Marc Kemp offers some travel advice for the Tampa area I have visited the Bay Area many times since 1997, when my dad and I saw our first Bucs game at Houlihan’s Stadium, and simply love the area. Every year, I spend at least a couple of months prior to going out there trying to find new places to eat, cheaper ways to travel and quicker directions to places. Whilst some of this stuff may not be new to you, I thought that I could share some of the time and research I put into my holidays with the club in the hope that maybe you will try some of them and enjoy them as much as myself and my family have. Flights Recently, it was our choice to fly into Orlando as it was a good £100-£200 cheaper than flying into Tampa airport. However, I discovered last year that if you book seats to Tampa before the end of June on Expedia, the difference in price between the two is actually negligible. This seemed to only apply up until the end of June, however, as come the first week in July when I checked back, the Tampa prices were back to being far more expensive than the Orlando ones. Hotels We usually stay in the Bay area for ten days, spending both weekends of our staff in Tampa itself and then staying on the Gulf Coast during the week. In Tampa, we always stay at the Marriott Courtyard Westshore/Airport (http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/TPAWT ), which is around a 25 minute walk from Raymond James Stadium, and is directly off the I-275 at the Dale Mabry exit. We have tried both Clearwater Beach and St Pete’s Beach on the coast and have found good hotels to stay at when we have gone to both. Whilst I have a preference for Clearwater over St. Pete’s, the Holiday Inn on St. Pete’s Beach is quite nice and is conveniently located directly on the main strip between the beach and the shopping and restaurant area. In Clearwater, we initially tried the old Holiday Inn, but that was horrific and has thankfully now closed down. We now stay at the Marriott Suites on Sand Key (http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/TPAMS) which is a really nice hotel, with a good pool, bar service and ‘Watercolours’ restaurant which we actually have not gotten around to trying but has a very good reputation. Two drawbacks to the hotel are the lack of beach access, meaning that you have to venture along to the main part of Clearwater Beach to enjoy the sand and surf, and also the fact that the hotel is actually a five minute drive (thankfully never tried walking it!) from the main part of Clearwater Beach. During vacations and weekends, parking here can be a nightmare, as can the fact that half of Florida always seems to descend on the beach at the same time as you! Ed's comment - I stayed at the Marriott Suites in 2006 and can totally recommend it to anyone with a family! Restaurants Now being a true member of the Kemp family, food and drink are somewhat of a passion when it comes to holidaying in the area, and the restaurants provide plenty of opportunity to indulge in both pursuits! As there are a fair few restaurants that we have visited over the years, I have only selected my personal favourites and, to make things easier, have broken them down into geographical areas. Tampa 1. J. Alexanders, 913 Dale Mabry Highway (www.jalexanders.com). We found this restaurant purely by chance when we first stayed at the Courtyard in 2000. Tired and jet lagged having just arrived in the area, we asked a member of staff to recommend somewhere nice and local for us to eat. They directed us across the street to J. Alexanders and it’s a good thing they did. This restaurant specialises in well prepared, simple American food. The menu has a fantastic range of steaks, chicken and some seafood, as well as some fantastic salads (seriously!). The restaurant can get really busy at lunchtimes during the week when a lot of business people venture in, as well as Friday and Saturday nights. What I would recommend here is the Spinach con Queso to start, followed by a 16oz. rib eye steak with the superb garlic mashed potatoes. Another option is to go for the Cypress Salad, which along with the usually lettuce and other assorted greenery contains chopped up chicken fingers and bacon accompanied by honey mustard sauce. It is simply unlike any salad you have ever tasted! 2. PF Changs, 219 Westshore Plaza (www.pfchangs.com). This place was recommended to me by a couple of friends from Texas. Changs is a Chinese restaurant and is simply superb. They have locations all over the US, but just because it is a chain does not mean the quality of the food is not good. It seems to be perpetually busy, I think I have been there five or six times and there has always been a wait so booking is a must unless you do not mind waiting. I would recommend either Changs chicken lettuce wraps or the pin rice noodle soup to start, followed by one out of the orange peel beef, Kung Pao scallops or Mu Shu chicken and accompanied by one of the special rice or noodle dishes. I guarantee that you will not finish all of your food, there is tonnes of it! 3. Lee Roy Selmons, 4302 West Boy Scout Blvd (www.leeroyselmons.com). A place I know needs no introduction to the Bucs UK is Selmons, a great place to go and sit at the bar and watch college or professional football. The Hall of Famer’s restaurant specialises in Southern food and is a must for any Bucs fan visiting the area, with memorabilia and newspaper clippings everywhere. The food is pretty good too! The quesadillas or fried green tomatoes to start are excellent, as are the nachos to share, whilst my personal favourite as a main meal is the sweet heat fried chicken, although the meatloaf and beef brisket come a close second. If you want to try a few different things, the Training Plate is incredible, with pork, chicken and ribs, but that always seems to defeat me in terms of the sheer amount that is on the plate! 