New World is one of those spots in Ybor that we’ve been going to for a long while now.  Excellent beers on tap. Great selection on and off the tap. I kept hearing about the BBQ Buffet but just never managed to make it over.  We work on the opposite side of Tampa and most of the time if I’m driving out that way I’d rather just eat at home. So, since we took a day off Matt, Phil and myself decided to head out to lunch somewhere.  We were thinking about grabbing a Falafel sandwich from the new Greek restaurant in Ybor. We parked and started walking down there when I spotted New World and remembered that they just started the Monday through Friday BBQ Buffet. Fucking. Wicked.

It’s also kind of weird being in/around Ybor around lunch time. Normally we stop by for a bite to eat at night or for drinks.

Anyways, one of my favorite things about establishments in Florida are the open air layouts.  New World is easily one of my favorite spots for this. There is the main bar area that opens up into an atrium with seating.  They have bands playing almost every night. The paradigm seems kinda strange coming from Michigan, you go out to a place and in the winter they keep the doors open but they roll out the space heaters to keep you warm and enjoying the outside. Anyways, they have things hanging on the walls, like a horse riding a bike and a mounted marlin guarding the beers. The atmosphere is inviting, but it’s the food we’re interested in.

Now, it’s BBQ, but they’ve put their twist on all of it. You come in and grab a plate and load up.  You pay by the pound, so you can grab as little or as much as you’d like.  There is also a current reigning champion for who has eaten the most.  Andre Jones is the current champ.  I don’t know how but Andre has dominated a couple of the local eating challenges. He’s also on the wall at this local hotdog place, Frankie’s. Anyways, back to the food. The potato salad is a curry potato salad, just absolutely ridiculous. Curry really pops, but it marries really well with the dish. I would come back just for the potato salad. Coleslaw was fairly standard, but it’s freshly made and the slaw sauce is good. The corn salsa was good, although I can’t recall the flavor that well now. I skipped on the macaroni salad, but that’s probably pretty legit as well. The corn muffins were light and I really like the presentation. Bite size if you have a big mouth, but otherwise a 2 bite endeavor.

One of my biggest beefs with chain restaurants and mall restaurants (shit.. most restaurants) is how they treat vegetables. They’ll give you a big heap of steamed broccoli, but then they drench it in a tankard’s worth of butter. Just give me some fucking greens that haven’t been converted to a saturated fat. Anyways, New World Brewery doesn’t do this. The green beans are clean and fresh, with a hint of salt to help bring out flavor. It reminds me of my Grandma Michael’s freshly picked green beans from the garden. The collard greens were pretty good, I thought it could use a little vinegar but that’s all personal preference.  The baked beans have some chunks of green pepper that still had some snap to it, which was nice. I’m not a huge fan of baked beans but these are good as far as that goes.

They have some curried rice with pineapple.  Awesome. A little kick, and just delicious (you might have noticed that I enjoy curry). I also sampled the mac and cheese, which is pork mac and cheese. Personally, I would like just little bits of pork, this is more of a casserole sort of thing.  It’s good, just not what I prefer.  The mashed potatoes were good, but nothing really out of the ordinary.

Onward to proteins! The smoked chicken is amazing. Tender, delicious and smoky. The sausage was completely stand out, I was dipping it in the Carolina style BBQ. Mustard base sauce to go with some ridiculous sausage. The pork was good, tender but not too tender.  If it’s overcooked it will tend to fall apart too much which I don’t really like. The Kansas City and Carolina were my favorite sauces, but you gotta drop by and pick your favorite some time. You just can’t go wrong here, everything is good.

I’d prefer to be more critical and I don’t like to give these out, but this is definitely worth the rating. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars experience.

Let me preface this review with: Holy shit, Honey’s chicken wings.

Other than Google confusing me on what I should list as the proper name of this restaurant, I couldn’t find anything wrong with my chicken wing crushin’ experience at Honey’s (caveat, their credit card machine was down and usually that’s a deal breaker as I am wont to never have cash in my pocket… except today I had some greenbacks in my wallet!).  Honey’s was so good that it broke me out of my writing malaise. Before I ramble on about how much I liked the food, I’ll build out the atmosphere for you. Honey’s is a sports bar. When you step inside it’s fairly dark to give you a better shot at watching the game you want to see, without glare from the Florida sun. Honey’s has a fairly similar ‘feel’ to that of one of my old haunts in Lansing (see Bonnie’s Place), in that you can get a good bite to eat without a bunch of bullshit and maybe catch the game you wanted to see while you’re at it. Likewise the wait-staff aren’t scantily clad young ladies, serving you tender vittles with a side of silicone. Don’t get me wrong, I like the sight of pleasant looking young lasses as much as the next guy, but I don’t like feeling like a fucking creeper because my server is all T&A’d up so I wind up goggling at her while trying to mow down a burger. <insert stale ‘breast/chicken breast’ joke here>, yeah that’s not me.

