Episode 3

Don't Pass on Pass-A-Grille

Alexa, play Great Things Tampa Bay.

Show Notes

In Episode 3 you will learn how to have a great day at Pass-A-Grille beach.  We also review a great seafood restaurant at Selene on St Pete Beach.

Want to hear someone wax nostalgic about the Hospitality House at Busch Gardens, or the travesty of the tree removal at Kiley Park in Tampa?  We also feature some listener nostalgia, including some that you wouldn’t want your mother to know about!

A Great Day at Pass-A-Grille Beach

Selene Restaurant

  • Selene Restaurant

    4945 Gulf Blvd,  St Pete Beach FL 33706

    • Lobster Linguini is amazingly prepared.
    • Shrimp + Scallops Risotto
    • Melted Chocolate Sponge Deliciousness

    www.selenerestaurant.com

    (727) 317-2064

Things You Don't Need To Know Until You Do

Beware the horse with his ears pinned back!

Nostalgia Wax

Outro

Thinking about buying or selling a home in Tampa Bay? I’d love to talk with you about it!

Just want to browse what’s available?  Check out the map!

Great Things Tampa Bay is hosted and produced by Kyle Sasser.

There was no paid advertising in this episode.  All recommendations are given based on personal experiences.

Leave us a comment or review at our VoiceMail Only line
727-440-4455

Transcript

[music]

Welcome to Great Things Tampa Bay, the podcast about great eats, great places, and great people in the greater Tampa Bay Area. I’m your host Kyle Sasser, a Tampa Bay native, and a realtor.

Thank you for inviting me along on your commute to work. Maybe you’re out doing some yard work, and I wanna thank you for taking the time to put me in your ear. It means a lot to me and I appreciate each and every listener.

Today is April 5th, 2017. And in this episode, we cover how to have a great day at Pass-a-Grille Beach. I also ask what spots in the area you might miss, maybe your favorite restaurant’s closed or other such thing. And we also talk about the Horsemen of Apocalypse, riding across the United States of America. So stay tuned and remember that we wanna interact with you, our listeners. Easiest way to find us online is at our website greatthingstb.com. That’s G-R-E-A-T-T-H-I-N-G-S-T-B dot com. And from there, you will see a link to all of our various social profiles. So we are on Instagram and Facebook. And recently we’ve opened a Twitter account. So that’s definitely the best way to stay in contact with us.

We would love to hear about your favorite spots. You’re welcome to ask us for recommendations, or you can just say hi and, you know, tell us how much you like or dislike the program.

Segment one, Pass-A-Grille. So this past weekend the wife and I, we took a much needed few days off. She took more than I did but yeah. She had four days off, and I just had the weekend. But we decided to make something a little special, do something a little out of the ordinary. If you’ve lived in the Tampa Bay Area for any amount of time, you find something strange starts to happen, and that is that you stop going to the beach. It’s amazing how many people have lived here and go months, years without going to the beach, and it’s one of our primary defining features. And we have people come from all over the world to come here to see our great beaches here and most of us just, you know, don’t take the time to get out there and enjoy them. You know, honestly, they’re beautiful. They’re some of the best beaches in the world.

So with that mind, we set about having a great time on Pass-A-Grille and St. Pete Beach. So I wanted to share that with you, and you are welcome to duplicate this, mix it up a little bit. We’re gonna recommend some foods, some spots, and absolute must avoid if you value a good time.

So without further ado. So Pass-A-Grille Beach, if you’re not aware, is just South of St. Pete Beach. If you head the South on 275 from St. Petersburg, it is the last exit before you get to Skyway. It will have, you know, their signs there so St. Pete Beach. You get off there and you come around the left, go through a toll plaza, go through Tierra Verde, which is a great place, and beautiful houses and condos there, a golf course. You’ll go over a large bridge, and you will see the large pink Don CeSar which as my wife described it looks like a large pink sand castle. And I believe that was the actual look they were going for. So you’ll get to that intersection. You’ll take a left. You will go under the Don CeSar parking bridge valet thing, go under that. So keep going straight under the parking garage / valet bridge at the Don CeSar and continue heading south. This road is currently under construction so keep that in mind. The detours get a little funky. But keep making your way south. You’ll eventually get to Pass-A-Grille. And the way Pass-A-Grille is set up is there are some shops and restaurants and things like that that look directly across some diagonal parking spots and out towards the beach. And it is on the gulf side. So there is an intercostal waterway where you can also park and, you know, fish, maybe take your dog for a walk, and all that stuff. You know, there’s no dogs allowed on the beach proper. But if you continue over to the gulf side then you’ll see all the shops and all that stuff. So the secret is you have to get there early. And by early definitely 100% before 10 and preferably before 9 plus it’s a lot cooler. Everyone knows that it gets extremely hot at the beach in Florida especially in the summertime, so get there early.

