Tampa Dinner, St. Pete Live Music

Took Lisa out for her Birthday last night, we decided on a favorite in Hyde Park, Bella's for Italian. Arrived at around 7pm, complimentary valet parking. The bar area was packed, we were seated immediately, and of course given the complimentary Bruschetta as always for a start. We shared the 1/2 chop salad, chopped crisp greens, small pasta, diced chicken in a delicious Italian dressing. The Meza Luna pasta, stuffed with Asparagus, Prosciutto and cheese that I ordered was delicious, although I saked for a Vodka Sauce instead of the plain tomato cream sauce, and they tacked on $5(my Laughing Cat fav in Ybor always lets you vary the menu to your liking without an charge), but it was delicious. Lisa enjoyed her Chicken Marsala, two breasts of chicken, lots of mushrooms, and a side of Broccoli.
We wanted to hear some live music, and Lisa has been raving about Matt Winter, he was playing at Dan Marino's Martini Bar at Bay Walk in downtown St. Petersburg. It was a quick 25 min ride to Bay Walk, a great crowd was hanging out in the Martini Bar, with the Matt Winter band playing above the bar. Plays alot of covers(Dave Matthews, Oasis, Sublime), also has many great originals..I now have another local band to follow that were very entertaining, Lisa got to chat with Matt afterwards for a bit, and we had lots of laughs with the drummers wife who was hanging out with us at the bar.
They only played until 10pm, so we headed back to Tampa, and hit up our local favorite, Green Iguana Westshore, walking distance to my house. The very friendly John and Theresa were manning the bar outside in the Tiki area, there was a lively crowd, and of course a great entertaining band inside. We kicked back and enjoyed the people watching, and chatted with several people(it seems you can never go to the Green Iguana without ending up talking to someone for the first time).
We got a call from some friends to meet up at City Side for a late cocktail, so we cabbed it there, and spent the last few hours of the night socializing with the ever so Happy alternative crowd at City Side...I really like the VJ there, he plays some great tunes.

Crab Shack and A Gay Old Time in Tampa!

A buddy flew in from Chicago on Saturday, we headed to Sarasota to see some friends, and then headed back to Tampa area and went to dinner at the Crab Shack in St. Pete on Gandy Blvd. Crab Shack reminds of the typical Florida shacks near the water. I can remember coming to Florida from New York as a kid(Grandparents lived in Seffner), and we would go to Fat Willies Fish Camp.....The Crab Shack has the same appeal, tacky Florida stuff all over the walls and ceiling, picnic tables with benches, and the smell of Seafood all over..as casual as can be! We dined at the bar, Crab Shack is always packed on the weekends. Staff and people are as friendly as can be, with all types in the restaurant(families, 'roughnecks', tourists, people coming home from the beach). The seafood is very fresh, and no frills. Crab is what they are all about, we started with Raw Oysters, average in size, with the horseradish and crackers. Then went for Snow Crab and Stuffed Shrimp. Ended dinner with Key Lime pie. I try to venture to the Crab Shack at least once a month, its just good, southern Florida style seafood shack!

Afterwards it was time to head out, and my buddy wanted to venture out to the 'alternative' places in town. I dont go out to the bars of these type very often, so I heard about some new gay bars that opened up in Ybor City, so I took him out there. We started at Wrangler's, which had a decent crowd, mostly laid back country dudes, very friendly, there is a huge dance floor where line dancing was happening to dance and country tunes..kinda like watchin a show. I kinda liked it at Wrangler's, there are pool tables, and its very large with a killer sound system, and large video screen behind the main bar showing videos to the music, and pics from people throughout the bar. After a few hours, we then headed to the new Lounge 7 at 14. In an old historic building, this had a nice bar, and small dance area, and small loungy type area to mellow out in. Again, a good crowd, interesting people watching, and a DJ cranking some chill lounge music. We then went next door to GBar...all I can say was that about half the place was under 25 and without shirts on, chandeliers in the Main Bar were swinging all over by go-go boys dancing barely naked on the bar. The next bar area was really loud, alot of special lighting effects on the small dance floor, and again both guy and girl dancers on the bars. It kind of reminded me of some of the clubs in NYC, loud, over the top, young. We barely finished out drink there, and almost 230am, so we stopped off at City Side on the way home. Laid back crowd of a few dozen, playing pool, watching music videos from the VJ. There was alot of rumor amongst the owners of Lounge 7-14, Wranglers and City Side that Ybor is the place for the GLBT crowd. With Suncoast Resort closed, many of the establishments are looking for places to open in the Bay area...and now with 6 designated GLBT bars, and a few specialty shops along 7th Avenue, it seems to be a central place for that crowd. Many others are calling Ybor home, buying the affordable new condos, lofts and townhomes that are popping up in Ybor City.

It was a different type of weekend, but sometimes you got to get out and explore all types in the city..it makes for great entertainment.

On a sad note, my brother and sister in law, and my new nephew departed this morning to move to Colorado. It was a fun 10 months wit them here in Tampa, Family Fun Days just wont be the same without them.

South Tampa evenin' - CDB's Southside and Stuff!

Another great work week come to an end...last night we decided to check out the new CDB Southside on Westshore Blvd in South Tampa. What a GREAT place. With all the cars outside, and limited parking, you would think it was packed, but they had the upstairs and downstairs open, and outdoor balcony overlooking Westshore Blvd open. They did a great job with the two bars, and very classy, but casual atmosphere. Eating outside was on tap for us, so at 7pm, we were able to be seated promptly on the 2nd floor balcony, they even set a fan up on the floor next to our table, as the breezes were limited this evening. Very friendly service, prompt and always checked up on us, but not intruding, and best of all, great tasting food. the menu reminded me a little of Bella's on South Howard, but the portions are huge, real tomatoes in the sauce! Some of the best Pizza in the area as well. All our dishes were cooked to perfection and tasty(Chicken Parm, Chicken Bianco, and Seafood Pasta). It was nice just casually sitting outside above Westshore, listening to some tunes, having some drinks, and eating great food. Will be back for sure! It was than on to the Green Iguana Westshore down the street, packed house, and a good band playing, again we sat out in the tiki bar area. It was getting late, and some of us wanted to check out some 'alternative' bars. The last days of the Male Room were this weekend, so some of us headed there, only to learn that they were moving to Ybor City as a bar on 7th Ave and 14th Street called '7 at 14' another alternative bar was opening in Ybor(this makes 6 now, and overheard that there were three others in the works, all on 7th Ave)..seems to be turning into a mecca for the gay bars, like a mini boystown. For the heck of it, we then decided to keep the alternative bar crawl going in South Tampa, so we headed to The Rainbow Room on MacDill Ave, a lesbian bar that is male friendly - they had great jello shots, kick ass juke box, and a huge back area with volleyball sand courts....we ended at City Side on Henderson Ave, about a couple dozen late night peeps listening to great tunes as they played the videos to the songs simultaneously on the video monitors throughout the bar. Interesting diverse evening with lots of laughs, and great people watchin'.