Mouth of Tampa Bay

It's a grape big world

2008-11-20T05:10:24-05:00

Wine & Cigar Stop (14921 Bruce B Downs Blvd, Tampa) is doing a fun tasting on Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It's a slurpathon in honor of this year's Wine Spectator's top 100 wines list. Really a sneak preview, before the Spectator has released the list to the general public, the shop is uncorking a bunch of the winners that evening. And it's gratis, baby. A good way to pick your Turkey Day quaffs, with a 10 percent discount on mixed cases.

And tonight the Tampa Wine Institute (2009 N. 22nd St., Tampa, (813) 241-8587) hosts a tasting and class at 6 p.m.: “Piedmont vs Tuscany.” Explore the two top wine producing regions in Italy side by side. Barolo & Barbaresco vs Brunello & Chianti. This is a sit-down, round-table format limited to 12 students. Six to eight wines will be served along with fine cheeses from Beaune’s Wine Bar. Cost for the class is $30.

Lean Cuisine recall

2008-11-19T13:29:00-05:00

Nestle Prepared Foods Co. is recalling three varieties of Lean Cuisine entrees. A recorded message from the company Tuesday said, "Lean Cuisine is taking this action after several consumers recalled finding small pieces of blue plastic material." The Lean Cuisine meals in question are the Pesto Chicken with Bow Tie Pasta, the Chicken Mediterranean and the Chicken Tuscan.

Other Thanksgiving options

2008-11-19T08:13:58-05:00

Interesting T-Day fact: According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, only 30 percent of households will actually prepare a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, but 82 percent of consumers eat it. NPD finds that typically two households are the guest of another household on Turkey Day, which amounts to an average of nine people at each Thanksgiving table.

Here are a few other alternatives to cooking the whole thing yourself:

SuperTarget, I kid you not, offers ready-made holiday meals. For only $69.99, a family of 10 can enjoy a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast including a fully-cooked turkey or ham, appetizers, side dishes (stuffing, mashed pot. gravy, green bean casserole, cranberries), dessert and coffee without the hassle or mess of cooking. (They also offers a prime rib Christmas dinner for six for $89.99.). Order by Nov. 23.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Six Tables Tampa is offering Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. Reservations are required and dinner is at 3 p.m. with a single seating for $95 per person plus tax and gratuity. Call (813) 207-0527. The menu includes choices like:

Potato and Shrimp croquette with Pomegranate syrup
Gulf Bouillabaisse
Sweet Potato bisque
Grilled Endive, Lardons, Black Walnuts, braised Cranberries and Turkey confit with Lavender Honey vinaigrette
Whole grain Mustard braised Rabbit with soft Polenta
Grilled Buffalo Strip with Parsley Butter & Chevre Potato au gratin
Merlot-poached Halibut with Cinnamon couscous
½ Duckling with roasted Pears and Chestnut/Butternut dressing
Butter-roasted Lobster medallions with Blood Orange velouté and Fingerling Potatoes
Apple Caramel Meringue torte
Chocolate Charlotte with Raspberry Anglaise

Also, all six Columbia Restaurants in Florida will be open for Thanksgiving and accepting reservations. The traditional Thanksgiving feast including roast Vermont turkey, served with Columbia stuffing, fresh vegetables, whipped potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce and giblet gravy. Dinner also includes a choice of soup or salad and a dessert choice of pumpkin pie, Key lime pie, pumpkin flan or flan. The cost is $18.95 for adults and $4.95 for children under 10 and service begins at 11 a.m.

On the other hand, if you really want to cook this year but keep the costs down, here is chef Georges Mokbel's 5-course menu that feeds 10 people for less than $10 per person. Looks pretty good, with a butternut squash and blue cheese salad and a chocolatey bread pudding.

Cupcakes and The Table

2008-11-18T13:52:02-05:00

The Table is holding its grand opening party this Friday evening, by invitation only. Even if you're not invited, you can head over to 539 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg to sample the retooled menu and meet the new owner, Michael Stewart.

"I've wanted to do a restaurant in St. Petersburg for quite some time," Stewart says. "St. Pete is just booming with new energy and great cuisine. It also has such a cultural sophistication that is bringing people across the Bay. Its downtown area is rapidly growing, and with the addition of major art museums expanding and the infusion of urban living, we hope to give diners the best "Table" in the house--ours."

Cupcake Cupcakes!, a new boutique cupcakery, has opened in the Westchase area of Tampa. The bakery, located at 12219 West Linebaugh Ave., will hold its grand opening on Dec. 12 (think free cupcakes). Baked fresh from scratch daily on site, the cupcakery uses ingredients like Ghirardelli chocolate, Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract, sweet cream butter and organic fruits. They also custom design cupcakes birthdays, weddings, school parties, corporate, religious and special events, and offer local deliver service and overnight shipping.

Food and the New Yorker, two great things that go great together

2008-11-17T16:07:26-05:00

I met David Remnick a few years ago and gave him a piece of my mind. (Well, he did a reading and then I waited in line with all the other slavering hoi polloi. But I did give him a piece of my mind.) I says to him, I says, "David, you're missing the boat. You wanna boost newstand sales of the New Yorker?! The answer, my friend, is food. Hire a regular restaurant critic, do reviews and put that puppy on the coverlines each week. People will go nuts. Sure you have Adam Gopnik and Calvin Trillin and people doing food when the whim strikes, but that's not good enough." He stared at me and blinked a few times and then asked me if I had a book I'd like him to sign.

