Greater Tampa (part 3) Local Restaurants

Man, I love food. I think if I had the choice between staying awake for four days or not eating for four days, I would quickly skip the snooze and head straight for the chow. I am not quite sure when I would have to make that decision, but if I did; I am ready with a pre-prepared response. That being said, today’s Greater Tampa piece will focus on a few of my favorite local eateries of the Tampa area. See I do like more about the area than what is on TV. I am focusing only on local places and once again this is only the tip of the iceberg.

ABC Pizza
When I was maybe 13 or 14, I had a clever ploy running with fellow Raindog PeeWee (RiP), we used to both ask our Mom’s to take us to ABC Pizza on certain nights of the week, in order to meet up without their prior knowledge. We had a 99.99% success rate, always the same story, me and PeeWee agree upon the time, Mom comes home from work, “Hey Mom, instead of cooking can we go to ABC?” Mom replys: “Sure, sounds great” HAZAA!! So then we show up, “Hey look Mom, PeeWee and his Mom are here, can we sit with them?” You know as I write this, I realize only now that our Moms must have figured it out after the first few times, and yet they never mentioned a thing.

ABC Pizza was the type of laid back, affordable Pizza place you would hope you have in your town, I know I did while living in Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, etc. Great Pizza, great environment, old school Arcade Cabinets, and the coolness of using half dollars as change when you paid your bill. It is customary for as many Raindogs as available to meet up at the Riverview location whenever I get a chance to come to town, and everything is still just as good. Now I take my kids there with me as well, and they cannot get enough of the breadsticks. I can’t wait till they are old enough to enjoy the video games. In my teens, me and Ryan Guy became pros at all the machines they had to include Spy Hunter, Pac Man, and the classic X-Men arcade game. We did manage to beat X-Men after scouring both of our houses for as much change as we could possibly find. I know I am mostly sharing memories with you and less of an overview, but that’s the point of the place, it has the kind of laidback atmosphere that when combined with a group of friends or your family, make for great memories, you will not be disappointed, believe you me.

La Teresita
The food I crave the most, the food I can barely stand if not purchased in Tampa, the food I have dreams of and wish I could make on my own is Cuban food. Oh man, if you are one of those crazy immigrant hating folk, I challenge you to eat at La Teresita and still try to hold a grudge against or vast Cuban population. I would say that eating there for the first time, also being the first time I ever ate Cuban food, could be compared to the first time a Dolphin figures out how to leave the ocean behind and goes to Bush Gardens and rides a rollercoaster. Yeah, there you go, that was a good analogy. I remember trying to figure out the menu, being that some items were listed by days, some by meats, some by sides, and all in Cuban. I was questionable of the whole thing right up until I took my first bite. HOLY CRAP!! You have to try the pulled pork, yellow rice and black beans like you never imagined, true Cuban sandwiches, plantos, oh man plantos, so many dishes to try. Fun fact: Some Cuban dishes, the sandwich included, originated Tampa and made their way to Cuba due to the old tradition of cigar workers constantly moving back and forth.

Once I moved from Brandon to Tampa, I got in a nice tradition of meeting my Mom there once a week to eat. President Bush ate there when he came to town. I believe my wife still hates me for introducing her to a the place even though we can only eat there during vacation. Of all the great Cuban places in Tampa, La Teresita reigns supreme amongst them all.

Outback Steakhouse
Now, I know what you might be thinking, “Hey O’D, that’s a big chain, not a local restaurant, and for lying to me, I am going to have to cut off your legs and arms and make you a little Oblong impersonator.” Well hold on there big guy, that is quite an over reaction, let me explain, Outback is a big chain now, but originally a local Tampa restaurant, in fact the original goal of the company was to have five-six restaurants spread out amongst the greater Tampa area, enough to justify the owners the opportunity to play golf a lot. All that changed when some businessmen came to see the three owners and offered them the opportunity to franchise, at first they turned it down, but when hit with the options of franchise or we are just going to rip you off in other markets, they made the logical choice.

Food wise, we all know Outback, Bloomin’ Onions, 12 oz Outback Special with baked potato side, maybe five shrimp or a lobster tail as well, stop at the bar, snack on the Aussie Cheesy Bacon Fries and some Kookaburra Wings while sipping an ice cold beer. I would say the food is more southern/ Louisianan than Australian, but hey, I have no clue what Australian food tastes like, other than I think I saw Crocodile Dundee eat a gator once.

When I first moved to Tampa, we heard about Outback from some of the locals immediately and decided to check it out. At that point I believe it was only available in Florida and one other southern state. Outback became the number one choice for visiting relatives from up north, special occasions and our family’s tradition of picking our own birthday restaurant . Outback has been one step ahead of me wherever I go, by the time I got to Georgia, they had one, another in Kansas, Hawaii, of course, they even had special menu items just for that area. If you say you’ve never been (your lying) go check it out, good times for sure.

Till next time.

Further Reading:

Greater Tampa (part 1) Public Access

Greater Tampa (part 2) WTOG