Fri. Sept. 18. Crossover Night at Alt Pathway. A mix of fetish enthusiasts and swingers featuring live music by “SexWhacks.” $10. 8pm-12midnight. Alt Pathway restaurant and lounge 810 E. Skagway, Ave. Tampa.
Sat. Sept. 19. 3rd Annual Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nudity, dancing, and free food–what more could you want? $0-20. Caliente Resort Gran Via Blvd. Land O Lakes, FL 34637.
Sun. Sept. 20. Pervy Pool Party. Read the rest of this entry »
Great sushi- now closer to home (for me, anyway).
I was introduced to Origami’s Hillsborough Avenue location about a year ago. They have a new location on Waters Avenue and a recent move to a new residence put me dangerously close to this location.
There’s a huge selection of makimono, my favorite being Read the rest of this entry »
It takes an obsessive to impress and obsessive. Peter Taylor’s pies may be the culmination of two decades of research and development, but it’s the love he puts into crafting each one that shines through. He cultivates his own yeast, makes his own mozzarella, grows his own herbs and won’t trust anyone else to man the wood-fired oven that gives the joint its name. The result are thin pies that are near perfect, from the simple margerita to interesting combinations like pistachio and rosemary. Count us impressed.
Wood Fired Pizza Wine Bar, 2822 E. Bearss Ave., Tampa, 813-341-2900
The Table is in the midst of another shake-up, with 717 South Michael Stewart, former GM Joe Moledo out and Andrew Wilkins (formerly of Mad Fish and Ceviche) in as GM. This comes after a long history of turmoil, including the loss of chef Pedro Flores earlier this year. Looks like the restaurant’s new thrust will be for lower price points and fewer staff changes. (Mouth)The Columbia, OktoBEERfest, Domenica Macchia, and Grattzi’s after the break: Read the rest of this entry »
After a long wait, the first in a series of new restaurants slated for Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights opened over this past weekend.
Ella’s Folk Art Cafe (5119 N. Nebraska Ave., Tampa, 813-234-1000) looks like it has the right funky vibe to fit in with the Seminole Heights crowd, along with outdoor seating (albeit next to Nebraska) and an eclectic American menu that ranges from beer-battered, deep-fried jalapenos stuffed with pulled pork, cheddar and cream cheese to “beet box and veggie pot pie”, whatever that is. There’s also pizza, salad, and soups; a small but very capable beer list; and a Sunday brunch/neighborhood barbecue.
Open for dinner, Tuesday-Saturday, with daylight hourse on Sunday.
Have Gun, Will Travel (pictured below), Matt Butcher, John Ralston, and Mike Dunn & The Kings of New England created a mini-Americana fest at New World Brewery this past Friday, September 11, a show brought to you by New Granada Presents.
Mary’s open suitcase lay flat on her bed, empty as the thoughts in her mind. He’d left three messages on her machine just that day alone. The light on the machine blinked incessantly, matching the pounding inside her chest. It was a situation she could no longer avoid dealing with. The ringing phone could be ignored but soon enough, she knew he’d be at her porch door. Then she’d finally have to let him know which way her decision swayed. 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 »
Sex and rock ‘n’ roll go hand in hand, and when it comes to rockin’ and lovin’, no one does it better than The Boss. Any number of Bruce Springsteen albums will send you zooming off in your car to the nearest body of water, to put your hands all over your lover’s engine. Below are the Rabid One’s Top 5 Sex in Springsteen Songs. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to a new edition of How To Write A Novel.
Bringing an entire story together without any relationships would be difficult, even if the relationship isn’t a romance. Consider Neo and Trinity, Martin Riggs and Lorna Cole, Bella Swan and Jacob Black, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, to name a few.