We went for breakfast, and there are a few options. Seahorse is a great recommendation. But we decided to go with Hurricane. It is directly across from the beach. You have a view at the dunes and the beach. And it was a little bit more of the feel that we were looking for since we hadn’t been at the beach for quite some time. The reviews and everything has also said that the Seahorse is a great choice and they have some stupendous food there. And Hurricane is…they also have some good food, but Seahorse is a little bit more on the foodie side I think if you’d wanna say that.

So we went to Hurricane. I had the biscuits and gravy with sausage, and the wife had the shrimp and grits. It was absolutely delicious. I can’t say that it’s mind-blowing. If it wasn’t for the view, it would definitely be mid-tier, like I wouldn’t tell help people to go out of their way to go there, but if it’s what you’re looking for then it’s good. But with the view and the Morning Sun, it was a great experience. The coffee was delicious which to me is rare. I drink my coffee black and usually, it is bitter as hell in most places. But this was actually nice. It was actually nicely brewed, and I was able to drink it black which is surprising, to be honest. So as far as the food goes, the gravy was amazing. It was a white gravy with sausage in it. It was delicious. I also got two sausage patties which were a little on the overdone side but were still edible and delicious, and hit just the spot. I was pretty hungry that morning, so I was a little more forgiving than usual. But it was delicious. The wife’s shrimp and grits were also cooked very well and delicious. We both ate everything that was on our plates so can’t complain too much there.

So after eating and leaving Hurricanes, we went over to the actual beach. They have a little beach house/changing room/bar and grill area. And they had a little art festival, arts and crafts things going on with a few booths set up, maybe, I don’t know, maybe 10 booths. So we went over there to check it out. And they have been typical fair, you know, the wood carved pelicans, the dried starfish ornaments, and headbands. You know, that sort of typical beach craft fair stuff. But we did find this amazing gentleman whose name slips my mind. I have the business card at home. But I’ll basically just call him butterfly creations or the butterfly guy. And basically, what they do is, they take all of the beautiful iridescent blue, green, red yellow, all the colors of the rainbow. They take those butterflies that are farmed all around the world, and they take them and then mount them in art installations inside of clear boxes. So, some of these boxes are very small. You know, maybe six by six for a single butterfly. And we went for…but these were so amazing that we had to go for the big guy. And it has about 25 butterflies in front of it. It is extremely tall. The case is very well made, and it is arranged almost like a rainbow, where there’s like three or four red ones together, three or four yellow ones together, three or four blue ones together. Indigo isn’t really a color of the rainbow. Mr. Isaac Newton, so that one’s not there. But there’s a green, absolutely amazing. And we couldn’t leave without it. It looked great. So if you’re there and art show is going on, definitely stop by over there. They usually have some really cool stuff.

So if you’d like more information on the butterfly guy, we are probably going to be featuring him on a future episode. It was so unique. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. We will be including that on the show notes. So please go to our website if you’d like a link to them.

After going through the Art Fair, we went and actually set up on the beach proper, and had umbrellas, chairs, etc., etc. And after a little while, we decided to get up and walk around for a little while. And that is where we get to the things to avoid on Pass-A-Grille. So my wife wandered off to look at some booze. And I was there at the…They have like a grill and refreshments placed there. And I was looking and lo and behold they had daiquiris, pina coladas, and all that good stuff.

Honestly, you would be better off taking your eight dollars, walking to the edge of the water and throwing your eight dollars into the Gulf of Mexico. So the drinks they make there…now, they have beer, and beer…can’t really mess it up. You know what you’re getting. They also have wine and champagne. Mimosas, I think those are also pretty easy to swing. You know, you kind of know what you’re expecting. You know what you’re gonna get, no surprises there, no surprises there.

