My daughter and I will be coming to Tampa on Feb 25th (next Friday). We have been in disscusion with other Tampa Dopers as to a get-together on Friday. So far: we are going to the Dali museum in St. Pete around 4 pm, then on to dinner after. The tentative list includes:
NinetyWt
Aurora (my daughter)
Bambi Hassenpfeffer
Brainglutton
Dan Turk
Shibb0leth
Sign up here, y’all. 
I’ve got to say, that’s a pretty darn good thread title.
Shoot, just when I thought I had a perfect reason to move to Tampa you go and make nice with the thread title.
Gear lube!
And look shib, I spelled your name right and everything.
Hey guys! I don’t think I can wiggle my hiney down to St. Pete by 4:00 pm on a Friday. Depends on how my week goes with work and the ever consuming pain of my not-so-recent operation. But I’m DYING to get out of the house and do something!
Do you all have plans on where you’re gonna eat? By Thursday night I’ll know exactly when I can get out of Hell, I mean, Pasco County and meet up with everyone. If things look good for me Thursday night, I’ll post when I can leave my town and my approximate arrive time to St. Pete. Maybe I can get one persons cell number and just keep up with your location then.
Dying to meet you all. And more of you! You’re out there, come on other Tampa people!
I’m not certain about the date, yet. Might be able to make dinner when you know where/when it might be.
I wouldn’t make you do such a horrible thing. Coming down 19 that time a day? Might as well walk. However, we’re tentatively bumping dinner down to 6:30, 7ish, cause we’re gonna have to get from downtown St Pete over to the beach after the museum. Shibb and I are both thinking of some place down in Pass-a-Grille or Treasure Islandish, and he’s gonna be down around there this week; he said he might do a little location-scouting, so we’ll wait for him.
Definitely Friday, the 25th, around 6:30 or 7p for dinner, so plan for that.
Bump.
Darn you guys! I’m two hours south of you and I seriously doubt my boss would let me out early enough on a Friday to meet. If you all have any *Saturday * plans, that’s different.
I don’t know why, but I was totally unable to find this thread until now. Very odd. It’s as if it was hidden from me :: looks around the thread accusingly in a mild state of paranoia :: I gotta cut down on the caffeine.
I’ve not got down for scouting yet, but I think that the old Hurricane is still in existence on Passe Grille beach. Most of the places in Treasure Island and Mad Beach are not on the water side, IIRC, but it won’t really matter mostly as the sun is down by then anyway. How many are we going to be? Dockside Dave’s in Mad Beach is supposed to be very good but I’ve only eaten there once. I’m assuming that lower budget is generally the way to go so as not to exclude anyone, n’est pas?
BTW, I was up your way, Ravenous Lady, on Saturday. My daughter had a game in Hudson, which is a big, spread out place. And very dry. All the grass was dead. Didn’t know that Pasco County was a desert…
Darnit, darnit, darnit… I won’t be back til March. I miss home. 
S’kay, we’ll just have another get together whilst you’re back. We’re due for a FloriDope sometime before it gets too durned hot, anyway.
And, as luck would have it, I have to go check out a potential customer’s place(s) in Passe Grille by Wednesday, so I have a business excuse to go down to the end of the county and then leisurely drive back up via Gulf Blvd, looking for meeting places. Ain’t life grand?
I can’t remember the last time it rained for more than 2 minutes. The weather people claim we are going to get rain tonight. Hope it does, my car is so dusty and covered in pollen.
It’s only Wednesday and I’m feeling very rough around the edges. I’m determined to make it to the dinner though.
I would like to take a little poll… will there be any Food Nazi People attending our dinner? Can I also pretend to be a wanted criminal and ask that no pictures be taken of my mug? Artist rendering drawings of my face will be ok.
Hope you found a nice place for us to meet ShibbOleth.
Ravenous, I am not a Food Nazi, and, while Bambi has a discriminating palate, I wouldn’t put him in that classification either.
I’m very tolerant of other people, especially at a gathering like this where I’m apt to meet folks of every stripe. So, go ahead! Order milk! Drink a beer! Smoke a cigarette! Eat with your fingers !!
I’ll just be happy to see y’all.
Yay! The funny thing is my name, Ravenous Lady is about me always being wildly hungry. These days, I’m not so sure about food and don’t eat very much at a sitting. My stomach is all confused still after having my gall bladder removed.