Here are a few questions often raised in my writing group: What is enough and when is it too much? If you write for young adults, should there be sex? Young people have sex, use drugs, and drink alcohol, but should I write about these things? Read the rest of this entry »
Mixed martial arts (MMA) fans In Tampa enjoyed an action-packed nine-bout fight card hosted by the Xtreme Fighting Chamionships (XFC) at the St.Pete Times Forum on Saturday. In the main event of the evening, Pablo Alfonso was crowned as the new XFC Bantamweight Champion after a four-round war against defending champion Jason Goodall. War Machine defeated Mikey Gomez in the co-main event of the XFC Evolution bouts. Read the rest of this entry »
How do you pack the worlds greatest rock and roll show into 12 tight little minutes? Perhaps you need to ask The Boss. When Super Bowl 43 took over Tampa this past winter, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band wowed the millions of Americans watching as only they can. Working on a Dream: Bruce Springsteen’s Super Bowl Journal, which airs tonight (Monday, September 7), is a fantastic look into how the rock show spectacle was put together. The Rabid One was a part of Bruce’s stage crew for the show. Let’s see if the documentary tells the whole story.
Six Tampa chowhounds. Two restaurants. Two and a half hours of stir-fried bliss.
Competition sure tastes good.
Tampa is lucky to be home to two excellent Chinese restaurants — China Yuan and Yummy House — both near the intersection of Armenia and Waters. I already knew that both restaurants served the best Chinese food in the city, and was curious to gauge the differences. So last Sunday, six of the area’s most enthusiastic eaters met at Yummy House with open minds and empty stomachs. Boy, were we in for a treat.
Five of us, including myself, were already China Yuan devotees, while the sixth preferred Yummy House. We met through online food musings on Chowhound.com’s Florida message board, some of us had never seen one another in person, and our discussions about eating, cooking, and dining out were pleasant and lively. We never intended to play kingmaker, and after two excellent meals, Read the rest of this entry »
We blind-tasted American Wagyu, Prime, organic and Choice from several different stores and Sweetbay’s basic New York strip — the cheapest of the bunch — was our judges’ clear favorite. Great beef flavor, tender texture and enough fat to satisfy. Go figure.
[About Daily Best of the Bay: As we approach the Best of the Bay issue on Sept. 16 (and The Loafies the night before), CL writers and critics are posting some of their Best-of selections for 2009. You've still got time to vote for your own favorites; the Readers' Poll deadline is tomorrow at noon.]
So far, we’ve given you a heads up about a range of this fall’s best bets in music — Leonard Cohen, electronica artists from Paul Van Dyk to Junior Boys, Yo Yo Ma, a quintet of quality indie artists (The Decemberists and MuteMath, among others) who are not stopping in Tampa but at least gracing us with their presence in nearby Orlando, and a couple of worthy jazz shows. Here are rest.
The Big Drawers
We get most of the big tours in Tampa because we have the audiences and venues to support them. This fall is no exception and the biggest among them are longtime barn burners Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Sat., Sept. 12, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, $36-$98); U2, the first band to play Ray Jay solo, i.e., not for any Super Bowl festivities. (Fri., Oct. 9, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, $30-$250); and the queen of teeny bop pop herself, Miley Cyrus (Tues., Dec. 1, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, $39.50-$79.50). Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Voting extended to Noon on Wednesday!
Most of the races are still so close, anyone can win! (Except best steakhouse — it would take a beefy miracle to unseat Bern’s.) Vote now!
Here are some of the categories you should pay especial attention to: Read the rest of this entry »
Injection of pesticide at the Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Tampa attracted the attention of neighborhood activists, who worried it was making them sick. (photo courtesy of Debra McCormack)
Tucked away in a northern Tampa neighborhood is a golf course named after the greatest figure in women’s golf history, Mildred Ella Didrikson Zaharias, better known as Babe. The champion golfer died of colon cancer in 1956, so it seems fitting that, when the turf of her namesake course was being injected with a pesticide believed to be a human carcinogen, three activists fought passionately, persistently and (ultimately) successfully to stop it.
It took years to win. This is how they did it.
Voting is hot and heavy whenever hardwood smoke and succulent pork get into the mix. After a lot of votes cast, Best Barbecue is still up in the air, with two frontrunners and a whole lot of possible upset contenders close behind. Voting ends monday, so get on the ball, wipe your hands, and vote for the ribs you can’t live without!
