Dining in St Pete

This past weekend, I visited my great friend Teresa who lives in the Saint Petersburg area on theWest Coast of Florida. Here is some of the eating I did while there.

I arrived at about 5 PM on Friday. The plan was to go to the shuffleboard club in downtown St Pete. This club was established in 1924 and is the largest shuffleboard club in the world. Every Friday from 7 to 10 PM, they allow guests to play for free. We had a cooler with some beers and wine, and Teresa's friend Nancy was meeting us there. The courts are outside and it was raining with lightning. They do not play in bad weather.

So near the club is the Hollander Hotel. We stopped at the on-site restaurant called the Tap Room.

The photo is part of the menu. We were having drinks and appetizers and waiting to see if the weather would clear up for shuffleboard. Our server was named Gigi.

I ordered an Orange Blossom Pilsner, brewed in Orlando; Teresa and Nancy had wine. We ordered three appetizers to split. The first was the Nachman's Fish Spread, a fresh smoked fish local from Redington Shores, served with crackers, celery & carrots...

The fish was very good. We also ordered the grouper nuggets, described as tender chunks of fresh grouper, hand breaded and deep fried. Served with a lemon aioli. It was not tartar, but tasty...these were delicious!

The third appetizer was the Cuban Quesadilla. Described on the menu as roast pork, smoked ham, Swiss cheese & pickles pressed between flour tortillas and drizzled with creamy mustard. There were four pieces; I did not get the photo until after we had each taken a piece.  Again, like the fish, delicious!

My plate with a little of each appetizer and my Pilsner...

This ended up being our meal for the evening. This was a new restaurant for me so it goes into my bucket list. The service was wonderful and the place is cozy. The restaurant is just off the lobby area so we could see people arriving for their stay. We sat on the porch but it was very pleasant due to the rain. I give the place a 3.5 (Great to Excellent). I would need to eat a full meal before I could give it a higher score...

On Saturday, Teresa made us breakfast. Then we took a mural tour which I plan to cover in a future post. For lunch we went to the Dali Museum where Teresa is a member. Just like last December, we ordered the charcuterie platter and the "plato de queso".

The charcuterie platter includes "serrano ham, chorizo, lomo, olives, almonds, bread."

The plato de queso includes "assortment of spanish cheeses, poached pear, fig jam, sea salt crostini."

We were here to see the following exhibit...

Clyde Butcher is a Florida photographer known for his black & white Florida scenery photographs.  I recognized the name and found he did do the Melbourne Art Festival a few times.

Then we were off to the baseball game to watch the Red Sox play against the Rays. Again, the weather was stormy with lots of rain and lightning. We barely made it into the game before the rains hit. It is good that Tropicana Filed is an indoor park. Dinner was a beer, some peanuts and a bag of cracker jacks...

I will have more photos from the game in a future post. I will say the Rays won 5-1.

On Sunday, Teresa took me to the restaurant called Trip's Diner. This place gets really crowded and parking is interestingly small. Luckily, on Sundays, you can park at some of the lots for local businesses that are closed. My understanding there are three places; this place in St Pete, another in Tampa and Seminole Florida.

Hey, the menu says what I just said...

We were there for breakfast. We sat at the diner counter and I could see right into the kitchen..

From this vantage point, I could also see the plates at they came out and the corned beef hash looked good so that it what I ordered. Two eggs over easy and whole wheat toast.

The toast was thick and buttered and the eggs were just the way I liked them. I had hoped for a little more meat in the hash but the flavor was excellent, with the onions and potatoes cooked perfectly.

Teresa likes her eggs over hard, very hard. Bobby, our server and entertainer, put her order into the Ipad as HARD. She got a sausage patty, fruit bowl and a biscuit.

We pretty much had everything we needed including cream with our coffee. Only thing you have to ask for was butter for her biscuit. I like Cholula hot sauce on my eggs and I normally put ketchup on the side for hash. The hash was so good it did not need much help...

Here is Bobby, bringing us some more coffee at the counter. The place was bustling with people and activity from the kitchen. Usually a good sign a place is popular.

You pay at the register where they had desserts out and autographed baseballs from current Rays players. I guess they must come here too.

This was another new restaurant for me and I give the place a 4.0 (Excellent). The food was great, service was entertaining, and there was a long line out the door as we left.

We headed over to Crescent Lake Park for an after meal walk. We walked completely around the lake, which is in the following photograph. This is looking South, and you can see part of the skyline of St. Pete in the distance to the left of the water tower.

Always great eating in the Burg!