4. Maggiano’s, 203 Westshore Plaza (www.magiannos.com). Five courses, $25 per head. That’s not a misprint, when we went that was actually a deal they offered! Of course, there was then mountains of food left over at the end, but you definitely go away full, and can box the leftovers up for the next day if you choose. The website also says that the Buccaneers radio show is taped there on a Monday, but I am not sure if this is still the case. My favourite appetiser was the Mussels Diavolo, and my favourite main courses were the veal and mushroom ravioli and the veal parmesan. Worth a look if you are into your Italian food. 5. The Village Inn, 215 N Dale Mabry Highway (www.villageinnrestaurants.com). I include the Village Inn as my favourite breakfast place in the area! A place we always go before games (initially because we thought it was lucky and because we liked the food, now we just like the food after this years thumping by the Ravens) as it offers huge portions that will set you up for a long day of cheering the Bucs. The skillets here are superb, as are the more regular fried breakfasts or the waffles. A great place to read the Times and the Tribune before the game. After early games at RJS, we always walk back to Bennigans on Dale Mabry itself to watch the late afternoon games, which is conveniently located close to the stadium, or occasionally to Hooters on West Hillsborough. Clearwater Beach 1. Island Way Grill, 20 Island Way (www.islandwaygrill.com). This restaurant is co-owned by Dave Moore and Mike Alstott (check out the cool football memorabilia display on the way to the gents!), but that is not the only reason to visit. The atmosphere and the seafood are tremendous, with some pretty good drinks on the menu as well. Always busy so worth booking a table if you do not want to wait, the best dishes I have found are the wok seared scallops, the pork and shrimp pot stickers and Szechwan encrusted tuna, although there are always tonnes of specials, and the sushi is fantastic if you want to be adventurous. 2. Salt Rock Grill, 13925 Gulf Boulevard, Indian Rocks (www.saltrockgrill.com). Okay, so this one isn’t technically in Clearwater Beach, but is not too far to go for some good food. Some of the same people involved with Island Way are also involved here so the food is of a similar standard, except that instead of seafood, this place is definitely more red meat orientated! The Kingston Trio and Medibbean Shrimp are great appetisers, whilst you cannot go wrong with any of the steaks to follow, although be wary of the specials board as when I have tried this a couple of times, the meals haven’t been up to the same standard as the more regular items on offer. 3. Kiku, 483 Mandalay Avenue, (www.clearwaterbeachkiku.com). I discovered this restaurant whilst looking around on the St. Pete’s Times website last summer, and as we are big fans of Japanese food we thought that we would give it a try. From the outside, the restaurant looks dingy and run down, prompting me to think that we may have made a mistake! On the inside, however, everything is much better, with really friendly staff (you may even get the novelty of being served by a sushi chef who used to be on the world poker tour!) who will give you a lot of advice on choosing your food. In fact, we placed our entire faith in the chef and waiter to pick what we wanted and we were not disappointed! Really worth a try if you feel adventurous or like this sort of cuisine! Other restaurants that we have tried in the Clearwater Beach vicinity are the Laguna Grill, which is a nice place to have a quick lunch, or Beachcomber Bob’s which served great food so is worth a look but had a really weird atmosphere, really quiet and full of old people, a taxi driver told us it was a mob hangout, he was probably lying, but it would explain some things! The Sandbar, 100 Spring Avenue, Anna Maria Island, (www.sandbar-restaurant.com). This restaurant comes under a category all on its own as it is on a small island in the Bradenton-Sarasota area. There is nothing better that sitting on the beach and eating the good food that is served at the Sandbar. The burgers and hot sandwiches for lunch are amazing, whilst the portions are certainly ample. If you want a day at the beach, Anna Maria is certainly worth the drive and is one of my favourite places in Florida and the Sandbar restaurant makes it even better. Summary So that’s all I have for now, I hope that you find it useful, unfortunately shopping for anything other than sports stuff is not really my strong point, so I do not have much advice on that front other than Buc Heaven and Sports Authority, although the malls we usually visit are the ones on Fowler Avenue (the intersection down from Buc Heaven so coming from there go south on Florida Avenue past Fletcher and turn left onto Fowler), International/Westshore Plaza (same place as PF Changs and the other restaurants, either come off I-275 at Westshore Plaza or go down south down Dale Mabry and turn right onto Kennedy) and the mall next to the airport. On another note, I have tonnes and tonnes of driving directions to these places and many more so if anybody needs them then I am more than willing to send them on, so drop me an e-mail at: marckemp@hotmail.com or marckemp84@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested, or e-mail me if you have any tips for me on where to visit as I am always looking for new places to go! Marc Kemp, January 2007