Dockside dining follow-up

I did a dockside dining piece for Gulf & Bay last week. Unfortunately, it appears I missed a few.

Bob Griffin wrote in to give me a fairly lengthy list:

Here are a few you forgot (from north to south)

CLEARWATER BEACH
Crabby Bills / Clearwater Marina
Frenchy's (another reader wrote in to say their dock is the biggest in this county)
Cooters (Use Frenchy's Docks)
Jimmy's Fish House / Holiday Inn (Next to Shephards)
Shells Seafood (next to the big bridge; no docks)

INDIAN ROCKS
JD's Restaurant, with dock, just south of Holiday Inn

REDINGTON
Wahoo's, immediately south of Shells, with one dock

MADEIRA BEACH
Parking at Johns Pass is hard but not impossible.
Friendly Fisherman, Sculleys, The Hut, Waltz Fish Shack
Coming soon: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

ST PETE / BAY PINES AREA
Green Iguana...good docks

TREASURE ISLAND
Middle Grounds Grill, down a finger, north of the Causeway

ST PETE BEACH
Silas Steak House, if you can find it; docks behind.

GULF PORT
H.T. Kanes and O'Maddy's

Larry Marchulaitis wrote in to say:

You failed to list the best restaurant in Port Richey that is located on the river just under the bridge from Catches. Its called the Crab Shack, 5430 Baylea Ave, Port Richey. The Crab Shack has docks to accommodate boat patrons. The entire restaurant is open air under thatched roofs. Patrons can sit on the decks and enjoy the passing boat traffic on the river and occasionally catch a dolphin sighting.

Outtakes, Vol. 1

I had an epiphany of sorts this weekend.

I decide on where I'm going to review like this: hearing stuff; reading stuff; driving around and eyeballing promising-looking joints; receiving press releases or calls from restaurants; reader recommendations. People tell me things--my hair stylist, the lawn guy, they all have a restaurant they think I should write about.

Problem is, sometimes they're wrong (not dissing you, hair stylist, so no revenge cuts!). I drive for miles, battling traffic and my own terrible navigational skills, only to slog through a ho-hum meal. What's the point of telling St. Petersburg Times readers NOT to go to a little, out-of-the-way restaurant they would never have known about were it not for my ink? Who does this serve?

Still, it seems wasteful that I've spent lots of time and the paper's cash to no end. Here's the epiphany part:

I'm going to write short descriptions of the "outtakes." Meaning, for restaurants I visit that are good, but maybe not worthy of a full-length review, this is where they'll get a little play.

See below for my first one.

Small is beautiful

My review today is of a new small-plate restaurant in Hyde Park called Cheap.

A reader wrote me about his favorite small plate restaurants. At the top of his list is dim sum. In homage to that--and because my in-laws just got back from China--I will show you a tantalizing array of dim sum now, courtesy of my father-in-law:

"My favorite small plates are at T. C. Choy's Asian Bistro.  Those are of course dim sum.  I would be tempted to put reichstaffel ahead of that choice, but there are no Indonesian restaurants in the Tampa Bay area to my knowledge.  My preference for Asian cuisine comes from being a teacher of Asian studies for 35 years.  Our tastes are not totally in synch.  I went with a group of Chinese friends to Yummy House and we found the Cantonese food there to be too bland.  However I must admit they were out of the highly recommended dou fu and none of my group were from South China.  If you want to try something spicier, go to Fushia.  It's on Amberly Drive just to the right of the intersection with B. D. Downs--a little over a mile north of the Bearss Ave. intersection...They serve dim sum that is modestly priced but not quite up to the level of the Asian Bistro.  Fushia's strength is in Szechuanese cooking.   The owner hired a chef down from NYC and he knows his stuff.  For starters,  the hot and sour soup is done just right.The eggplant hot pot is as good as I've had anywhere. The Yan Jian pork, and Ma Po dou fu are also fine. So are his renderings of whole fish if you go with friends or family. Stay away from all Japanese offerings--he hasn't a clue. The twice cooked pork is too fatty for Western tastes, though the Chinese love it. If members of your party are not into the spicy stuff, he can prepare Cantonese food with skill and there are many such dishes on the menu. But you must ask for the Chinese menu. The owner has been catering to Western tastes and the luncheon crown with a limited menu of the old standards. Don't worry--the Chinese menu is in both Chinese and English. I have been enjoying your reviews and try to take full advantage of them. Keep up the good work."--Harvey Nelsen, professor emeritus

For when life hands you the pits

I'm jumping the gun a little, but September 24 is National Cherries Jubilee Day.

"Whaa?" you say. "There's a day for that?!"

Celebrated French chef August Escoffier was in charge of coming up with something jazzy for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Cherries were her favorite—their season fleeting, they were ephemeral and thus dear in the world of fruits. So, the dish he invented was sweet pitted black cherries, poached in a thick simple syrup, poured into a fireproof dish and then flambéed at the moment of presentation. Since then it’s been codified a bit, routinely flamed with kirschwasser and served alongside vanilla ice cream.

Cherries Jubilee was one of those desserts that saw heavy play in fancy American restaurants from the 1930s to the 1960s, even the gold standard of intrepid dinner-party throwers of the same era.

The Harry Waugh Dessert Room at Bern’s Steak House has 86ed Cherries Jubilee. It’s decommissioned. See my Bern's dessert story here.

But now I'm worried. What will become of Baked Alaska? Peach Melba? Crepes Suzette?

Weird Trend Alert

I essentially have to take people's word on this one. It's TVs in men's rooms. On several review meals in recent months, my male dining companions have enthused about the presence of television sets in the loo. Grille One Sixteen in Tampa has one, City Fish in Oldsmar has three. Mostly, I think, with an ESPN theme going on. They're definitely not tuned to the Lifetime channel.

By most people's reckoning, women spend a lot more time in restaurant lavatories, but men the get tube? What gives? Since when did nose-powdering make us ineligible for a little entertainment?