They’re chatty at the Yellow Dog Café, so chatty that the owners seem to be friends with every customer. It’s all part of the charm at this Space Coast restaurant, which was designed to look and feel like a home.

The Yellow Dog Café is owned by Nancy and Stuart Borton, a fun-loving pair who are always trying something new. Since opening the Yellow Dog in 1998, they’ve expanded it several times, changed the menu a lot, and even published their own cookbook. Now they’re starting up a second cookbook, this one for kids.

The Bortons call the menu “comfort food with flair.” It’s really more ambitious than that. Their signature dishes involve onion-crusted chicken with caramel-citrus glaze, and potato-crusted salmon. But on their dessert tray, look for a housemade whoopee pie. That should make kids and adults smile.

Yellow Dog Café is in Malabar, Florida, near Melbourne, on the Indian River Lagoon. (US #1) Lunch there is a wonderful experience. The view is delightful, the food is mouth-watering, and the service friendly and skilled.

On a recent visit, we both ordered the Lady Dog, a sandwich on foccacia loaded with spinach, artichoke hearts, red peppers, portabellas, and havarti cheese. They each came with a side of yucca fries and a pickle slice. Delicious and filling! We shared a scrumptious cup of crab bisque. With two Old Scratch beers, the bill before tip was $32.

One of Melbourne and Palm Bay’s premier restaurants is known as Yellow Dog Cafe and it is conveniently located right on the Indian River in Malabar, FL. If you are having a celebration, a special birthday, a wedding rehearsal dinner or any other out of the ordinary occasion such as just being hungry, Yellow Dog is a great place to go and live it up a little.

One of the things Jean and I like about this restaurant is that there is no such thing as a rush here. You can literally spend 3 hours at dinner and no one will give you that look like it’s time to clear off the table so they can cash it out again. What makes Yellow Dog even more relaxing is that it is located right on the river and you can sit up top and see the water from a higher point of view, which is nice on colder evenings, or if the weather is nice, you can sit out on their large deck and enjoy the river from a completely different point of view. My preference is to sit inside for dinner and sit outside for lunch.

When we go out for dinner, we usually take 2 to 3 hours and the evening begins with a glass of wine on the deck for about 30 minutes while watching the birds dip in and out of the water and then it’s up to one of our 2 favorite seats inside right against the window. Next comes the appetizer of smoked salmon or a cheese plate while we plan business (of course you have to write off these expensive meals) or just chat about life in general, still watching the water and the glistening lights across the river.

For more than a decade, our favorite dining place when returning to Vero from the Orlando airport has been the Yellow Dog Café on US 1 in Malabar a half a dozen miles south of Melbourne.

The Yellow Dog is one of those rare restaurants that combines excellent food with a drop-dead view of the Indian River Lagoon. Totally redone following the 2004 hurricanes, the restaurant consists of three charming dining areas: a cozy room overlooking the lagoon and an open kitchen; a more traditional room filled with antiques; and a large downstairs that opens onto an outdoor seating area leading to a dock (yes, you can come by boat).

On our most recent visit, we once again were shown to a very nice table overlooking the water.

My husband started with the pan seared sea scallop appetizer ($12) and I opted for the chef’s soup of the evening ($4), a tasty beef vegetable. The scallops were perfectly prepared and served with a caper raisin relish, drizzled with a cardamom and ginger sauce.

Following our appetizers, I had the house salad – a mix of mesclun, red beans, roasted pumpkin seeds and feta cheese tossed in a citrus balsamic vinaigrette. My husband chose the classic Caesar salad, a nice rendition tossed with a classic Caesar dressing and served with anchovies.

For entrées, I chose the shrimp Louisiana ($34) and my husband opted for one of the evening’s specials, beer-braised short ribs ($38). The short ribs were nothing short of wonderful, served on a bed of mashed potatoes with the beef falling off the bone.

The shrimp Louisiana – sautéed shrimp tossed in garlic, butter and Creole seasoning, served over crawfish grits and vegetable succotash – was one of our rare disappointments. The shrimp were plump and tasty, and the grits were creamy, but the succotash – which should have been a perfect complement for this dish – was more than a bit overdone.

