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Ybor CIty, Tampa

Great write up BFD. There was a time when the words "Mons Venus" and "disappointed" would never, ever be strung together. What has happened to that place? I remember when they put the six-foot rule in effect, but I thought that got done away with.

The Don Cesar is a great hotel. It's far from Ybor though, just keep that in mind. Far being somewhat relative. I actually used to live just a few blocks from it and when I said I used to live on St. Pete Beach, the community I lived in was Pass-e-Grille which is right next to the Don. Very nice, old, old style Florida hotel. Downtown St. Pete, down by Bayside has some too. There's another really old legendary hotel in St. Pete itself, but I forget the name of it now. It's actually down by the bay, whereas the Don is actually on the Gulf/beach. There are all manner of little get-aways down there in the downtown St. Pete area and there used to a be a cigar-friendly little jazz club in the basement of an old hotel there. I think it was called Piano Bar. There is also a club called the Rare Olive (if it's still around) that was great for drinks and smokes at one point. The park and walkway down in downtown SP is really not to be missed. It's beautiful this time of year.

It's a great area. If you stay in the SP area, you'll have to travel the 275 corridor, cross the bay, go through Tampa and into Ybor to get to Ybor itself. The other option is staying in Tampa itself, but that really takes some of the old-Florida charm out of it IMHO. Oh, and the Cuban food there is adequate...but you'll really need to head further South to Miami to get the truly good stuff and the selection. =)
 
BigFatDog said:
No budget...Things just got fun.

Stay here (the Don) or here (the Grand Hyatt). The Wyndham Westshore is also a choice due to Don Shula's being on site.

You will eat here (Burn's), here (Columbia) and here.

You will make a separate reservation for desert at Burn's. You will also remember that Burn's has european service. This means that a gratuity of 15% is included for ALL checks. While at Burn's you will take the tour (ask for it, if not offered). You WILL get your fill of wine at Burn's, from this visit on you will feel sticker shock at every other restaurant. You will have a bottle of wine from the year you were born.

You will make reservations for the dinner show at the Columbia. It is a little cheesy but can be great fun with the right group. You will make the reservations for the day you visit Ybor. The time should be 7:00 or later. You will arrive several hours early. You will visit every single cigar shop on Main St. You will visit Tampa Sweethearts last.

You may want to time this trip so that the non-BOTLs can take in a movie at the adults only Muvico (leather seats and higher grade of snacks including beer/wine, not porn). The adult theaters are part of the regular theaters, which are attached to several shops. You will want to leave the non-BOTLs here. Otherwise your good time may be ruined. For a cigar lover Main St in Ybor (Cigar City) is like a Main St in the Magic Kingdom. You will need to look in every shop and get a haircut (yes, you CAN do that at both places). You will bring NO cigars with you, but you will bring a cutter and your preferred lighting method. You will dress for the weather (usually hot). The Tommy Bahama look would be great. If it's summer and it's between Noon and 3:00 it will rain. The rain will not last long. Sometimes the rain may only be a few drops, but it will rain. You will buy more cigars than you planned. You will treat every roller you see with the respect and awe that he is due, for the many years of pleasure his kind has brought you. You will only buy sticks, going up the street. You will check prices on your favorite boxes. You will ask for match packs and write the prices down on them.

You will go to Tampa Sweethearts. You will buy a box and have a Fuente sign it. You will then buy the largest Opus, Anejo or Maduro Hemingway on the shelf, light it and have your picture taken with said Fuente while smoking it. You will then walk back toward the Columbia for dinner. At this time you may stop and buy your boxes. If you have a car take your purchases to the car.

Call those at the mall and ask if they have anything that needs to go to the car. Collect if necessary. Deposit in the car. You did park in the garage right? You also put the cooler-dor in the trunk right. What, you didn't think you would buy that much right. You just visited BOTL Disney World...be realistic. Meet party back at the Columbia for dinner.

While at the Columbia, you will have the Palomilla (a thin steak covered with onions and lime, served with black beans, yellow rice and plantains). Your nicotine numbed pallet will be able to taste little else on the menu and the meal will taste fantastic. If you we a light smoker try any of the Grouper dishes or the bacon wrapped shrimp dish. The paella is good but trite. Order a very large pitcher of sangria...enjoy the show...eat desert...spill out into the street. Main St. Ybor at night is Tampa's version of Bourbon St (sans strip clubs) only much tamer. Let the drive walk off the sangria while the others hop a few bars. Go back to your hotel. Put the cooler-dor in a safe place. Sleep with the Magic Kingdom glow.

Your last night will be spent at Armani's. You will wear a jacket. You will snicker as you walk by the bar, because most of the Ravens had t dine there (durring superbowl week) because they forgot thiers.You will have the anti-pasta bar as an appetizer, no arguments. You will then have a bowl of the lobster bisque, one of the best ever. My wife and I have dined at many of the world's finest eateries. Please take my word for it. If you like lobster bisque, this is THE one. If you don't like soup you will have a half order of pasta. You will then have an entree of your liking, followed by desert. You will experience a food coma. You will then find a nice spot to smoke a cigar, back at your hotel (downstairs if you are staying at the Grand Hyatt). You will sleep the sleep of the dead.

