Shrimp Tacos @ Prime Bar!
Headed up to Prime Bar last night with a buddy of mine to grab a beer, catch the baseball game and munch on some shrimp tacos. Black beans, a stiff white rice and a little lime-infused salsa. Washed it down with a Dunedin Redhead Ale.
Happiness
Happiness is a big-ass palette of spiced pumpkin ale arriving a couple of weeks before it’s typically supposed to. Shipyard Pumpkinhead is one of my favorites.
Vintage Candy @ the Fresh Market…
It is no big secret that I do not have much of a sweet tooth (I’m more of a salt-fiend). Sampling a desert menu item at a new restaurant I’m trying, a bowl of sugary cereal on a Saturday morning or an occasional Ice Cream every once in a blue moon is about as close as I get to consuming sweets on a regular basis.
When I was a kid though, my friends and I used to love to ride our bikes down to the corner drug store for candy and comic books. It’s kind of funny that a good deal of that candy is now considered “vintage.”
Fast-forward to today and I happened to be walking through a local gourmet food and produce store, the Fresh Market and they had the greatest collection of vintage candy I’ve seen in one place since being in that drug store when I was ten years old.
Here you can find Charleston Chews, Tootsie Pop-Drops, Mary Janes, Candy Buttons, Cow-Tails, Pixie Stix, Boston Baked Beans, Lemonheads, Sugar Babies, Big League Chew, Necco Wafers, Bottle Caps, Goldenberg Peanut Chews, Fizzies (not Pop-Rocks, but the real Fizzies!) and a selection of salt-water taffy that would put many northeast boardwalks to shame.
If you ever get the desire to rot your teeth the way you did when you were a kid, make it a point to visit the Fresh Market and check out this display…
Bubble Bread!
Enjoyed some 4th of July festivities with some very good friends yesterday. Two of them had just returned from vacation in Captiva Island and they managed to procure something very special: the recipe for the Bubble Room’s famous Bubble Bread. I have no idea how they got their hands on this stuff because it’s apparently a closely guarded secret. They made a batch to bring over and we all had the opportunity to try it.
I haven’t been to the Bubble Room since a family vacation to Captiva Island when I was twelve years old and yet this is exactly how I remember it. Comprised of a hearty bread, butter, mayonnaise, spices and a number of different kinds of cheeses, this stuff is basically heart disease on a plate. However, a once-in-a-blue-moon sampling won’t kill anyone (I’m a big proponent of “everything in moderation”). An excellent addition to our traditional 4th of July menu.
Hope everyone out there had a great 4th of July as well.
And remember… the food abides…
Review (sort of) – Snow Crab Night @ the Rack
A group of friends and I had been talking about trying to get together and find an All-You-Can-Eat Snow Crab place for quite some time. I don’t know if it’s that snow crab is out of season or if the economy is just so bad, it doesn’t make fiscal sense for any restaurant to offer it but we’ve had no luck finding a place. We did however run across an advert for the The Rack in Brandon which had a Snow Crab special: 14.99 for 2 lbs of snow crab and 5 for another half pound. That wasn’t a bad deal and most of us had dined at the Rack’s other location in South Tampa so we decided to give it a shot.
The crab itself was very tasty but as long as it’s not prepared wrong, crab is crab. It was sweet and not at all overcooked or rubbery which is a pitfall some of these places encounter when they’re pushing mass quantities of crab out the door for these specials. Was served with a side of hush-puppies, fries and some corn-on-the cobb, which added to the value.
It was the service that I have to call into question because they did something rather bizarre. It was a Monday night so I wasn’t necessarily in the mood to drink but I always take a look at the beer options just in case someone happens to be carrying something I haven’t tried before. So I asked the server what they had on draft and nothing jumped out at me. Then I asked her what they had in bottles and she said she didn’t know.
“Umm. Is there any way you can find out?”
She comes back a few minutes later with a beer menu but warns me that it’s old. I see a choice I’d like to try. She says they don’t have it. I see another one, they don’t have that either. At this point I am completely over it and like I said, I really didn’t feel like anything alcoholic in the first place so I just ask her to bring me a water and go back to my conversation.
About five minutes later the manager, a big burly guy who looks like he completes in competitive MMA, comes over to the table and says “Sorry about the thing with the beer, I can comp you a glass if you’d like something.”
I respond, “Awesome, can you tell me what you have in bottles.” He replies that he cannot.
At what point is the staff going to figure out that all I want is for someone to go into the cooler, look at what kind of bottled beer they carry and let me know? This just seems like a foreign concept to them. Hell I would even have been okay with going back there myself and looking but to no avail. At this point my friends are starting to get annoyed on my behalf.
By now I’m completely over it and I’ve now gone on to expend more energy on this than any human being should have to spend. I just look at him and say “Hey man, I’m okay. I really didn’t want to drink tonight anyway” and then I turn around and go back to my conversation for the second time.
This is when it gets weirder. MMA-looking manager just stands over my shoulder for a good two or three minutes. I have no idea if he didn’t understand that I was no longer interested in a beer or if he was insulted that I turned away his free offering. One of my friends noted that at one point we were talking about how I was a critic so it’s possible someone on the staff overheard that and they were trying to head off any negative reviews.
