Tampa Staycation October 9-10th 2010

This weekend we decided to explore our own city. We headed down to St Petersburg to check out the Saturday public market. We were really impressed. The market had a lot of stands selling a variety of canned foods, vegetables, fruit, clothes, jewelry, and food vendors.

We loved the sausages we bought for lunch at Kurt’s All Natural Meats.

After the public market, we headed to an Italian market nearby. The market was insane with people. We could definitely see the draw – lots of fresh meats, cheeses and varieties of gourmet sauces, olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

We headed back toward Tampa to check out the  Cigar City Brewing Company tasting room. It was really cool. It’s located in a non-descript warehouse since the brewery is in the same location. The tasting room is basically a bar. We tried eight different types for $12. Between Glenn and I, we tasted most of the beers on tap. We even lucked out and got to try an Apple Saison they had only produced 5 gallons of. The highlights for us were the Brown Ale and the Rye Porter so we purchased a quart of each to take with us.

Drinking all the beer worked up an appetite so we headed to one of our favorite BBQ places – Smoke. They have great BBQ and even better sides. We really like their grilled wings.

After Smoke – it was time to head to the hotel. The evening festivities included quite a bit of drinking so we used points to get a hotel room downtown. It’s much cheaper than a cab! Our hotel was the Marriott and we got a great room with a terrific view of the Bay.

We could even see the port and the Carnival Inspiration getting ready to set sail.

After some pool time, we headed off to the Aquarium for the Brews by the Bay Oktoberfest. We stopped on the way to the St. Pete Times Forum for a quick beer with our favorite bartender.  The Brews by the Bay event was fantastic. We tasted a lot of different craft beers and several restaurants had food samples to try. Our favorite beer was Widmer Prickly Pear Braggot. It was so delicious. We went back a couple times.

Our favorite room was the Shark Tank. They had an acoustic guitar player. You can see the Weeki Wachee mermaids in the tank in the background.

The mermaids were replaced with a scuba diver dressed in full German beer-drinking gear.

The event also featured a DJ and a live band. We had a ton of fun!


Sunday morning, we headed to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Tampa: Datz Deli.

It’s more restaurant then deli. The food is fantastic. We ordered monkey bread – only to discover it could feed a family of 10. Our corned beer hash and eggs Benedict were fantastic. We were home in time for the Colts kickoff.

Overall, it was a great weekend. We definitely have a lot more exploring to do in the Tampa Bay area. It’s fun to play tourist in your own city.