And the other funny thing, is I’m not really a lady, a female sure, but no lady. I’m not all refined and fancy and stuff.
I have just returned from my southern sojourn, and just in time, apparently. My father eats out a lot (this is why I shall have to support him some day) and so I asked him for some recos. Then I checked out the areas, got menues where I could, etc. I’m going to give my general findings, ask for input from everyone, then make a call based on the majority or most vociferous feedback.
Before getting into individual places, let me discuss possible areas (in no particular order):
1b. Just north of St. Pete on 4th St there are a number of different places.
Passe Grille:- This area is, more or less, the southernmost beach along Gulf boulevard, just south of the semi-famous Don Cesar hotel (the Rolling Stones are said to have written “Satisfaction” after being dissatisfied with the room service there). It’s a nice, fairly quiet beach. The Hurricane is a landmark here, but a bit touristy feeling.
Gulfport:- A little frayed on the edges, but a nice little area. Some shops, although not as many (it’s been probably 20 years since last time I was there) as I suspected, several little bar and grill type places of the Floridian variety. Some live music, it seemed, and a plus for me, should I bring the Shibblets along, there’s a nice playground along the water, plus a couple of piers. There is a “1940s style USO show” at the old Casino there on the 25th, which may lead to some difficulty parking. Good area for a pub crawl.
Sunset Beach:- This area is between Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach, sort of a transitional area between the two.
Pasadena:- not quite the beach, but just before St. Pete Beach, this is also not bad from an access point of view.
In the above named areas, we can accomodate just about any kind of eating style. Most bar & grill type places have fish, and most seafood places have non-seafood items. I’m not sure how a vegan/vegetarian would do in either, though. Might have better luck with that near downtown, so if that’s a requirement for anyone please speak up!
The numbers here correspond to the numbers above. I should warn you that I’ve not eaten at many/most of these places:
1b. I’ve eaten at a lot of places along here. A great burger place, El Cap’s (inexpensive), a good Vietnamese restaurant (pretty far up 4th toward Tampa, though), a small yuppie-ish shrimp place, an Outback steakhouse, small Italian place, etc. It’s a long street, with a good number of options.
My Pop’s suggested Sea Critter’s Cafe out here. Check the link for the menu. Salads, Sandwiches and appetizers from $6+, entrees around $14-20. There’s also the venerable Hurricane, which is well known but not necessarily the best food. Don Cesar is out of my budget range unless someone else is buying (let us know if we need to dress up! )
There are several similar style places here, with oysters, grouper, burgers, etc. Probably like a cross between Sea Critter’s and a neighborhood bar. Yabba Dew Beachside Grille seemed the most likely of these, more on the food than the bar side. Just checked their menu and they do have at least one vegetarian offering. I also have menues from La Cote Basque Winehouse, a sort of Continental place, and Aquabella Waterfront Raw Bar & Grill. Yabba Dew’s range around $6 for appetizers and sandwiches, $11-15 for entrees. Aquabella’s appetizers, mostly from $6-11, sandwiches $5-9, dinners from $12-20. La Cote Basque is $12-24 for dinners, no real simple options available, although they did have an early bird menu, from 4:30-6:30, with entrees from $7-10 and also gave me some buy one dinner get the second dinner free coupons. Four of them, actually.
Another suggestion from dad, I found this review of Carino’s Italian Ristorante.
Sounds good, but it’s one of the more expensive places I looked at, with entrees from $11.95 and up, but most under $20 (probably my dad’s idea of “cheap”)
Aurora and I enjoy a wide variety of menus - from BBQ to sushi to Thai to lutefisk. So, don’t worry about us on that account. We’ll be leaving in a few short hours, so y’all go ahead and make plans and we’ll be happy with whatever you choose.
yay!
Don’t worry, folks, I think you need to go to EPCOT to get lutefisk around here.
Damn, if OhFace and I didn’t already have plans for the weekend in Miami, I’m sure we’d be there. Perhaps next time? Lube one up for me.
Ok, you all, I need feedback! I need validation! I’m insecure and my shoes are too tight!
Seriously, please let me know what you think. Tomorrow’s friday and we’re going to need reservations. Please email me if you’re coming, and I’ll send you my cellphone number.