This place though, when they make their daiquiris, they make it out of a process wine that gets to like 20% alcohol, and it is horrible. It actually made my wife physically ill. And if you’re trying to imagine the taste of what exactly this could taste like, think about making a strawberry daiquiri which is supposed to be kind of sweet, you know, like fruity and beachy, like that kind of feel. But imagine it tastes more like the eight-dollar cooking wine that you get at the grocery store with that real, oh, you know, just like you wanna…your tongue…the taste just sticks to your tongue. It’s ugh. So stay away from the mixed drinks there. They do have a disclaimer on the board that said, you know, that their drinks are made from a process wine. And I was naïve. I thought, “Well, that’s interesting. You know, it must be good if they’re selling it.” And I was sadly mistaken. So, yeah, so avoid that. If you’re looking for that sort of thing just get a beer or a mimosa, something like that.

So we hung out there for another few hours and, you know, had a great time. The beach is always lovely, very relaxing, clears your thoughts. It does get crowded so be sure to pick your spot there early. And it’s really all about…Pass-A-Grille is really all about getting there early and positioning. If you can get there during the week, of course, the job is a lot easier. It is not nearly as crowded during the week. But if you’re a hard-working soul and the weekends are your only time then just keep in mind. You wanna get out there early.

After we went to Pass-A-Grille, we wanted to do dinner. So we drove home to shower, change, get ready, and all that stuff and then we went back to St. Pete Beach and ate at Selene which is north of the Don CeSar. It’s kind of between Sirata and TradeWinds. So just south of St. Pete Beach proper and wasn’t really sure what to expect. I hadn’t heard much about it. My wife did have some information on it, and she really wanted to go. And so, we went.

We go inside. The decor is very, very cool. So my wife had had a little information about the area, and she kind of knew what she wanted to order as soon as we get in there. So we get in and order up, and she gets the most amazing looking lobster linguini, just the way it was prepared. It came with the lobster shell arranged on top of it. It was cooked to absolute perfection. The sauce that it was cooked in was nearly perfectly balanced. The pasta was amazingly well done. And she and I both agreed that it was some of the best seafood that we have had.

Now, with that, let me give a little description of my seafood classifications. So I have what I call real seafood, which is seafood that is prepared with…you know, like bras [SP], grilled, prepared sort of like by…I don’t wanna say like by an actual chef because that sounds horrible but, you know, like it has like a recipe to it, and there’s a few more flavors going on than just the seafood. Then I have on the other side what I like to call “easy seafood” which is not easy to do well by any stretch of the imagination. Just it’s what I have typically run into in the area through my years here. And this would be, you know, your fried shrimp, your grouper sandwiches, that sort of fair.

So this is definitely on the recipe side of seafood. And just the blend and balance and the ingredients, the taste. It was great. It was great. And we took it home, and it was still delicious the next day. And we can’t wait to go back to get that again. I had the shrimp and scallops risotto which was prepared to perfection. The scallops were perfectly seared and cooked, and the shrimp also were…you know, they pulled them right at the perfect time, excellently prepared. The risotto was great but did not compare in any fashion to the lobster risotto. So we also had a glass of rosé which was good. You know, I’m not really gonna get into big of a thing on labels and all that stuff. But it was great. It was chilled. It went well with the meal. And at the end, of course, with my sweet tooth had to try desserts. And they had a chocolate, of course. I mean, you know, I’m not gonna go for anything else. They had a chocolates… basically, it was a chocolate lava cake. You can call it. I mean if you look on the menu, you can see it. And this one was done a little differently than usual. Most lava…and it wasn’t called a lava cake. And I’m sure they’re getting mad about this. But, you know, let’s be real. It was a chocolate sponge thing with melted chocolate in the middle of it. So this one was done a little bit differently than usual than most of the lava cakes you will have. It did not concentrate so much on the cake part. It was actually more of a really dense…the sponge was really, really dense, and the star of the show was really the melted chocolate on the inside which was stupendous. But personally, I guess I love my gluten or something. I wish the cake was a little bit thicker. And this was a little too, I wanna say chewy, but it’s not like it was tough. It was unexpected, unique definitely and definitely worth to order if you love chocolate, just the sheer amount of melted chocolate inside of it was worth the price of admission.