One thing I find myself craving in Tampa are hole in the wall joints to grab a bite or a beer. Pyschoanalyzing this desire aside, finding these kinds of places in Tampa is fairly difficult.  One reason Lansing may have a plethora of these kind of places could be due to the town’s blue collar residents. A city that was home to several GM plants and specifically to a large GM car assembly factory from 1901 until 2005, the longest operating factory in the US when it closed (all that remains are the gates and plots of land full of rubble); generations of line workers defining the culture in the Capitol City, subtly dictating the kinds of establishments that thrived and remained open throughout the years. For better or worse, the same culture that likely led to Lansing having more bars per capita than any other capital city in the United States. (This being a factoid I’d heard years ago and I can’t speak to the veracity of the previous statement, but suffice it to say that there are a shitload of bars in Lansing in comparison to the population density.) Another likely factor is the presence of Michigan State University. Cash strapped students are always looking for a good deal, and any joint with competitive prices that serves up a good dish can keep itself in business. While not all hole in the wall joints serve up the best experience (or the best of anything, sometimes they’re a hole in the wall because they just plain suck), there is something to be said for a place that must simply stand on its drink or food without reliance on being prettied up. My love of these places could be to due to being a general malcontent, or it could be the value of these places and the experiences I’ve had at them. You can only dine at an Applebee’s so often before wanting to kick and punch your way out of manufactured mediocrity.

Restaurants and bars in Tampa generally lean away from the hole in the wall and tend toward a vibe of business casual lunches and dinners. While there is nothing wrong with going out and not having to put up with that drunk guy in the corner cursing like a well traveled sailor, I generally prefer not feeling like I’m underdressed when dining in a t-shirt and jeans. Tampa certainly had a blue collar grounding with its early 20^th century cigar production (see: Cigar City), but that same hard working populace did not seem to have the same impact that Michigan autoworkers had on their area. I don’t know whether that’s due to the drastic differences in the locale or some other influences (differences: where Lansing is bathed in snow for a quarter of the year and shares lists with the likes of Seattle and Buffalo for being some of the most overcast cities in the US, whereas Tampa is continuously drenched in sunshine and heat and you’re never far from a beach). Honey’s did not disappoint regarding appropriate dress and vibe, we felt at home in our t-shirts and jeans.

I had heard from my neighbor Lindsay for months that Honey’s has the best wings in Tampa. While she has yet to steer us wrong in this respect, I can be stubborn in quick acceptance as I generally like to find things out on my own (like my father before me, you can tell me the stove is hot, but I don’t believe it until my hand is burnt). I usually grab lunch with my friends/coworkers and we generally like to try new things for lunch, but unfortunately Honey’s is just far enough from the office that it managed to stay off our list of restaurants to try. Due to the distance, you’re pretty much bound to take a lunch that is longer than an hour. While an occasional long lunch isn’t a problem at work, you don’t want to waste a long lunch on a crappy or mediocre restaurant. Due to the blue corn Moon aligning with the stars and other mystical forces and shit, we wound up taking a shot at Honey’s today.

While Honey’s has a large and delicious sounding menu, I had eyes only for chicken wings today. On the advice of my coworkers who had gone to Honey’s the week prior, I ordered 16 of the Spicy Garlic Parmesan wings with a side of Hot Sauce and I was not disappointed. I would prefer that they sold their wings in 5’s or 10’s as I think 10 chicken wings are generally the filling point when ordering wings. Despite this, I managed to house 14 of these bad boys (the other guys at the table polished off the other two) and crush some fries. I washed it all down with unsweetened iced tea. I ordered a large order of the homemade fries to share with the table; the fries come in half pound and pound orders. Honey’s doesn’t mess around.

