Daily Loaf

Tucked into a strip mall near USF’s main campus, along with a sports bar and tanning salon, you’ll find Peter Taylor’s passion project: Wood Fired Pizza Wine Bar. From the rich orange and gold colors of the floor to the wood burning oven visible from every seat in the house, the entire place was assembled by Taylor’s own hands.

Sinatra music plays in the background and there is not a flatscreen TV to be found. Leather seats convince you to stay a while to enjoy your meal and conversation. Pizzas named Sophia and Raquel are an homage to silver screen icons.

Taylor mans the oven and, if you ask, he’ll tell you how the 16th century cannonball at the front of the store represents the birth of pizza, when Italians first thought to put the once-considered-poisonous tomato on yeast bread. He will convey the story of true Neapolitan pizza and how it became bastardized after arriving in America. That said, he does not claim to make true Neapolitan pies. Read the rest of this entry »

Couples are spicing up more than the eggnog this holiday season, trading the mistletoe for remote-control vibrators. And when it comes to finding the perfect stocking stuffer, there’s no better place than The Todd.

Open since 1969, this veritable warehouse of sex toys and porn flicks near USF-Tampa is not only the biggest sex store in Tampa, it’s also the least skeevy. A well-lit parking lot and helpful staff make shopping for that perfect lube a less-than-dirty, and in fact pleasant, experience. Besides your standard fare of edible underwear and fuzzy handcuffs, The Todd has a vast display of dildos and vibrators (buy an assortment in holiday-brite colors like the ones shown above), blow-up dolls that run the gamut of tastelessness and wall after wall of adult DVDs. For thrifty spenders, there’s even a clearance section.

Gift This: Find positions you didn’t even know existed with The Todd’s selection of sex swings, $129-$189.

13417 N. Nebraska Ave., Tampa, 813-221-0099

See other stops on CL’s Indie Holiday Shopping Spree here.

Where else can you buy an electric chair for rodents, tool kits, pool supplies — and rent a helicopter, all the while knowing that your money is staying in the community? Bay-to-Bay Hardware, which opened its doors in 1947, is one of the last indies left in its category but still provides a comprehensive supply of tools, home improvement items, nails, screws, drill bits and all the stuff you find at the big-box home improvement stores.

Gift this: Not a creature was stirring, especially not a mouse if you gave the Rat Zapper Ultra (right) as a Christmas gift. The Zapper ($44.95) uses four D-cell batteries to electrocute your rodent problem, luring the critter in with bait and then delivering a heart-stopping jolt. With optional “Rat Tale” remote sensor ($12.95) that lets you know when you’ve had an execution if you have to put the trap in an attic.

4215 W. Bay to Bay Blvd., Tampa, 813-839-5977.

For more stops on the Indie Holiday Shopping Spree, click here.

Photo by Wayne Garcia