Thursday, February 7, 2008

Lunch in Downtown Tampa; Man Pampering; Tampa Chinese Takeout

A good friend from back home in Long Island, NY that I have know since I was 4 years old is in Tampa visiting me this weekend, we are heading to the Florida Keys tomorrow for a long relaxing fun weekend.
I picked Corrie up at the Tampa Airport, it is ideal to park on the 9th Floor rooftop of Short Term parking, it is free for the first hour, offers great views of the Bay and all of Tampa, and always a space available next to the elevators from Baggage Claim.
We headed directly to downtown Tampa, and Harbour Island's Cafe Dufrain. I had been here for dinner, and wanted to try lunch, it was such a beautiful day to sit outside along the waterfront for lunch. Downtown was busy, as it is typically in the middle of the day, close to 60,000 people work in downtown daily. We were seated promptly with great views of the skyline along the water. Service was excellent, we dined on Tuna Tataki, the Barbeque Pork sandwhich, and Portabello/Vege Sandwhich. Both very large portions and delicious, and came with sweet potato shoestring fries and salads. My friend is an executive chef for a very popular restaurant in Southhampton on Long Island, NY and claimed it was a great lunch spot.
She wanted to get her feet and toes prepared for flip flops all weekend, so we went to a Nail Salon in my neighborhood on Manhatten Ave in South Tampa, just south of El Prado Blvd. I have had a pedicure done twice before(highly recommend one as a guy), and this shoppe was one of the best. All Asian women run the shop, very clean and new. We were seated in state of the art massage chairs, while hot water filled in a tub for our feet, with massage crystals. Very thorough, the woman that worked on my feet had me for over half and hour, massageing my legs and feet after the pedicure, and cleaning up the toes..VERY VERY relaxing!!!
For dinner it was Chinese Takeout from my favorite place, Peking Take Out on Manhatten Avenue in South Tampa - very much Ny Style Chinese.(Just happens to be next door to the Nail Salon we went to earlier in the day).

Looking forward to the weekend trip to Key West, we take the Ferry from Ft Myers, be back late Sunday night!!

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