Regardless, the whole experience was just bizarre. Maybe they had an off-night; it was a Monday after all. Either way my evaluation stands; food was great, service was… strange. I hesitate to call it bad, as no one was rude or inattentive at any point. Just strange.
If you’re in the mood for some good snow crab, give them a shot. If you’re looking to drink anything other than Bud Light, look elsewhere because apparently they are not aware of the existence of any other beer which may or may not be stored in their establishment…
Sloppy Joses!
Cooked up some Sloppy Joses for dinner tonight. A Sloppy Jose is essentially a Sloppy Joe but with salsa instead of tomato paste. I find it to be just a little more flavorful and it’s got a nice kick if you use a hot salsa. Served with tater tots and sautéed baby spinach with a Dos Equis Amber. Except for the beer, it’s like lunch in the third grade! 😉
Review – The Refinery
Located in a renovated house on Florida Ave in the Seminole Heights area of Tampa, the Refinery is something unique.
The building itself is has a kind of self-styled hipster vibe going on and although that’s become more and more commonplace in the Heights, the Refinery owns every bit of it, right down to their purple walls and “Hippie Side Entrance.” Beyond the decor, the first thing I noticed was that seating was sparse and every table was filled. It’s small and doesn’t appear to be conducive to small groups but I find that to be a positive, because I prefer smaller, more intimate settings. Fortunately there were only three of us and my friends had the foresight to book a reservation early. It was a good thing too, because after a quick conversation with the person who seated me, I learned that apparently the next open table they had available was two-and-a-half hours later.
I was greeted with an amazingly varied selection of rare craft beers which is something love seeing as I’m somewhat of a beer snob. I settled on one from Colorado called Crazy Mountain Amber Ale. Deep red, malty and a thousand times more refreshing than a Coor’s Light, I was happy with my choice and even happier with the restaurant for introducing me to a new microbrew.
My friends had already made me aware of the fact that the restaurant features local food. But I had no idea how far that actually went. The chef, who recently won an award for “Best Chef in the South” buys locally and builds his menu based on what was currently available that week. Some people see food as an art and this guy is no exception as the menu was incredibly interesting. A completely new menu is created every Thursday. The boon here is that the adventurous get some amazing dishes to choose from, and should the picky take a look at their menu on their website and not see anything appealing, they can simply wait a week.
There are a variety of small plates, the sizes of which in comparison to the price left a little to be desired. We each settled on a small plate and shared: duck wing confit, clams in an onion cream sauce and some firecracker grilled corn on the cob with lime-butter. All three were amazing and the flavors were perfectly complimentary.
The main course options were even more interesting. I saw a game hen with ancho-cocoa sweet potato puree which looked good. There was also an eggplant cannelloni with roasted quinoa. There was a chocolate chipote burger which I swear I would have ordered on the spot if I could eat red meat. Yes, you read that right. Chocolate… chipotle… burger. These dishes were just so inventive I had to make a mental note of some others to come back and try (but promptly erased it once I realized this menu would be gone in five days).
I settled on the polenta cakes with creamy chai butternut squash, collards, red potatoes, chick peas and toasted cashews. Being italian, polenta is a staple but I have never had anything like this before. It was a perfectly balanced dish despite having no meat course. The polenta was buttery and firm, the veggies were crisp and flavorful and the seasoning was perfect.
We had tickets to a show at Skipper’s Smokehouse later that night so we opted to skip desert but upon making a trip upstairs to the restroom I realized there was a second floor with a rooftop bar that looked really cool. The mental note was definitely made to return, try another dish and spend some time up there.
All through the meal the service was attentive and prompt. Our server was personable and able to recommend his favorite dish-of-the-week when asked (which is something I value). Aside from the size of the small plates, I don’t have a single complaint and would recommend that anyone who’s looking for something off the beaten path in location, creativity and taste.
Check out the menu at http://www.thetamparefinery.com and if you give it a shot, let me know in the comments.
And remember… the food abides…
A Welcome From the Food Dude!
Welcome to the inaugural post!
I’m the Tampa Food Dude, although to many folks I’m probably better known as Tampa Bay area writer and critic, A.C. Noia.
I grew up in an italian home in Southern Connecticut where the kitchen was the most important room in the house and was raised with a love of cooking, food and drink. The Tampa Bay area has an amazingly rich food culture which my heritage has taught me to appreciate and I’ve been lucky enough to experience that culture for the last eighteen years.
For quite some time now, I’ve been subjecting my Facebook friends to what they probably consider annoying and inane photos of food, opinonated thoughts about certain local restaurants and bragging about new culinary acheivements that I’ve experimented with.
Since I already have a media blog (http://themediajunkie.wordpress.com), I figured it couldn’t hurt to start another one solely dedicated to all things food, right? So sit back, relax and enjoy the meal. If you like a dish I’ve posted about, if you’ve got an opinion about a particular beer or if you have a restaurant suggestion that you’d like me to review, by all means, leave a comment!
Remember… the food abides…
Tampa Food Dude 