It’s 10 pm and the doorbell rings. Like most nights, outside there’s someone snuggling a soft caramel ball of fluff, with floppy ears and a tiny heart-shaped tag with the name Rupert. Usually, it’s a family, but sometimes it’s a couple or just kids. Tonight, it’s a little girl with sun-soaked cheeks and windswept blond hair. In a whisper, she says, “excuse me, is this your rabbit? The guy over at Smiley’s said he lives here.”
We thank her for bringing him home and let her feed him one of his favorite treats, a carrot. No matter how many ways we try to keep him at home, somehow every day and sometimes twice a day you hear his little bell jingling as he digs and then hops his way under the fence between the two properties. So each night at closing, the owner of Smiley’s Snack Shack, Paul Nicklaus, or one of his great employees, directs a patron next door to return the visitor. Maybe this herbivore is attracted to the incredible smell of burgers or the aroma of bacon in the morning. Maybe it’s the sound of kids playing basketball or the laughter in the parking lot. Either way, Rupert seems to know one of St. Pete Beach’s best secrets, Smiley’s is a great place to get fed and have fun and they’ll be sure to help you find your way home.
Our rabbit, like most lifers on this stretch of St. Pete Beach, knows what a great neighbor we have in Paul. Whenever our kids needed a sponsor for their latest church or school fundraiser, Paul was always there with a generous donation. When his snack shack came to the Boulevard, he made sure to add trees, grass, and flowers, so he could maintain the old Florida charm; beautification was a top priority.
Legend has it that the sign signaling the entrance to the snack shop was a sketch from Paul’s elementary school notebook and the restaurant a long-ago dream now realized.
Our rabbit has since passed on and our children have moved away to college, but we still hear the laughter and enjoy the food, as do the neighbors. And when everyone is home for Christmas or break, the first place we go for a dose of good food, good fun, and good neighbors is Smiley’s Snack Shack.
Lisa Dower