Leaders and vote tallies after the break: Read the rest of this entry »
Miami’s annual Winter Music Conference and its corresponding Ultra Music Fest first drew electronica artists to Florida. But once they discovered audiences ripe and ready to get down rave-style, any time of the year and not just in South Florida, music makers spanning the electro spectrum began appearing in Tampa more and more often. We are fortunate enough to see a virtual who’s who of hot talents in the upcoming months. DC’s Thievery Corporation — made up of DJ duo Rob Garza, Eric Hilton and their vibrantly diverse ensemble of performers — produces a lounge-lush fusion of electronica, reggae, acid jazz, psychedelia and the world flavors of India and Brazil. Sat., Oct. 10, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $42). Tiësto (pictured) is a famed Dutch DJ and progressive trance producer (Sun., Oct. 18, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $40). (Video after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »
Folks who might not think twice about who has the best pizza or where to go for a splurge meal are passionate about the best places to stop by for a cold one after work. Where everybody knows your name. And, maybe, they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same.
Where is that for you? See the frontrunners after the break — and the voting is damn close in this race — or just make your mark before voting ends on Monday! Read the rest of this entry »
Unlike many of the races in our ongoing Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll, this one isn’t all that close. With an astounding 200+ votes, Cappy’s is running away with the prize. However, there’s still time for the other big vote-getters — like Sally O’Neal’s, Mellow Mushroom, Joey Brooklyn’s, and Westshore – or even spots who haven’t tried, to mobilize support and get the vote out over the weekend, before voting ends Monday.
Just three days left to support your favorite pizza joint — plenty of time to tip the scales. Vote now!
This is the time when all the spectacular new restaurants that have opened in the past year can shine and all of Tampa Bay can snub our collective noses at the poor economy. But only one worthy spot can win, and the race is close.
Two St. Pete spots — Diner 437 and Queenshead Eurobar — are in the lead, but there’s still plenty of time to shift victory in this close race to another restaurant. Time to mobilize and vote!
Is your favorite spot in the running? Here’s are the leaders in the race so far, with their current tallies: Read the rest of this entry »
Let your voice be heard! Who is your favorite professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, promoter, event and venue? Please make your selection from the choices listed below. Read the rest of this entry »
Atalaya Capital Management this morning doubled Creative Loafing Management’s bid to retain the alternative newsweekly chain, ending months of legal wrangling and 37 years of control by the Eason family.
Michael Bogdan, managing partner of the winning New York-based hedge fund, said he is committed to keeping the chain’s 230 employees and 400,000 readers in six cities.
“We are here for the long haul and we want to make this work,” Bogdan said minutes after Federal Bankruptcy Judge Caryl E. Delano accepted Atalaya’s $5 million cash bid.
Creative Loafing bid $2.32 million in cash and other securities. The deal is expected to close within 10 days.
Bogdan and other Atalaya officials are tentatively set to meet Wednesday morning at the Marriott Waterside with publishers and other managers from the papers in Tampa, Sarasota, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Read the rest of this entry »
Stormy Daniels may be considering a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate in her home state of Louisiana, and she may do most of her adult work on the west coast, but she parties, is a favorite guest of Bubba the Love Sponge, and gets arrested for domestic abuse right here in Tampa. Read the rest of this entry »
The main event on the Art of Fighting (AOF) fight card indeed turned out to be the highlight of the evening, with an enthusiastic audience cheering on the mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran Tom Sauer on his walk towards the octagon as prelude to a very exciting fight against Marcio Cruz. Regardless, Sauer was not able to cash in on his home turf advantage. Cruz, on the other hand, seemed like Rocky Stallone in his most unpopular fight while beating the crowd favorite Sauer to a pulp and earning the World Fighting Organization (WFO) belt in the process.
Sauer repeatedly charged against Cruz like a bull seeing red and caught several punches to his head as a result early on in the fight. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s the stupid economy.
Apparently the dour economy is to blame for the revolting headlines inviting readers to delve into the details of men killing babies, beating and raping women and murdering their families.
That’s according to the U.S. Department of Justice report, “When Violence Hits Home: How Economics and Neighborhood Play a Role.”
And David Braughton, chief executive officer of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, would be the first to agree.
The Sarasota-based mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter Art of Fighting (AOF) will host an exciting 11-bout fight card at the USF Sun Dome on Saturday, Aug.22. As main event the two MMA veterans Marcio “Pe de Pano” Cruz vs. Tom “Trauma” Sauer will slug it out for the first ever World Title of the new MMA sanctioning body, World Fighting Organization (WFO). Read the rest of this entry »
Jackson Street Bistro
2.5 stars
401 E. Jackson St., Tampa, 813-412-5777
People have long lamented downtown Tampa’s forlorn nighttime dining scene, but now that dinner is on a comeback thanks to places like Rawbar, what’s next for urban dining? Jackson Street Bistro — a new spot recently opened in the SunTrust building by the owners of East Lake Cafe in Palm Harbor — might hold the answer.
