Daily Loaf

Last time Comedian Mark Malkoff was in town he was living aboard an Airtran airplane for a month. Mark now has a new “Keys to The City” mission, driving him via Ford Fusion to collect 100 city keys in 28 days. His comedic road trip antics brought him to Tampa on Monday to be presented the key to the city of Tampa by Mayor Pam Iorio. Maybe next time Mark will come live in our IKEA?

Read more about Mark Malkoff’s “Keys to The City” project here.

After a break for the past couple of weeks, Brian invites Grayson and Alex from GNATV.com to come in and talk about their new season of video restaurant reviews and such. They’re embarking on a four-episode adventure into the fine art of backyard gardening, mainly so Grayson can sate his incredible appetite for parsnips.

We also talk about Brian’s Smorgasbord IKEA stories, and next week’s Best of the Bay debut party. Buy your tickets now!

Download the episode here.

(This is the third installment of our week-long Smorgasbord IKEA series.)

After a week eating out of IKEA’s grocery store, I was impressed by the amount of food I tried that I’d actually make a trip to buy again, whether or not I’m picking up an area rug or cartload of picture frames.

Here are my picks for must-haves, must-nots and must-experience for yourself:

The Good

Frozen desserts: Across the board, these Swedish versions of Mrs. Smith’s were tasty enough to justify the purchase, although perhaps not enough to make Ikea a weekly stop. Standouts were Tarta Mork Choklad — a dark chocolate-covered thin cake with hints of espresso, reminiscent of tiramisu — and balls of fluff and chocolate that are essentially gigantic mallomars the size of your fist.

Candy: Read the rest of this entry »

(Part 2 of our Smorgasbord: IKEA series.)

Lingonberry and elderberry syrups take up a lot of space on the IKEA grocery shelves, for good reason. The tart, cranberry-like flavor of lingonberries is perfect when dropped into a glass of sparkling water, while the elderberry will produce a more fragrant, softer spritzer that’s sweeter and more delicate. Both are also incredible ingredients for cocktails. IKEA’s lingonberry syrup is powerful stuff, so works best with bland liquor like vodka, while elderberry’s subtle herbacious, floral perfume works best with gin (and some gins use elderberry as one of the botanicals that give that British quaff its flavor).

Experiment, but here are a few recipes to get you started at your next Swedish-themed happy hour or crayfish party:

The Allen Wrench
1 part lingonberry syrup
1 part vodka
Squeeze of lime
Soda water
This is a simple, refreshing quaff suitable for quenching the mighty thirst and incipient frustration that results from furniture assembly.

Bergman Royale
3 parts inexpensive Champagne or sparkling wine
1 part elderberry syrup
Like the actress, this cocktail is subtle, multi-faceted and will melt the hearts of even the most grizzled North African nightclub owner.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Read the rest of this entry »

My nightly meal is brought to you courtesy of IKEA, food served on simple, gleaming white ARV plates, cut and delivered using SVIT utensils, with lemonade sipped from chunky POKAL tumblers. If we’re feeling saucy, or it’s a weekend night, there may be Cotes Du Rhone or Spanish grenache in OPTIMAL stems, or shaken Bombay Sapphire poured into a curvaceous SKIR.

My young son prefers the brightly colored KALAS ensemble, demanding a different hue for each utensil — although the plate and glass can match, if necessary.

But the food? Never Swedish.

We eat the Swedish meatballs doused in creamy gravy when we visit the store, sure, but I’d never made the leap to actually shopping for food at IKEA, as if it was an ethnic grocery store instead of a temple to inexpensive, northern European apartment design. Until this week. Read the rest of this entry »

Between free chicken at KFC and IKEA’s new grand opening near Ybor City, a lot of people are getting fried (no pun intended) by all the line waiting and excitement overload in Tampa this week.

Well, IKEA is having a fun, eco-friendly contest that you can create in the comfort of your own home but still get a little bit of that IKEA craving curbed for at least a few moments.

The new contest entitled, “Where has your blue bag been?” is an opportunity to share with the IKEA community photos, videos, or even blogs (me me me!) of how you may use or wish to use one of the IKEA blue bags. (Incidentally, for anyone who doesn’t know, the IKEA blue bags are the reusable shopping bags that you can carry throughout the store to put your super cool stuff in and can purchase for 59 cents.) Read the rest of this entry »

Go Red for Women Luncheon This American Heart Association-sponsored event features three women who receive a Go Red makeover and the first female winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, Ali Vincent (above), as the keynote speaker.  11 a.m. Wed., May 6, A La Carte Event Pavilion, Tampa, $125, 813-831-5190.

Tale of Two Cities: Tampa and St. Petersburg. It’s the Battle of the Bay, as Mayors Iorio and Baker face off at Centro Asturiano in Ybor to discuss the history, culture and characters of Cigar City and Sunshine City. It’s an opportunity for residents to compare the history smarts of their top public officials, and a chance for the mayors to one-up each other on their towns’ relative merits. Wed., May 6, 7-8:30 p.m. Centro Asturiano, 1913 N. Nebraska Ave, Tampa, 727-873-2006. Sponsored by Florida Humanities Council. Free admission.

Lifetime of Laughter Comedy Benefit. A comedy show to raise funds for diabetes research features Mark Eddie, who combines stand-up with guitar, and Ybor’s own Roy Johnson, winner of the 2006 Maxim/Bud Light Real Man of Comedy competition in Atlantic City. Wed., May 6, 8 p.m., The Tampa Improv, Ybor City, $20.

A little furniture store from Sweden opens today. If you aren’t already in line by the time you read this, maybe you’d better wait for the crowds to thin out before you visit. Think July. Read the rest of this entry »

Creative Loafing interns Hannah Walk and Diana Ruiz visited the line outside IKEA Tampa 48 hours before its May 6 opening. Here’s their report — with video after the jump.

How long would you wait in line for a free chair? How about a chair from IKEA? If you’re the first people in line for IKEA’s grand opening, the 65-plus hours spent sleeping on cement and passing the time playing Apples to Apples are well worth it. IKEA officially opens Wednesday, May 6, but for these dedicated fans, the party started early.

Hagen Reams, 19, Shelby Gallo, 19, Justin Gallo, 21, and Ben Dziubek, 20, began their three-day escapade Sunday afternoon, but they’re not complaining. They’ve been passing the time reading Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, feasting on vending machine goodies, and attempting to sleep when news cameras aren’t in their faces. Read the rest of this entry »

On Wednesday I attended an exclusive photo preview of the new IKEA Tampa at 22nd & Adamo. I’m really impressed with this store, and its grand opening May 6 is likely to be a big event.

A few things about this IKEA make it different from many other retails, including other IKEA stores. First, this is the biggest IKEA in Florida. The walking tour, which lasted almost three hours, didn’t even cover the guts of the store. We literally danced from section to section and I ended up doing a lot of “walk and snap” photography, just trying to get it all in. Read the rest of this entry »

How much will the scandal surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich affect the Obama transition? John Harwood checks it out.

• Obama calls on Gov. Blagojevich to step down.
• Is it Jesse Jackson Jr. or should we call you Candidate #5?
• Sure the election’s over, but Obama is still doing well in the polls.
• The house passes $14 billion auto bailout bill.
• It’s Greek to me: Athens riots still going strong.
• Inside the Ikea Ybor store opening next year.
• Tim Tebow packs his bags for Saturday’s Heisman ceremony.
• Dudes dig the chicks with the long, wavy hair.