Great Beer, Great Atmosphere at Three Daughters

NHIE Guys

Twenty-one is over-rated at this St Petersburg brewery. Located in the warehouse district, just off of Central Ave on 22nd Street, Three Daughters Brewing is a massive 10,000 square-foot brewery open to the public. Named after the owners three daughters, the brewery has some signature brews like Beach Blonde Ale always on tap and rotates in new ones, like Kahwa Coffee Porter.

Nicholas and I planned a Sunday in St Pete to do some local shopping for our Tampa home, but also made it a point to stop into Three Daughters to grab a crisp, refreshing beer to cool down after hours touring the vintage shops on Central. It was actually the first time the brewery was open on a Sunday but now it plans to be open seven days a week! There is one main bar located inside that serves beer flights for those of you that are indecisive…

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Welcome to Chateau du Grime

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

It’s been basically a month since we have been in our Tampa home.  Make that a busy month.  Having hunkered down in Greensboro, NC for 8 years, I had forgotten how much I hate moving.  I really hate moving.  I can’t think of a single component of moving I like; even finishing moving.  Due to timing issues, we arrived in Tampa about a week before our household goods did.  My first thought was “what a pain, I hate moving”.  As it turns out, this was a good thing because our rental house was filthy.

We were told that a cleaning crew would come through and give the place a thorough hosing.  That turned out to be someone racing a vacuum over the carpets in the 3 bedrooms.  As only the bedrooms have carpet, I’m sure they put in a solid 7 minutes cleaning the house.  Actually, the only things hosed were us.  We spent two full days cleaning every nook and cranny and, in the interest of brevity (and my blood pressure), I’ll spare everyone the gory details.  Suffice it to say the makers of Windex, 401, Comet and a half dozen other organ-destroying cleaners could have made their 2014 commercials in this place.  Excessive cleaning is why I hate moving.

Maybe I should give the (illusionary) cleaning crew a pass.  It is scientifically possible they could not see the appalling dirt due to the meretricious (I had to bust the thesaurus finding a strong enough synonym for ‘gaudy’) wall colorings.  Apparently, at some point in the past, Lowe’s Home Improvements had a Buy-A-Gallon-Of-This-Crime-Of-Nature-Color-And-We’ll-Give-You-Eighteen-Other-Crimes-Of-Nature-Colors-Free Sale.  Rachel, who had seen the house between the former tenants and us, mentioned the walls were all kinds of funky colors but failed to convey the level of retina-corroding, vertigo-instilling tints.  Three days of painting ensued – including more cotton candy pink than is lawful – converting it from a clown house to something resembling a home.  The almost guaranteed need to paint is why I hate moving.

 

Better Homes and Gardens will not be lavishing any “Best of Lawns” on us anytime soon.  But, compared to the interior, the scores a solid D minus.  I think part of this is a Tampa (maybe Florida?) thing.  Go into just about any neighborhood and you’ll see a hodgepodge of lawn quality.  One yard will look like the dark side of the moon (or Wyoming) and the next will look like a Mini Pebble Beach.  Ours is sort of a marriage of Hiroshima two minutes after Little Boy and Jurassic Park.  I’m no soil expert but we have some combination of sand, black sand, and some kind of sand that doesn’t engender robust growing potential.  Covering it all are leaves from a particularly annoying tree that, while appearing full and verdant, loves to rain leaves in bushels.  On the positive side, there is a Star Fruit tree whose fruit is voraciously attacked by some fly-like bug and mowing, which was a 1.5-2 hour project in NC, takes about 8 minutes.  Seriously.  And half of that is wrestling the lawnmower out of the shed.

I really hate moving.  But I really like this house!!  I love the open floor plan and 2 sets of French doors.  I love how the tile floor keeps everything cool.  I also really like how close we are to everything.  It seems like we are 5-10 minutes away from so many cool things to see and do.

Tacos on a Bus

Even though we haven’t moved to Tampa yet (still about 4 weeks out), we’ve been to the Taco Bus on East Hillsborough during a vacation in Tampa…and loved it! Can’t wait to visit it again.

NHIE Guys

Well, not really. If you are from Tampa, hopefully you have heard of Taco Bus and experienced their flavor packed cuisine. Last Monday, Nicholas and I had to opportunity to visit Taco Bus’s newest location in Brandon and meet the owner,  Rene Valenzuela. Before we feasted on (about) 12 tacos, guacamole and chips and sipped down jumbo sized pineapple and watermelon waters, Rene gave us some background on how Taco Bus came to be.

Back when Rene lived in Mexico he owned a number of small successful taco restaurants. It was his dream to open a restaurant in a major city in Mexico, but in order to do so, he had to save or raise enough capital to cover the city’s high startup costs. When Rene was approached with the opportunity to start his business in the US, he took the leap and landed in Tampa Bay in hopes of…

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Favorite Places Part 2 – A Redux

“I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.” – Mark Twain

Since my last post, we’ve again traveled down well worn paths to familiar locales.  Interestingly, these visits both bring back many great memories – as if they were cheerful ghosts joining us tableside – and solidify them with a new focus.

