meals: a kid's meal version of the restaurant's popular baby back ribs for only $4.99, with a drink and a mountain of curly fries.

This is a get-your-hands-sticky sort of place, with wings, ribs, big burgers, steaks and the ultimate out-of-control barbecue appetizer, ``Joe's Rockin' Rib Rolls,'' which are deep-fried, homemade egg rolls filled with rib meat, pulled pork, Cheddar cheese, onions and barbecue sauce. (You don't come here for the vegetables.)

There are a few relatively healthy options, like the blackened (or grilled) tuna or dolphin sandwich and a respectable Caesar salad, either plain or topped with chicken breast, fried chicken strips or fish.

This always-lively, longtime regional staple -- there are 22 locations, from Stuart to Pinecrest -- is usually packed because it has built a reputation for hearty food at affordable prices, particularly its $4.99 lunches and happy hours. There isn't an item on the menu above $18.

Of course, if you swing by for dinner takeout, you don't get to study the decades of photos on the walls of South Floridians proudly posing with their big sea catches or the old Florida maps on the tables. There's also a 10 percent to-go charge, but we've figured out how to avoid that: The fee is waived if you sit at the bar and have a drink while waiting for your order.

• DRINK: For such a macho place, Flanigan's surprisingly prides itself on its ``signature'' martinis. (It is linked to a liquor store, after all.) But with ribs, we prefer a cold Presidente or Stella Artois.

• WATCH: What else? The greatest fishing movie of all time, Jaws from 1975.

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