Although casual downtown restaurant options have been on the rise over the past few years, there are few spots for a classy breakfast or lunch unless you want to head to a hotel. That may explain the sort of shocked surprise on my face the first time I stepped into Jackson Street Bistro. I expected a simple salad-and-sandwich cafe and found a place that was chic enough to be fine-dining, with a long bar, floor-to-ceiling windows and a nice outdoor courtyard. It was loud, the kitchen was in the weeds, and the servers were scrambling to stay ahead of the tide of people that mobbed the place. On a Tuesday. At noon.
One of the reasons for the crowd might be Read the rest of this entry »
Some shots from last night’s Tuesday, August 18 show at the St. Pete Times Forum featuring The Jonas Brothers and support acts Jordin Sparks (who won the sixth season of American Idol) and South Korean girl group the Wonder Girls.
The Jonas Brothers
(See more pics plus my complete gallery from the evening after the jump.)
Saigon Deli’s four varieties of Vietnamese Banh Mi — meatball, beef, roast pork, pate — all have the same garnish piled on crusty French-style bread: lightly pickled carrots, cucumber and daikon radish; a heaping mass of bright green cilantro; sliced, fresh jalapenos. A simple combination, but those ingredients contain three of the four fundamental facets of most Southeast Asian cuisine: spice from the jalapeno, sour from the pickle, sweet from the veggies. Add savory and salty meat, and you’ve hit the jackpot, all for a mere $2.99. It almost justifies the years of French colonial influence over Vietnam.
Saigon Deli, 3692 W. Waters Ave., Tampa, 813-932-0300
[About Daily Best of the Bay: Creative Loafing is posting writers' and editors' picks for Best of the Bay 2009 each day until the BOTB issue is released on Sept. 16. Vote now for your own BOTB choices in our Readers' Poll!]
Although Lenny’s (in Clearwater) has dominated this Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll category in recent years, current vote totals peg this race as one of the closest in the Food and Drink category. Lenny’s, Frog Pond, Daily Eats, Nicko’s, Pach’s Place, Pink Flamingo, Pinky’s, Skyway Jack’s, and Village Inn are all neck-and-neck for second place, while national chain First Watch has a commanding (but beatable) lead.
Are Tampa Bay’s morning-food fans going to let a chain (albeit one that started in Florida) win this award? And where is Lenny’s notorious get-out-the-vote campaign?
There’s still two weeks to propel your favorite spot to the top in this hotly contested race (the poll ends Aug. 31).
Vote now, and tell your personal Best Breakfast restaurant to get out the vote!
(Photo from Fin Fahey/Flickr.)
The Dave Matthews Band played the Ford Amphitheatre on Wednesday night and CL has all the best photos.
See the full gallery of shots after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
This week, Brian and Taylor invite CL editor David Warner in to talk about his bandwagon-jumping Beef Bourgignon experiment — and why the Bourgignon part should be ignored. Brian raves over Wood Fired Pizza Wine Bar — despite the lack of wine — and Taylor goes stream of consciousness about a chardonnay and steak matchup.
Talia
Editor’s Note: Actor/director/teacher/playwright Ami Sallee Corley (right) continues her series of posts about the challenges of being a freelance artist in Tampa Bay. Today’s topic: Self-esteem (or lack thereof)
So I have had the incredible honor of being one of the cast of Pericles, Jobsite’s newest Joe Popp rock musical. I get to play the love interest, a post-graduate hippie chick rebelling against her Cape Cod “old money” roots. I’m in jeans and braids and half the time I am barefoot and tote around a nice chip on my shoulder for Daddy’s attempts to assimilate me into “society.” Daddy: “I thought you were going to see that Kennedy boy?” Talia: “No. That was your idea, and I told you I don’t want to end up at the bottom of a lake.”
So, in a very favorable review, CL’s Mark Leib refers to me as Read the rest of this entry »
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