The Yellow Dog Café truly is one of the area’s most beautiful waterfront venues, where the manatees play and the dolphins leap just outside its panoramic windows on the riverside in Malabar. This visit was for a dinner that featured the wines of American vintner Rodney Strong, including some pleasantly surprising stuff.

It took place in YD’s magnificently redone downstairs room, which now is ringed with big, bold (but not obnoxious) artwork and features elegantly set tables and that spectacular view of the riverfront.

The evening’s festivities have started with Charlotte’s Home Sauvignon Blanc 2009, a lovely, crisp wine with just enough notes of fruit (a bit of pear, if you please) to make it interesting and nothing sweet about it. It is served with cubes of melon dressed with a balsamic jelly that would be marvelous with lamb, pork, or, in our opinions, just about any grilled meat. Lamb stands out here though, and Stuart agrees.

Yellow Dog actually stopped doing wine dinners, having been rather prominent for them for several years.

"About 10 years ago, everyone started doing it, but the prices grew ridiculous . . . They would charge more for wine dinners than we would charge for menu items,, and they required (a lot of planning) so, because we were so busy, we just stopped," Stuart Borton said. "Not long ago, our junior chef (Miles Matthews) said, 'Can I do a wine dinner?' so I said, Let’s see what you can do."

The result clearly was positive, visible in this five-course presentation.

The second wine on the tables is a Davis Bynum Chardonnay 2007, a full-flavored Russian River white that is 75 percent barrel-fermented with the creaminess that is imparted by malic acid. It is served with tuna carpaccio topped with a fennel slaw which, thankfully, is not too heavy on the seeds. The accompanying arancine was marvelous: cheesy, ricey, creamy and perfectly fried. This belongs on the menu.

The Rodney Strong Reserve Chardonnay 2007 is another Russian River product, a toasty thing aged in French oak that’s a little more redolent of apple and notes of butterscotch, with a nice, long finish. It really is s surprisingly nice Chardonnay, worthy of consideration by those who aren’t particularly fond of whites in general or chards in particular.

We’re spoiled here in Vero. If you lived in the Washington, DC area, or in Chicago, or Los Angeles, you would think nothing of driving an hour to dinner. Here, we are quick to dismiss restaurants that are a 30-minute drive as "too far."

But if, by chance, you happen to be returning to Vero Beach from the Orlando airport – or have other occasion to be up in that direction – you really ought to make it a point to visit the Yellow Dog Café on US 1 in Malabar a half a dozen miles south of Melbourne. This restaurant, while close to a 30- mile trip each way for most beachside readers, really is that good. And as we noted last year, it is one of those rare restaurants that combines excellent food with a drop-dead view of the Indian River Lagoon.

Totally redone following the 2004 hurricanes, the restaurant – which from the road misleadingly looks like just another highway hangout – inside consists of three charming dining areas: a cozy room overlooking the lagoon and an open kitchen; a more traditional room filled with antiques; and a large downstairs that opens onto an outdoor seating area leading to a dock (yes, you can come by boat).

On our most recent visit, we dined for the first time in the antique-filled room just behind the entrance, and were shown to a very nice table overlooking the water.

On this visit, my husband started with the escargot ($11), a delicious preparation of snails sautéed with garlic, lemon and white wine and topped with a puff pastry bone.

I opted for the chef’s soup of the evening – a cup of crab bisque with chunks of crab floating in the creamy base. Very smooth and nice.

Following our appetizers, I had the house salad – a tasty mix of mesclun, red beans, roasted pumpkin seeds and feta cheese tossed in a citrus balsamic vinaigrette. My husband upgraded (an additional $3) to an old blue spinach salad -- spinach leaves lightly tossed with bleu cheese, blue blueberries, toasted pecans and blueberry vinaigrette. Well worth it, he said.

For my entrée, I had the half-rack of lamb ($26 for the half, $32 for a full rack). The herb rubbed lamb is always wonderful here, and true to form, it was grilled perfectly, and finished with a natural lamb au jus.