He's come around over time. And I've never gotten so much as a little note. Anyway, I'm totally amped for the Nov. 24 New Yorker issue. All food, baby. There are some online-only components, like an audio thing about beer with Burkhard Bilger to go with his piece on the rise of craft brewing in the United States. And there's an ask-the-author thing with Calvin Trillin (to go with his piece called "By Meat Alone") and a slide show of photojournalists talking about memorable on-the-job meals.

It's going to be wicked good, I'm telling you.

Mark Militello's new digs

2008-11-17T13:36:16-05:00

A little out of our jurisdiction, but here's some interesting news. Much-acclaimed James Beard Award recipient Mark Militello has been named executive chef at the Regent Bal Harbour in Miami Beach. He unveils new menus for 1 Bleu and The View Bar in mid November. One of the champions of Florida cuisine (which some say is nearly as mythological as the Yedi or the Loch Ness), the chef was most recently at the helm of Mark’s Las Olas. 11 Bleu and The View Bar are located at The Regent Bal Harbour, 10295 Collins Avenue, Bal Harbour, (305) 455-5460.

Food tats

2008-11-14T12:41:20-05:00

This is most excellent. On Chowhound, check out the food tattoos right here. I'm sure this verges on t.m.i., but I am tat- and piercing-free (really, not even my ears. got enough holes in the noggin without adding more.), but it's fun to speculate. Were I to get a food tattoo, what would it be? My most favorite foods are not particularly tat-ogenic: spicy fried tofu, pan-seared foie, stinky cheese. There's lots of stuff I could get behind for the pure camp value: SPAM, a block of Velveeta, that kind of thing. But this is for semi-forever, so it requires some sober thoughts. Nothing too froufrou like caviar or lobster. Healthy stuff like a salad or lentil soup just wouldn't read well. And it couldn't be anything preachy or ideological like a local, free-range, organically-fed chicken or a baby cow with the red line through it. Maybe just a pretty piece of fruit or a lovely fish. Kinda simple, kinda sexy.

Any food tats out there?

(photo from Chowhound)

Props to Four Green Fields, New World Brewery

2008-11-14T10:13:41-05:00

Congrats to Four Green Fields (205 W Platt St., Tampa, (813) 254-4444) for being named one of Imbibe Magazine's 100 Best Places To Drink Beer in America, the only Irish pub south of New York.

A new dining guide called Where the Locals Eat was released today that spotlights the top 100 restaurants in NYC--if you're heading there for the holidays, it could be useful. There's also a Tampa/St. Pete section of the site. Check it out here.

WEDU is hosting the America’s Test Kitchen Holiday Baking Crash Course on Friday, Nov. 21. Hosted by Jack Bishop, tasting lab expert on PBS' hit show America's Test Kitchen and new series Cook's Country, this fundraising event will take place at the International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Tampa (4401 North Himes Avenue) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bishop will share his expert tips and tricks for successful holiday baking and guests will sample the test kitchen's favorite holiday cookies; learn which baking gear the experts recommend, and why; participate in a blind taste-test of premium dark chocolates; and receive an autographed copy of the recently published America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.Tickets are $45 per person and are available by calling (813) 254-9338, ext. 2241 or by going here. They ask that attendees bring two cans of food to donate to America’s Second Harvest of Tampa Bay.

Another cool event takes place at New World Brewery (1313 8th Ave., Ybor City, (813) 248-4969) on Dec. 3 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. It's the annual holiday ale festival and tasting, where for $12, guests can sample from 50 fine and rare holiday ales.

Sloppy Pelican to reopen; new Sea Hags

2008-11-13T15:47:51-05:00

Evidently there's a new Russian cafe/deli across from Chateau France downtown in St. Petersburg. More on this soon--I've got to go take a walk over there.

Also, according to Jason Aquilar, James Jordan is reopening the old Sloppy Pelican restaurant at 677 75th Ave. in St. Pete Beach across the street from Philthy Phil's. He is maintaining the name Sloppy Pelican and should be open in less than two weeks. Also B and Phil Albert who were the original owners of Philthy Phil's before Mark Ferguson bought it, are reopening what was last DK Buoys at 9555 Blind Pass Road in the little marina next to Captain Kosmakos. Their new concept will be called Sea Hags.

Turkey Day, Part Two

2008-11-13T14:22:51-05:00

First, an error in my story in yesterday's paper. Oystercatchers buffet Thanksgiving dinner is $55 per adult, not $44 as listed. Second, here are a couple other notable places offering alternatives to cooking at home on Nov. 27.

An omission in my big-hotels roundup, the Belleview Biltmore (25 Belleview Blvd., Clearwater, (727) 373-3768) is a grand dame offering full buffet holiday madness for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, before it closes for 28 months in May for a massive renovation. The buffet is held in the Tiffany ballroom (14,000 square feet with a Tiffany glass roof), from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for both holidays, at a price of $39.95 inclusive for adults, $17.95 for children 3 to 12. Think carved ham and prime rib, lobster bisque, pumpkin ravioli, more than ten salads and dozens of other stations.

Chefs on the Loose is partnering with Cooks and Company to offer take-out Thanksgiving dinners, which will be available on Wednesday, November 26th for pick-up at 3401 Bay to Bay Blvd in Tampa. Orders must be placed by Sun., Nov. 23, and there is a 4-person minimum order. The menu includes a choice of turkey and stuffing and a choice of three sides (from horseradish mashed potaotes to cheddar corn pudding) for $45 per person, gravy and an array of desserts are extra. Call (813) 835-7300 with questions.

I'll do another installment soon--any fabulous Turkey Day offerings I should include?