If its a huge HERF you may want to make Ybor the first day...stocking up.


Other things not to miss...
Cuban Bread (everywhere)
Cuban Sandwiches
Cuban Coffee (the best shop closed...damn you Starbucks, damn you to hell)
A grouper sandwich at Frenchy's in Indian Rocks Beach
The beaches
The Crab Shack
The Hurricane
Fresh orange juice from the Garden of Eatin' on Westshore Dr.
Molio's
A mozzarella, basil & tomato sandwich from Pane Rustica

Things to avoid...You'll just be disappointed...
The Hard Rock
The Mons Venus
The original Hooters


I'll be adding to these lists over the next few days.

Anything else you want to know?
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What he said! :rolleyes: :D
 
MiamiCubano,

My place is in South Tampa, just off Bayshore. I always took the southern route to St. Pete. I've watched many sunsets from the cafe at the Don. There are plenty of OK cuban places. The best was at the end of my street. There are too many yuppies in South Tampa now. The building got sold and it closed. You need a 70+ year old couple cooking your Cuban food, for it to be good. The neighbor has changed so much I'm thinking about selling. The building changes don't bother me, the people do...no respect...entitlement....etc.

How are you getting along with Padrons instead of Fuentes?

BFD
 
BigFatDog said:
MiamiCubano,

My place is in South Tampa, just off Bayshore. I always took the southern route to St. Pete. I've watched many sunsets from the cafe at the Don. There are plenty of OK cuban places. The best was at the end of my street. There are too many yuppies in South Tampa now. The building got sold and it closed. You need a 70+ year old couple cooking your Cuban food, for it to be good. The neighbor has changed so much I'm thinking about selling. The building changes don't bother me, the people do...no respect...entitlement....etc.

How are you getting along with Padrons instead of Fuentes?

BFD
Click to expand...

I used to practice in Tampa and got so tired of Dale Mabry, Kennedy, et al (etc for that little corner of Dale Mabry that used to hold the *good* MVenus), that I used to try to avoid Tampa at all costs. Now I hear talk about "New Tampa" and people trying to buy as far north as Busch. Crazy. Who needs it. Not that South Beach and Miami in general is any better. Lol.

As for the Cuban food...I never found any that was as good as what I used to get at home by the abuelas, or at least here in Miami. It was definitely, as you say, ok. But you gotta take what you can get. And you're right, you at least need a good vieja cooking the food to be really good.

And Padrons...man, can you argue with a replacement like that? Lol. And Tetuajes, Puros Indios, Padillas, Sosas, etc. to add to it. Great stuff down here, and Tampa Sweetheart sends the goods nicely by mail. =)

By "southern" route...does that mean Kennedy Causeway? I used to go that way too. Different experience altogether, and I remember on weekends hitting some of those baitshops when I would go fish the flats/brackish water of St. Pete.
 
The southern route, for me, is the Gandy bidge. It goes right past The Crab Shack and several bait shops. Right there its hard to tell the bait shops from the fishmongers (not that there is a difference, really).

South/Downtown Tampa has become neighborhoods where you are either wealthy, or poor. The middle class has gotten priced out of the market. The middle class has no choice but to go to new Tampa. In south Tampa, they might be able to afford the house, but then they can't afford private schools for their kids. They go north and they get a bigger house, for less money and great public schools. They loose the water. It was great to walk out my door and see saltwater...to drive by it everywhere I went. That's not a trade I could easily make. To be so close and yet so far.
 
BigFatDog said:
The southern route, for me, is the Gandy bidge. It goes right past The Crab Shack and several bait shops. Right there its hard to tell the bait shops from the fishmongers (not that there is a difference, really).

South/Downtown Tampa has become neighborhoods where you are either wealthy, or poor. The middle class has gotten priced out of the market. The middle class has no choice but to go to new Tampa. In south Tampa, they might be able to afford the house, but then they can't afford private schools for their kids. They go north and they get a bigger house, for less money and great public schools. They loose the water. It was great to walk out my door and see saltwater...to drive by it everywhere I went. That's not a trade I could easily make. To be so close and yet so far.
Click to expand...



The whole area north of MacDill is starting to pick up in price and renovations.....but this thread is about Ybor.



Alex - if you're in that area and are in the service or have a sponsor ....visit or stay at MacDill. Great golf courses too.... :whistling:

(spelling)
 
BigFatDog said:
The southern route, for me, is the Gandy bidge. It goes right past The Crab Shack and several bait shops. Right there its hard to tell the bait shops from the fishmongers (not that there is a difference, really).

South/Downtown Tampa has become neighborhoods where you are either wealthy, or poor. The middle class has gotten priced out of the market. The middle class has no choice but to go to new Tampa. In south Tampa, they might be able to afford the house, but then they can't afford private schools for their kids. They go north and they get a bigger house, for less money and great public schools. They loose the water. It was great to walk out my door and see saltwater...to drive by it everywhere I went. That's not a trade I could easily make. To be so close and yet so far.
Click to expand...

