“I’m not an alcoholic, just a big personality,” says the woman behind the bar as she pours us a basket of Funyuns and Bugles. Though she looks and sounds like an off-kilter version of Paula Deen, her endless supply of conversation livens up the art-filled bar in Sanford. Little Fish Huge Pond is full of that personality, and will soon be full of patrons just as quirky and eccentric as the owner, who goes by the pseudonym Mo Wisdom.
Since Little Fish Huge Pond moved to its new location at the corner of First Street starting in March, things have changed. The café service has ceased (though Mo surreptitiously mentioned that she serves bowls of her homemade chili Thursday through Sunday), the liquor license is gone (though she serves a mean champagne mojito and some vicious sake bombs) and the patronage has metamorphosed from hard-drinking hipsters to diners from nearby restaurants who drop in for a digestif.
“You know, no matter how bad the economy gets, people will still smoke, drink, and … well, you know,” Mo comments.
The beer list at Little Fish Huge Pond is as idiosyncratic as its owner. While I sip my mojito (a rose-colored concoction of simple syrup, lime and mint, covered in pink champagne), my companion orders a Holy Mackerel, a thick, Florida-brewed wheat beer that Mo says “tastes like what Beowulf would have gotten drunk on at Stonehenge.”
There’s no dearth of events scheduled for Little Fish, either. Every demographic is represented, from a Buffett-style guitarist to an all-ages metal band to a once-a-month drag show and toga party (April’s “Evening With Goddesses” takes place this Friday). Little Fish Huge Pond is no respecter of strict genre divisions; everything is valued.
(Little Fish Huge Pond, 309 E. First St., Sanford; www.littlefish-hugepond.com)
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