Jenine C. Ouillette/Special to the Eagle

Everything old is new again at the Marker 8 Restaurant, recently opened by co-owners Jimmy Ketchum and Dave Surber, and located at 123 Bayshore Way, in Goodland.

Jenine C. Ouillette/Special to the Eagle

Marker 8 Restaurant's co-owners Dave Surber, left, and Jimmy Ketchum are pictured in the restaurant's newly remodeled, air-conditioned dining room. The windows in the background overlook Goodland Bay.

Jenine C. Ouillette/Special to the Eagle

Marker 8 Restaurant's co-owners Dave Surber, on left, and Jimmy Ketchum, stand ready to serve customers at the restaurant's bar in the breezy, screen-enclosed porch dining area overlooking Goodland Bay.

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Something old is new again in Goodland. The long-closed, former Crabby Lady eatery at 123 Bayshore Way has been transformed into the laid-back Marker 8 Restaurant co-owned by veteran restaurateur Jimmy Ketchum and expert bartender Dave Surber. The equally laid-back partners opened for business on June 3 and, for now, the bright and breezy waterfront restaurant/porch beer and wine bar is open for breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m., and lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. If you go bring cash but MasterCard and Visa is in the works and may even be available next week. Call 393-0888 to inquire about paying with plastic or any other information.

“Right now it’s really a work in progress,” Ketchum said. “The place (Crabby Lady) was closed five years — I’ve been working on it for the last year and a half — and it took 13 months to get the permit!”

Ketchum is no novice to the restaurant business. His parents opened the first pizza place in Marco (where Marco Polo is now) and he was one of the original part-owners of Rookie’s. “I’ve been chef at Little Bar, and Stan’s (Idle Hour) and I go way back. We have the best breakfast and the best view all around.”

The Marker 8 breakfast menu adds credence to Ketchum’s comment with its traditional offerings of breakfast eggs any style and several kinds of omelets, sandwiches, side orders and griddle faves as well as six uniquely titled specials: From Over the Bridge and Under the Bridge to Butch’s Breakfast, Country Breakfast and my favorite (read it and weep) Fisherman’s Breakfast — two eggs, fish grilled, fried, or Cajun grilled with toast, home fries or grits.

Did I mention that the lunch menu boasts a slew of signature sandwiches on signature rolls and fabulous fried po-boys (soft shell crab, shrimp, oysters and more)? It’s enough to make any fried food fan faint!

Speaking of fish, Ketchum noted that his catch of the day, whether at breakfast or lunch, is exactly that.

“All these guys you see here are my friends and my local fishermen and crabbers — so we get real fresh fish daily, including local grouper from the boats right to our dock and into my kitchen,” Ketchum explained, waving a hand expansively in the direction of the bright orange/red channel marker No. 8 planted in Goodland Bay waters or maybe aimed at the fishermen types having a cold draft at the porch bar.

Dave Surber, who had been serving customers at the breeze-conditioned porch bar a few minutes earlier, now joined Ketchum and your Eagle reporter inside Marker 8’s air-conditioned dining room.

“I’m the one running the bar: right now we only serve beer and wine — Bud and Michelob on tap and, of course, an extensive selection of canned and bottled beers and ales. It’s really great having the bar outside on the screened porch, and we’re going to grow, grow grow!” Surber enthused, speaking with the assurance of one who was Snook Inn’s bartender for the past 16 years.

“Jimmy and me — we’re old friends — we always wanted to open a place like this.”