Tampa Bay Essentials
Explore the area's local favorites
By Judy Stark, FrontDoor.com | Published: 10/14/2008
The restaurant scene in Tampa is diverse with Latin American cusine, excellent seafood grills and an abundance of fresh farm-grown fruits and vegetables. Tampa Bay & Co.
Food and Drink Essentials: Best Places to...
BUY GROCERIES
Chain Stores. The major chains in this part of Florida are Publix, SweetBay and Winn-Dixie. The Publix store in Citrus Park, north of downtown Tampa, offers an Apron's cooking school, and a steady parade of celebrity chefs turns up here to flash knives and show you how to cook like, well, a celebrity chef. The Publix in FishHawk Ranch, a huge master-planned community south of Tampa, recently started its own version of those "make-it-and-take-it" food assembly lines that let home cooks put together a number of meals to stock the freezer. No time even for that? They'll make it, you take it and bake it.
- Whole Foods
1548 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa
You know what to expect: piles of gorgeous produce, museum-quality meats and fish, wide variety of cheeses and breads, eat-in and takeout food. - Fresh Market
13147 N. Dale Mabry, 813-964-8001, Tampa
3722 Henderson Blvd., 813-875-7400, Tampa
15961 U.S. 19 N, Clearwater, 727-669-6111
Fresh Market offers more natural and organic offerings, from bread and cheese to meat and fish to fruits and vegetables.
- Mazzaro's
2909 22nd Ave. N, St. Petersburg, 727-321-2400
The old Italian neighborhood is alive and well, and people drive from miles around to stock up here on what they can't get elsewhere. Pizzas and huge crusty loaves of bread bake in a brick oven. Sip a shot of inky espresso at the coffee bar (they roast their own beans), then go ladle up bulk olives from the barrels. Take a number and stand in line with the regulars for lunchtime sandwiches piled high with the cold cuts and cheeses you remember. (Take your order out to the covered piazza and relax at a table.)Choose something to take home for dinner: lasagna, chicken or eggpplant parm, caprese stacks of rosy tomatoes and quivering mozzarella, fusilli salad with chicken livers and mushrooms. Did we mention the fresh pasta? (Can you resist the lobster cannelloni?) Step into the butcher shop at the back and weep over ruby-red Ahi tuna, red-white-and-green braciole, espresso-rubbed steaks and homemade sausage. Oh, and the wine room. And the cheese counter. Saturdays are packed; there are often wine tastings and samplings, but be warned: Mazzarro's closes at 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and is closed Sundays.
BUY FRESH BREAD
- Bread Artisans
4442 Park Blvd., Pinellas Park, 727-548-1400
Massimo Maviglia, a native of Avezzano, Italy, lets his dough rise up to 36 hours using a natural starter. He makes natural sourdough, rosemary, olive, sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic and pane integrale -- that's Italian for whole wheat. - Pane Rustica
3225 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa, 813-902-8828
Stop by for crisp loaves and other baked goods. This is also a restaurant serving lunch and dinner in a big, noisy, slick setting that attracts a chic South Tampa clientele.
BUY ASIAN INGREDIENTS
- Oceanic Market
1609 N. Tampa St., 813-228-8110
A large, full-service market with great produce, seafood and a butcher shop, and ready-cooked barbecued duck and pork. Can't wait to take it all home to cook? Eat at the adjacent T.C. Choy's Asian Bistro.
BUY A BOTTLE OF WINE
- B21 Fine Wine Superstore
43380 U.S. 19 N, Tarpon Springs, 727-937-5047
Some say this is the best liquor store south of Atlanta, and it's hard to argue. Not much to look at from the outside, but inside, thousands of bottles, with both familiar and unfamiliar labels. This is the place to find that obscure wine you enjoyed on your last European trip. Terrific prices. Extremely knowledgeable staff who drink the wines, visit the vineyards, know the makers and obviously love what they do. The wine is well-cellared and stored. Wine accessories and hard liquor as well. The store's name reflects the fact that buyers must "B-21 or begone."
SHOP OUTDOORS
- The Saturday Morning Market
Downtown St. Petersburg in the parking lot of Al Lang Field
Runs from October through May from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It attracts a crowd of families and foodies (and their dogs) eager for organic produce, freshly squeezed juice, fresh flowers (including orchid leis) and plants, herbs and spices, samples of honey and salsa, fish, pasta, soup, locally made chocolate, and swoon-worthy breads and pastries.But wait, there's more! The barbecued-turkey-leg man is here today, and so are the breakfast vendors and the coffee wagons. Vendors remember their customers and know what you like. Cruise the stalls and buy breakfast or lunch, then sit down at the tables and listen to the live music. Sometimes St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker shows up with his guitar. Often you'll get good buys around 2 p.m. as the market is closing up, and the vendors are happy to make a deal.
- Sweetwater Organic Community Farm
6942 W. Comanche, 813-887-4066
Spread over six acres of urban Tampa, Sweetwater Organic also farms an additional four acres exclusively for Bern's, the legendary steak house, and its hip sibling, SideBern's. November through May, shop from noon to 4 p.m. Sundays at its farmers market. Or become a member and pick up weekly or biweekly shares of fresh produce during growing season. The weekly market is family friendly, and there's music.
HAVE A LATTE OR TEA
Starbucks abounds on nearly every corner, but why drink the same coffee you can get anywhere?
- El Molino Gourmet Coffee Shop
2012 E. Seventh Ave., Tampa, 813-248-2521
This family-owned coffee-roasting business dates back to 1921. Smell the coffee being roasted. Watch it being packed. Sit down and sip something, and then buy more to take home. El Molino is in the heart of Ybor City, Tampa's original Latin neighborhood, established by Cubans, Spaniards and Italians. - Bean There
3202 W. Bay-to-Bay Boulevard, Tampa, 813-837-7022
Breakfast all day and surprisingly gourmet lunches, too. It's the heavy yuppie coffee scene in Tampa, especially early in the morning. - Kahwa
475 Second St. N, St. Petersburg, 727-823-4700
Slick-looking Euro-style coffee bar and roastery on the ground floor of a slick-looking, modern low-rise condo. The French-American Business Council of West Florida holds its monthly networking breakfast here, but at midafternoon the laptop set is hard at work, too. Saturday mornings you may have negotiate a tangle of strollers and dogs to get a table outside. - Hooker Tea Co.
300 Beach Drive, St. Petersburg, 727-894-4832
Does it have to be coffee? Hooker Tea offers more than 100 varieties of loose tea. Sip inside among 20-somethings staring at their laptop screens, or at outside tables beside families lapping up the treats they bought at the gelateria next door.