I drove over to St Petersburg this past Friday for a visit to my good friend Teresa Short. I arrived in mid-afternoon and the plan was to meet up with Teresa's ex-husband Tim. My first new restaurant of the weekend was within walking distance of Tim's place in downtown St Petersburg. I took this photo as we approached the place located on Central Avenue.
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| Entrance to the Iberian Rooster |
It is called the Iberian Rooster and it is a
"Portuguese Fusion restaurant and speakeasy where the complexity of colonial street food meets the simplicity of tapas, interlocking in unexpectedly seamless ways to create innovative, dynamic flavors worthy of the harmony that exists between the culinary cultures of Mozambique, Macau, Brazil, and Goa."
Our plans were to have some wine and share three plates, one from the small plate menu and two from the large plate menu...
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| Large Plate Menu at Iberian Rooster |
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| Small Plate Menu at Iberian Rooster |
It was actually the day before Tim's birthday, so we allowed him to order the wine. I am still learning about wine but these two friends know more than I do. Tim ordered the 2014 Silk & Spice Red, a Portuguese Table Wine. It was very good.
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| Silk & Spice |
From the small plate menu, we ordered the Portuguese Meatballs.
"Ground beef, chorizo, port gravy, pickled okra."
They were so good I only got a picture of the leftover port gravy. It was three meatballs separated by the four pieces of pickled okra. Delicious!
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| Portuguese Meatballs small plate |
Our first large plate was the Chululu:
"Catch of the day, Angolan stew of okra, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, red chiles, palm oil, fried kale."
The fish was rolled into a cylinder which was easy to split three ways. I think the fish was tilapia which worked really well with the stew of vegetables.
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| Chululu at Iberian Rooster |
Our second large plate was the SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE PULAO.
"House chorizo, shrimp, tomatoes, onions, basmati rice."
Needing a serving spoon to share, we each got some shrimp and some chorizo.
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| Shrimp and Sausage Pulao |
I think they said the dessert was both Vegan and gluten-free. They brought it out with a candle for Tim's birthday.
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| Dessert cake |
Everything was excellent at this place so I give it a 4.0 (excellent). Luckily, we had to walk back to Tim's place after the great meal we had...but there would be more...
On Saturday morning I wanted to see St Pete Beach, I had never been there before. Teresa suggested we eat breakfast at the Hurricane Seafood Restaurant before our walk along the white sand beach.
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| Table setting at Hurricane Seafood Restaurant |
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| Breakfast Menu |
Both Teresa and I ordered the "Top of the Mornin' Breakfast". I like my eggs over easy and Teresa likes her's over hard, very hard. She got the sausage patties and an English muffin and I got the ham and wheat toast. Everything was very good but I did not like the ham, it was just two slices of deli ham warmed up. A ham steak would have been nice but given the price, I was not going to complain.
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| Tables on the deck at Hurricane Seafood Restaurant |
The food must have been good because I only got a photo of the plates...
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| Empty breakfast plates |
I did forget to say that they were really good at keeping the coffee cup full. Because of the ham, I am only giving the place a 3.0 (Great). The environment and setting were excellent.
We kind of skipped lunch and Teresa had an appointment. I did not want to wait at the place so I asked where the nearest bar was. After a half mile walk, I found myself approaching the large building known as the Three Birds Tavern.
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| Three Birds Tavern |
I saw a back entrance so I headed that way and entered a bar that was mostly open air with games and bar stools. I grabbed me a seat and ordered a Bass Ale off of the beer menu.
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| Lead Menu Page |
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| One of the Beer pages in the large menu |
I decided to order an appetizer before I went to the Rays game at 4 PM. I ordered a Scotch Egg, to try it out. It was very delicious and hit the spot. I forgot how much I like a Bass ale. The eggs and beer were heaven together. I did catch a photo as a Local Guide on Google Maps. It has had 13 views already.
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| My photo on Google Maps |
I took these other photos of the outside bar. I never went inside the place.
As I sat at the bar, I wanted to scream "Three Bird" at the top of my lungs. This is an inside joke...
I give the place a 3.5 (Great to Excellent). I definitely want to try it again when I can eat a full meal off of the menu. Everything looked very tasty. Erin, my bartender, also knew some about the Melbourne area so we chatted for a bit.
We went to the Yankees-Rays game but I plan to do another post on that. After the game, we met up with another couple who work at Oracle with Teresa. We walked over to Bavaro's Pizza Napoletana & Pastaria. Also located on Central Avenue, at first it looked like an hour wait for four people but then they said they had a table and we were in.
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| Outside of Bavaro's (Not my photo, from the web page) |
We ordered two pizzas to split among the four. The two were the
"MARGHERITA
san marzano tomato, mozzarella di bufala, basil, parmigiano reggiano, extra-virgin olive oil"
"FUNGHI
san marzano tomato, fior de latte, garlic, basil, mushroom, parmigiano reggiano, extra-virgin olive oil"
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| FUNGHI |
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| MARGHERITA |
During the meal, a bad thunderstorm hit so we sat around waiting. Jackie was our waitress and was very nice. She wanted us to just call her name if we needed anything. Since we were not going to leave we decided to order some drinks and maybe dessert. Teresa counted down and all four of us yelled "JACKIE!" She was very surprised that we actually did it but we could see she loved it. I ordered a single CANNOLI by Vito Bavaro. It was divine.
I give this place a 4.0 (excellent) and I see they have a place in Winter Springs and Tampa. The pizza is baked in a brick oven.
This puts me ahead of schedule on one new restaurant every other week...
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