Inverness, Tampa, St. Pete and Punta Gorda short report

Inverness
We stayed over here one night to ride the Withlacoochee bike trail the next morning before driving south to lunch in Tampa. Lynn’s Ice Cream and Belgian waffles is a RUN don’t walk. A Belgian couple of a certain age makes low over run ice cream with real flavors in the Belgian style—i.e. not sweet. Unquestionably, the best waffle cone either of us has ever had. Will go out of our way to return despite the fact that they don’t open until 3:00 PM.

Tampa
Seabreeze Trolley Cafe
An old run down wooden trolley car beached next to a fish market shack. Excellent Tampa style Devil Crabs. Excellent fried grouper and maybe the best hush puppies ever. Good fried okra. Good fried sheepshead. We called a few hours in advance and they had fresh softshells, but they were sold out when we got there. Next time will order in advance! Will reorder grouper, deviled crabs, soft shells and flounder if they have it.

Punta Gorda

Elena’s
A great diner in a strip mall in the tradition of great Greek diners. Based on having eaten breakfast three days running, I wouldn’t hesitate to eat supper here either. For example: the hash browns are made with real potatoes cooked on premises, not food service potato strings. Omelets are cooked on a flat top, not a saute pan. Not my favorite method, but here they are done very well. The coffee is good, the service snappy.

Hurricane Charlies
Serviceable mega bar and eatery, a good place to watch the sunset at the outdoor bar and breathe second hand smoke. The food is just that—a reasonable value, nothing great nor nothing evil. Serviceable.

The Perfect Caper.
If you like the kind of place that puts a big bowl of potpourri in the men’s room and boasts from the outset of its Bobby Flay throw down chops, run don’t walk. “Miso glazed” (farmed) salmon over Udon ($23 with prix fixe): the use of the word “Miso”is a misnomer. This is sweetly glazed salmon, cooked slightly underdone as requested, plated over the menu artifice udon used as a pasta stand-in in a miso intense sauce. IMHO, the entire dish was inedible. Thai PEI mussels ($15 a la carte): coconut milk and thai curry paste. Q: what could be bad? A: nothing, except that PEI mussels in late June average smaller than your pinky nail. Came with very good shoestring fries. Mahi ($32 a la carte): 7 oz piece of Mahi ordered sauce on the side, underdone. Served as requested. Cornmeal cracklin top, then pan roasted. No salt. To be fair, there was salt in the “veloute” aka buerre blanc sauce if wanted. Served with haricot verts for which a treacly sweet sauce arrived unbidden on the side. New world intensive wine list. The house made focaccia was very good. Decor done entirely in shades of deep brown. Would not return.

Four Points Sheraton Bar Happy Hour
$3 drinks, half price apps. Tuna tataki with an inoffensive touch of brown colored sauce, firecracker fried shrimp of very good quality and very respectable fried calamari. Four drinks, three apps total check was $33. A sleeper for sure for a date night great value. Will gladly return.

St. Pete
Mazzaro Market
Not quite the size or scale of Mariano’s supermarket, still—bigger than any Italian market I’ve seen on North Harlem in Elmhurst. Excellent sandwiches—we tried the Hot Italian, fresh mozzarella and proscuitto. My next few days were at a symposium in a mega hotel on World Center Drive outside Disney World, so I self catered—beginning with Mazzaro chicken parm which reheated well. I’ve been meaning to get here for years, but this was the first time the stars aligned. Will gladly return, we didn’t get to try one one hundredth of everything that looked good.