So, we will absolutely be back to Selene. It was delicious. We’ll probably be back to Hurricanes as well. The location is unsurpassed. They also have upstairs there, so you can sit up there and get you some drinks or some breakfast or some seafood. And it was a great time. And I would like to invite you to duplicate our day.

Segment two, let’s get personal. So I’ve been thinking the past week about, you know, places that’s closed. I saw something pop up on my Facebook feed with Fuma Bella, which is this little hole in the wall in Ybor city, and they posted that basically, they will be closing soon like their lease is up or they’re selling. Something’s happening or they’re moving on and, you know, it hit me a little close to home because that is the first place where I had a cocktail out and about in the world. So, it is kind of special to me. With that said, you can really fit only about 10 people in the place, like its small. But this got me to thinking about some of the other things in Tampa Bay that have closed or moved on. And I figured I’d put it out to you all. And I have actually asked around in the local Reddits for St. Pete-Clearwater in Tampa Bay. You know, like what people miss that’s closed recently. One gentleman said that he misses Ye Olde Tea Shoppe up in Temple Terrace, and apparently, that was a delicious sandwich shop up there that had great, great stuff and kind of sad I missed that. It sounded stupendous. I did ask the person if Dunderbak’s was comparable, and they said that it was but not the same, of course. It never is. But Dunderbak’s has been around since the mid-’70s, so give them some respects, and they definitely deserve your business.

Me personally, some of the things that I remember that are now closed. Eastlake Square Mall which is now Net Park. It’s located over close to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. And it’s on a 56th Street. And like I said, it’s now a corporate center. But I remember going there. That was basically the only mall in the area close to me growing up in Plant City in the early ’80s. So we would go there. They had all the stores both Lindsay’s and all that good stuff. The one thing I remember those, they had this model train upstairs that you controlled with like a little knob. You can control how fast the train goes. And I don’t know. Just like as a five-year-old, I thought it was the most awesome thing that I’ve ever seen in my life. I always begged my parents to let me play with it. And sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t. I mean, you know, they were being good parents. You can’t say yes all the time. But yeah, I definitely…a lot of good memories there. And yeah, that closed down. And was empty for a while and then it got redeveloped in the Net Park which is basically corporate offices and all that good stuff.

Another thing I miss that was…It still exists, but it is much diminished is Kylie Gardens or Kylie Park which is downtown Tampa next to the Art Museum, between the Art Museum and the Beer Can Building. So, I remember it as being kind of an urban wonderland. It used to have like trees. There was like stairs you had to go up to get there from…what is that road? Ashley? Whatever the main north-south road is off of Interstate. And they used to have big trees. They provided plenty and plenty of shade. They used to have reflecting pools and water that would flow down from the amphitheater close to the river and would come all the way out to…you know, let’s just call it Ashley. I don’t remember the name of that road for some reason. So you could go in there and even though you were in the city, it would be quiet, and you can think and walk around. So of course, there was a little issue with graffiti and people sleeping in the park and stuff like that. It was quickly neglected. The pavers and everything kind of got tossed around. You know, the water features got turned off, which is understandable. It did leak into the parking garage below it. And the trees went untrimmed. And generally, it was just looking kind of sad. So it was renovated with the Riverwalk Redevelopment and all that, maybe…I don’t know. Maybe 10 years ago or something like that. They pulled all of the trees out. The water features are gone. It’s lost a lot of its pizzazz which is kind of sad because Kylie is actually a really well-renowned landscape architect. From what I remember from my research back in 2006 or ’07 when they were redoing it, he’s one of the few landscape architects that has actually had his work designated as a…you know, given like a landmark status or a special recognition. And we did honestly lose something when it was renovated. It does look great now and fits in well with the new art museum. But let me tell you. It’s definitely lost something downtown because…I used to work in the AM South Building in Tamp. I think it’s the Region’s now but it’s the tall one to the south of the Bank of America building. And on lunch breaks, I used to go downstairs, and I’d walk down to Kylie Park and walk around in the trees and just have a quiet lunch down there. And it was really enjoyable, so definitely miss that.

