When the streets are quiet and few folks roam the downtown drag at night, a little spot on Canal Street offers warmth in its soups, songs and folks.

It's not always easy finding a place to eat in New Smyrna Beach once the sun goes down, so when News-Journal staff writer Kelly Cuculiansky saw the lights on at Malony's Oyster Bar, she happily ushered her parents and fiance in for what she knew would be a unique meal.

So what's it like?

I'd been there twice before on Tuesday nights, when the Pickin' Kind plays feisty Irish drinking songs and folk music to a raucous crowd of 20-somethings to grandpas who still manage to down a boot full of beer. (As in a whole lotta beer in a tall glass shaped like a boot.)

On a cold January evening, though, this was more of a soup night, and I'd been eyeing those steam kettles on a few of my visits. My parents, who were visiting from Miami, of course were freezing and were excited about the prospect of this strange, freshly made soup at the bar.

It kind of has the feeling of an old fisherman's hideaway by the sea -- a nautical place where a man like Ernest Hemingway might have enjoyed sipping whiskey (except there's no hard spirits here, just beer and wine). But it's also the type of place where you can get away from the cold and bustle of life, get an avocado and wild Alaskan salmon sandwich or have a seafood soup with the fam.

We sat in a booth across from the bar. Hanging from the ceiling nearby was an antique-looking mermaid. Above us on the wall, we admired a giant feathery piece of baleen -- a piece of a whale's upper jaw that filters plankton and other food and is actually made out of keratin, the same material as our fingernails. (How's that for a fun fact of the day?)