Gandy. I forgot the name of it. I used to go that route too. Where you'd see the folks lined up with jacked up 4x4's on the little stretch of "beach" there. Couple of good sports bars along that route too from what I recall, and used to hit a few now and then.

I still have a couple of buddies up there and they went the New Tampa way. I see the house they get for the bucks, and the neighborhood, but also see the tradeoff. I sold my house in St. Pete Beach/Pass-e-Grille for a killing. The market there was insane when I sold vs. when I bought. Shania Twain used to have a house right around the block from mine in fact, though I never, ever saw here there. Damn. But, I was glad to get out of there. Never had neighbors for the most part, except for 3 months out of the year when they all fluttered down from the North. Then, they flew back up and it was a ghost town again. Made sitting out on the balcony watching the Gulf and sunset, smoking sticks, awfully peaceful, but it was too slow for this guy.

Anyway...thread jack aside...there's a hell of a lot of great places in Tampa, St. Pete and Ybor. If you stay at the Don...just down the road from it is a GREAT little fish house called the The Wharf. A true dive, been there forever, but absolutley excellent. Right on the Intracoastal. Amazing food. There's also the Sloppy Pelican in St. Pete Beach which is damn good, but different from The Wharf (not as good as the Wharf in my opinion). Also, on St. Pete Beach...down from The Wharf...is the Hurricane. While the food is not outstanding, they have a like a rooftop area where you can smoke and watch amazing sunsets on the beach.

And if you take the route north from St. Pete Beach...I forget the damn road, but it runs through Treasure Island, by the old Thunderbird Hotel, then goes up to Indian Rocks, Madiera, etc...not only will you just find a ton of great little restaurants, but great beaches, and just great spots to stop and kill time along the way. And I'm ashamed for forgetting the name of it, but there's a cool little community that's all Scottish for the most part way up past Madiera and those places. There also used to be some restaurant that I always thought sounded like it was straight out of the Flintstones...Johnny Rocks or Rocks something.
 
MiamiCubano said:
BigFatDog said:
The southern route, for me, is the Gandy bidge. It goes right past The Crab Shack and several bait shops. Right there its hard to tell the bait shops from the fishmongers (not that there is a difference, really).

South/Downtown Tampa has become neighborhoods where you are either wealthy, or poor. The middle class has gotten priced out of the market. The middle class has no choice but to go to new Tampa. In south Tampa, they might be able to afford the house, but then they can't afford private schools for their kids. They go north and they get a bigger house, for less money and great public schools. They loose the water. It was great to walk out my door and see saltwater...to drive by it everywhere I went. That's not a trade I could easily make. To be so close and yet so far.
Click to expand...

There also used to be some restaurant that I always thought sounded like it was straight out of the Flintstones...Johnny Rocks or Rocks something.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the Salt Rock Grill in Indian Shores? ... I love that place, Steaks cooked over an open fire pit of citrus wood!
 
No, but the Salt Rock Grill was always one of my favorite places to eat there.

This place I'm talking about was called something like Johnny Rockville's or something, but nowadays, what with Johnny Knoxville, I'm wondering if I'm mistaken about the "Rockville" part. It was something that sounded straight out of the Flintstones (to me anyway) and it was a dude's name.

But thanks for the memories of the Salt Rock. =)
 
BFD--
That schedule looks like an absolute dream. I hope to get to get down that way in the fall, and I will do my damdest to follow it to a T.
It should be made a CP weekend! Perhaps the 2nd official CP herf?
 
Leverock's

smokelaw1 said:
BFD--
That schedule looks like an absolute dream. I hope to get to get down that way in the fall, and I will do my damdest to follow it to a T.
It should be made a CP weekend! Perhaps the 2nd official CP herf?
Click to expand...
I've done it a couple of times, when cigar smoking friends came for a visit. Which was about once every 3 months when I lived there.
 
Your not talking about Leverocks, are you?

I think it use to be called Johnny Leverocks.

Clearwater/St Pete is basically my home away from home.
 
jabba said:
Your not talking about Leverocks, are you?

I think it use to be called Johnny Leverocks.

Clearwater/St Pete is basically my home away from home.
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That's it. Johnny Leverocks. It wasn't too bad years ago.

And yes BFD, you really do have to go to Salt Rock. It's amazing. Everything from decor to food is awesome.
 
MiamiCubano said:
jabba said:
Your not talking about Leverocks, are you?

I think it use to be called Johnny Leverocks.

Clearwater/St Pete is basically my home away from home.
Click to expand...

That's it. Johnny Leverocks. It wasn't too bad years ago.

And yes BFD, you really do have to go to Salt Rock. It's amazing. Everything from decor to food is awesome.
Click to expand...


Any other names you need, I know them all :p

I love Salt Rock, if your short on cash book for reservation at 4.45pm, the prices on the early bird special are insane.
 
I do miss a good early bird special and the occasional q-tip driving with oven mitts on @ 75 mph.

P.S. I've been to The Salt Rock...I meant for the thread.
 
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