One of the last things I miss is Busch Gardens being Busch Gardens. So InBev sold Busch Gardens I think maybe…it’s probably maybe almost a decade now. So they sold Busch Gardens and all of the Sea World group to Blackstone which is basically like an investment group. And of course, since the Anheuser-Busch/ InBev no longer owns it, the beer definitely did not take front center anymore. You know, before then they had the hospitality house where you can go and try free beer. But my personal favorite was the adult’s safari which was always the last tour to take off, you know, out into the savannah there, Busch Gardens. So the first part of it would be a beer and cheese tasting which doesn’t sound like it would go together too well, but it was surprisingly tasty. You know, I mean, this definitely wasn’t anything crazy good. But you know, it was a nice break from the rest of the park and that madness.

After that, they would load you up on a flatbed truck, throw a cooler Anheuser-Busch’s finest products on the back with you and basically said you could have as many as you want as we go around the safari. So then you’d take off out into the savannah. And first stop, you know, you’d go around, look at all the animals. Usually, they would bring a bunch of lettuce with you, and the giraffes would come over and stick their…you know, crane their necks down to where you’re at, and you could feed them. And it was a little gross because their tongues are really long. But you know, it’s a lot of fun.

All while consuming delicious Anheuser-Bush products. And I’m sure some of you are rolling your eyes out there but I can guarantee you, it was a great time. And you would continue on around the savannah. The last major event would be to stop and look at the rhinoceros. And they would always tell the story how one the more ornery rhinoceros would come over and would kind of headbutt the truck and one time even hooked its horn under the back bumper and lifted the entire back of the truck up just like that. So thankfully that did not happen any of the times I was there. I could only imagine.

And then come around and, you know, finish your tour up. And it was a really good time, and I really miss that. So please, bring that back.

Some of the other mentions on the social media when I brought this topic up was about a water park over on US 19 next to Pam. And can’t say I ever made it there. We only went to Adventure Island, to be honest, and that was good enough for me. So If you have some fond memories of that water park, you’re not alone. And the other one was…the Tonga Lounge came up a lot which was a pretty well-known strip club. You know, I mean, that’s kind of what Tampa’s known for. So that was definitely…definitely popped up a few times. That was a little…Before my time. I mean, it’s never really been my thing but that was a little before I was of age, shall we say. But if you miss that place, you are also not alone.

Segment three, the Horsemen Ride. So this segment is a little out of the usual. It’s nothing crazy like horses biting or anything. I just wanted to give you a heads up that there is a solar eclipse this year. The solar eclipse is August 21st, 2017. And it’s really cool because it’s going all the way across the country. It is going from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina and all points in between. So totality, which is when the sun is completely covered, is going to be around two minutes and 30 seconds at its longest. So if you’re right smack in the middle, you should have 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the Sun being covered which is crazy. If you would like to plan this trip, I would recommend doing so now. And you can do so by going to numerous websites, just a quick Google search for eclipse 2017 totality will bring up some maps, and you can pick where you’re going to go. I would tell you where I’m going to go. But I don’t want a lot of people there. But we will be, you know, like Tennessee, North Georgia, North Carolina area that we’ll try out. Some great places up there. It’s going right across Blairsville, Helen, Murphy. So if you know a great spot in those areas, go there and check it out.

If you are thinking about moving, buying, or selling your home, let’s talk. I’d love to help you find your own great place in Tampa Bay. Please give me a call at 727-300-2111 or send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com. That’s K as in kangaroo, Y is in yo, L as in llama, E as in Everest, at, S as in Samsonite, A is an Aardvark, S as in Samsonite, S as in Samsonite, G as in gutter, R as in a roof, O as in octopus, U as in ukulele, P as in petunia, dot com. And please, join us on social media. The easiest way to find us it is to go to our website greatthingstb.com. That’s G-R-E-A-T-T-H-I-N-G-S-T-B dot com. And there you’ll find show notes for our episodes, transcripts, and links to find us on our social media profiles. If you would like to reach us directly on Facebook where at facebook.com/greatthingstb. On Instagram, we’re @instagram.com/greatthingstb. And we thrive off your comments, likes, shares, follows, questions, etc. So please, come and interact with us even if it’s just to ask for the best pina colada in Pass-A-Grille is. So, thanks for listening to Great Things Tampa Bay and I’ll see you next time.