A Taste of Old Florida

Some recipes for blissful contentment are simple.

Start with one lakefront view of placid, cypress-rimmed Lake Susan. Add one cold pitcher of beer and one hot pile of wings. Place wings and beer on table beneath cypress tree growing through the floor and roof of the dining room.

Then eat, drink, soak in the view and sigh with satisfaction. You're experiencing what's left of Old Florida at its best.

Since the 1940s, diners hungry for food and a view have come by car and by boat to the Lake Susan Lodge and Marina in Clermont. And part of the visit's fun lies in the journey.

By car, you climb a steep hill worthy of the North Carolina mountains, west off of U.S. 27, then curve around and down to the south shore of Lake Minnehaha. Next, head west on Lakeshore until you see the Lake Susan sign on the left.

By boat, you motor through Lake Minnehaha, then down a little canal onto Lake Susan, where you can tie up to a nice dock on the right.

Wipe out whatever hoity-toity images the words "waterfront dining" might conjure up in your head. The only thing high and mighty at the Lake Susan Lodge and Marina are the ancient cypress trees. "Early fish camp" might be the best way to describe the facilities, which have clearly seen better days.

But it's a comfortable place, where you won't worry much if the kids spill some ketchup or if you spill some beer. And the low-slung wooden buildings allow the placid view of water and trees to take center stage.

"It's this fun little cute place," says Gerri Gallo, a local real estate agent who sometimes eats at the restaurant, sometimes gets take-out for a sunset supper on her boat. "It's a very Old Florida feeling you get there because of the big cypress. You don't see the highway. You feel like you're camping."

But times are changing in Orlando" target="_blank">Lake County. Development, especially in and around Clermont, is booming. Lakeshore is being widened. The cabins out front are going to be replaced with 15 townhomes. And plans call for the restaurant to be renovated. The adjacent package store and boat ramp will be taken out.

The land sandwiched between lakes Minnehaha and Susan is part of the state's "Green Swamp Area of Critical Concern" and sits in the state's 100-year flood plain. That means officials are worried about pollution from runoff getting into the lakes and the state's fragile underground water source, the Floridan Aquifer.

Orlando" target="_blank">Lake County commissioners unanimously approved the project in September after the owner's attorney said they would build in an environmentally sensitive manner-trading the septic tank system for sewer hookups and treatment of stormwater runoff, which now runs directly into Lake Susan.

The restaurant's manager referred our questions to the property's owners, who didn't return telephone calls, so there's no way to know whether they'll be keeping the dining deck built around the trees.

But if you want to make sure you get a chance to eat with an occasional squirrel and a glimpse of fish-camp life of yore, you'd better head over fast. Sometimes blissful contentment is fleeting.