Natty Greene’s Brewing Company – going way back to before we had even officially moved here, I visited Natty’s on a pre-move house hunting trip.  As a beer nerd, any excuse to visit a local brewery is immediately hopped upon (pun intended).  Like the town itself, Natty’s is named after Colonial General Nathaniel Greene whose actions at Guilford Courthouse (here) and Cowpens, SC forced British General Cornwallis to hole up in Yorktown – beginning the end of the Revolutionary War.  From the beginning, I was very impressed with their beer and (very surprisingly) their food.  My perennial favorites are the General Stout and Buckshot Amber Ale but it has been a rewarding journey to watch them expand both their year-round and seasonal offerings.  I took full advantage on a recent lunch visit to (re)sample several of their offerings.  My sense is the brewery scene in Tampa is still getting its feet beneath it so I will always look back fondly on my time with the heroic General.  With so many fun times sharing pints and laughs with friends I’ll truly miss these ‘tableside ghosts’. 

San Luis Mexican Restaurant – turned out to be a safe harbor in the storm.  Of the many culture shocks we encountered moving to North Carolina from New Mexico was the dearth of quality – meaning legit – Mexican food.  To be clear, NC has lots of Mexican restaurants and just as clearly most of them are bad…many very bad.  We had thrown in the towel when local chef Trey May, who we met at Rioja (see previous post), suggested we go; and then went into all the chefy details (like homemade corn tortillas, fresh seafood cocktails, etc) that sold us.  Now, San Luis is not NEW  [caps intentional] Mexican cuisine but is very good and very resonably priced.  I knew we were in good shape on our very first visit and we were the only guerros (gringos)!  I’ve ordered many different items and have never been disappointed but the guacamole with chile verde and fish tacos are bangin.  We ate there again the other night and it was delicious as always.  On a positive note, Tampa has a very strong Latino influence so I’m sure we will root out some legitimate latino food.

Mellow Mushroom – it seems a little strange including a fairly well recognized chain in my list of haunts that I’m attached symbiotically.  But MM is uniquely different.  It does 3 things very well – promote great (often regional) microbrews, makes fantastic pizzas and has a really cool staff.  This location has develop a reputation of rotating interesting and frequently rare beers on its 32 taps.  Former bar manager, Clayton Nichols, deserves most of the credit for this who, along with an always friendly smile, really worked with breweries and distributors to get intriguing choices.  While he has moved on to greener pastures, and other favorites like Brooke have headed back to their home turf, we still really enjoy stopping by every other week or so for good pizza and beer.  I’m happy they continue to be successful and am (seriously) crossing my fingers that the Tampa location is just as groovy and beer aware.

The worn path to inviting doors meanders on and there are more places to stop; so until then please buy my cheerful ghosts a round! 

 

Favorite Places Part 1 – A Redux

“It’s not down on any map; true places never are.” – Herman Melville

As we prep our minds for the transition from Greensboro, NC to Tampa, FL, there is no getting away from the bittersweet emotions.  Topping the list is knowledge that my family will no longer be about an hour away.  Probably half my life has been spent many, many hundreds of miles distant and these last 8 years have been a great reconnect.  Going forward, trips will be scheduled, well-organized events.

At a much lower tier are the numerous favorite haunts in Greensboro.  The Mission: revisit these ‘true places’ at least one last time and reflect how and why they became important to us.  This post will be made in parts as there are many spots to revisit and little time to do it!

Rioja A Wine Bar – the first place we tracked down and probably the most influential.  Rioja took our sputtering wine appreciation and slammed it into high gear.  Along with that, Rioja introduced us to some of our closest friends including Fernando and Nikki, Chris and Beth, Robert S, Brian and Mallory, Jake A and Chad P.  Like all true relationships, our paths have meandered and crossed many times but it is always there.  Coming full-circle, we’ve found ourselves bellied up to the bar a couple times in the last week.  Feels good.  I’ll be shocked if Tampa, despite being larger, can top our time here.

Mcoul’s Public House – a bit dark, a bit dingy so Irish Pub feeling.  Another early find, we’ve spent countless hours on the patios or around the bars enjoying a wide variety of Irish and English pints and food with friends.   Mcoul’s was particularly memorable because of the fun bartenders with Mike, Easy E and Mike standing out.  The food (chef?) has changed on this last visit and not necessarily for the better but the beer, booze and ambience are still great.  We’ve discovered that Tampa has a large number of Irish pubs – we’ve already become fond of Green Fields – so we’ll definitely have a benchmark.

Greensboro Grasshopper Ballpark – opened right before we moved here, our first visit was on a cold, wet dreary April night.  But, it was fleece blanket night!  With temps in the 40’s, the place was virtually empty.  Rachel counted 87 people in seats.  The Hoppers won beginning a long streak of wins when we were in attendance including on memorable 9th inning 5-run comeback.  We even saw a game with a combined 37 hits!  It’s a beautiful Single A park serviced by local craft brewery Natty Greene’s and 3 black labs that serve as batdogs.  I’ll miss the ability to grab a great seat at the last minute and the $1 beer and hotdog Mondays.  I won’t miss Spaz.  As a Yankees fan, I’m excited to be in Tampa for Spring Training and to support the Tampa Bay Yankees minor league team but Grasshopper Park will always be one of my favorite places.

Stay tuned for more ‘true places’…

Introduction – Why Bore You?

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

I’m starting this blog without knowing much about blogging.  My intention is to find a way to capture and share some of the trials and tribulations of my mostly boring life.  I feel this is as good as any time to start given the upcoming change in scenery I, along with my sidekick/barnacle Rachel, are about to experience.

Rachel got herself  a nice job promotion so it is time to pack away Greensboro, NC for sunny Tampa Bay, FL.  My future posts will both document that “semi-aimless wander” and inject some past experiences and thoughts.  For any perspective readers, feel free to add your own commentary as there has been little aimless wandering in my life that did not include others.

So, in the effort to be perfect, TAMPA OR BUST 2013!!