We’re thinking about spending a few days in Tampa in connection with our February trip to Marco Island. I’m especially interested in Cuban sandwiches and other Cuban food, seafood, and local specialties. A good deli would be nice --as would some real wood-cooked barbecue, or a good hard roll Italian sub. We’re also looking for things to do other than eat and sit by the pool – local sites, museums, oddities, etc.
Grouper sandwich for us . . . if memory serves, our rotation was Dockside Dave’s and Frenchy’s.
Get the Deviled Crab at Brocato’s
Ride the streetcar to Ybor City and eat at the Columbia Restaurant. You won’t be disappointed.
I’ve been there many times and have tried a lot of menu items. I especially like the gazpacho and the stuffed piquillo peppers. Excellent Key Lime Pie as well.
Did you see this article
Thanks! I went to the Columbia in Sarasota years ago, and look forward to trying the original
Check out the Chihuly Glass at the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg. It is a very cool exhibit and includes a blown glass demonstration.
It is located in a nice little neighborhood with shops and restaurants.
Great! I’m a fan. Many thanks.
I’ve heard of Brocato’s, now that you mention it. Thanks for the reminder.
Give a shout…that’s my hood!
All the above are rock solid…Frenchy’s for grouper sandwiches, the Columbia for a wonderful meal. Ill add Carmine’s on 7th Avenue (just a few blocks from the Columbia) for a Cuban sandwich. Make sure you hit La Segunda for the best Cuban bread (sandwiches too, but the bakery is carryout only …they have a full-service location on Kennedy Blvd)
Cant miss La Teresita, either…bustling Cuban diner with both a long lunch counter and a sit down restaurant.
Big Johns Alabama Barbecue has been serving up amazing cue for decades, which is down the street from Yummy House, well known for dim sum. (Neighborhood is a little sketch, but safe during the day). Across the street from Yummy House is Sanwa Market…mostly a wholesale food supplier open to the public but a treasure of produce and international ingredients (my Disney when its time to stock up on Asian, Middle Eastern, and south Asian specialties). While you’re grocery shopping Oceanic is the best Asian shopping around.
Best deli would be Wrights Gourmet House…great sandwiches and dont miss the carrot cake (or my personal choice, Hummingbird Cake). Could also head over to St Pete for Mazzaros Italian Market and Jo-El Kosher grocery and deli (they make their own pastrami and knishes)
For an upscale meal, it’s Berns Steakhouse…they were doing farm to table before it was cool. Make a reservation, though…they book months in advance.
It looks like my plate is overflowing. I’ll let you know once our schedule is set.
Question – what’s the situation with remaining damage from. Helene and Milton?
In Tampa, theres mostly still a lot of cleanup (but likely gone by Feb)
Still lots of upheaval at the beaches, but most things are open or under construction. Assuming this latest one doesn’t develop, things should be mostly normal-ish by Feb
One of my high school classmates was from the family that owned Columbia. They make a nice Cubano. Ybor City has gotten disneyfied. It was gritty when I was a kid. Deli isn’t a thing that’s done well unless something really has changed. Not part of the culture. My favorite bbq from my youth is long gone. My wife likes to go to Jimbo’s on Kennedy when we are in town for the hush puppies. I like the biscuits and gravy for breakfast. The bbq there is okay.
I have had more special occassion dinners than I can count at Bern’s. A buddy of mine is an advisor to the family. Whenever I am back inthe area I use him to make a reservation and we get stellar attention. The wine list is staggering if you are into that. I got many tales of how Bern would travel through Europe buying entire vintages from small wineries. I once got a tour of the warehouse where they store the wine. It was mind blowing how much there is.
The best seafood in the area used to be Seabrezze but its long gone. The old local places are disappearing. I was stunned the time I went to Cox’s to pickup stome crabs to find they had closed.
If you are interested in surrealism, there is the Dali Musuem in St Pete.
Mmmm! Biscuits and gravy! I’m due for a good breakfast.
I figure Ybor City would be becoming … pretty much like every other entertainment district.
From the Berns farm to the restaurant all these years.
The Laxer family farm was more about image than actually providing produce to the restaurant. It gives the servers a lovely story to tell new guests about how they have to work the farm before being allowed to wait tables. Its more of a hobby farm.
The vertical integration business model has plenty of limits.
But very few restaurants where you can go into the kitchen and look through the window in the giant fish tank and choose your dinner.
Even decades ago it was pretty conmon knowledge that the farm wasnt fully supplying the restaurant…but they owned farm, ranch, and fishing fleet long before it was a thing.
(And PSA…nowhere in the city that Ive ever eaten calls it a Cubano…its just a Cuban.)