I don’t think my words will do Honey’s wings the justice they deserve. The wings themselves were high quality, with the perfect ratio of sauce to meat and lacking the superfluous amount of skin and fat that some wings have. The wings were cooked exactly how I like them, where the skin winds up a bit crispy but not overcooked and dried out or inundated with oil. The sauce itself was fantastic, a bit of heat with a bold garlic flavor and dusted with the right amount of parmesan. I enjoy some spice with my food and their hot sauce was the perfect compliment to the wings’ base sauce. Dan ordered the Spicy Honey Garlic wings, and anyone with a bit of a sweet-tooth would appreciate this flavor.  They were sweet, yet not cloyingly so. The fries appeared to be house cut, lightly salted, and fried to order. If you want to eat chicken wings, and eat the best chicken wings in Tampa then you need to go to Honey’s.

My friend Phil ordered the Beef and Cheddar Sandwich which looked delicious, and Jacob ordered the Chicken Sandwich (which in turn looked delicious):

Overall Honey’s earned a Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars stars. That elusive 5 is reserved for those meals that are so good you can’t put a finger on it, and typically involves the company with you. The spectre of returning to work may have been that -.5, but either way Honey’s deserves a visit.

Cheers,
-Matt in Tampa

So I’ve been jonesing for a good burger dive for a while now.  I’ve dropped by a couple other local places and still haven’t been excited about any of them.  Lansing had Bonnie’s Place and Crunchy’s.  I like the hole in the wall that serves stupid good cow between bread.

Anyways, Matt asked for some suggestions and our neighbor suggested we give Square 1 a chance.  It’s down in the South Tampa area and it has the normal Tampa look.  It seems like everything in Tampa really tries to look like some business casual dining place.  It’s kinda bizarre.  It seems like there aren’t that many places that have a grit to them. I digress, it’s a fairly inviting atmosphere and pretty cozy.  The music kinda sucks, it was like VH1 in the 90s, lots of garbage I don’t particularly care for.  Don’t hate it, but wouldn’t subject myself to it either.

I wasn’t blown away by the burger meat.  Not very fatty, probably a 90/10 meat/fat mix.  I prefer 85/15 but that might just be because I’m cheap. I didn’t really look at the menu at all. Blinders were on and burger-mode was in full effect.  I saw a “Rise and shine” burger. Eggs?! BACON?! WHY NOT! I’m a pretty easy sell.  Matt opted for the Black and Bleu burger (which also comes with bacon). We both ordered our burgers medium, unfortunately they showed up medium-well.  While the burgers were overcooked, the egg was perfect. Runny, but still cooked. The rise and shine also came with onions, which were terribly overcooked.  They might as well have been puréed for how much texture they had.  That said, the bun was kind of like a firmer roll and the bacon was excellent. While my commentary on the cooking might paint the Rise and Shine in a bad light, the only terrible thing about it was how terribly delicious it was. The most notable thing about the bleu cheese burger is that they use real bleu cheese, so if you prefer your bleu cheese out of a dressing bottle you might want to steer clear.

Service was fast and the bartender was cute. The prices weren’t bad but nothing really knocked my socks off. It rates a solid Rating: 3 out of 5 stars .

First, sorry about the poor quality of pictures, I forgot to pack my normal camera, so all of these were shot using a camera phone (except for the logo and outdoor shot, which I cribbed from Eddie’s). Eddie’s at first glance may appear like a tourist trap, but it strikes me more as a local haunt. They have a couple ‘thatched’ tiki huts outside, and arcade games like skeeball inside. The “dining room” is paneled in wood and features TV’s in cubby holes ringing the bar, and unfortunately the TV’s look like they were purcashed in the early 2000’s as they’re all about 28-30 inches. If you’re going to watch “the-big-game” you may want to consider a diffferent bar.

I first came to Eddie’s on an invitation to have a drink. Girls get an “all-you-can-drink” bracelet for $5 on Tuesdays. They also offer $1 tacos (the only reason I came out). The tacos were surprisingly large and good for being $1; they were packed with meat and unfortunately this foreshadowed the night as Eddie’s began to fill up with alcoholic girls and meatheads looking to score… clearly not my kind of crowd. I fell slightly off track, the reason I came back to Eddie’s on a sweltering Saturday afternoon is a menu item that caught my eye:

…a challenge for champions, and with my love for burgers a worthwhile endeavor. It might be difficult to read, but the menu reads that they bring you 1lb of Fries and 3lb’s of Burger. So, on returning I ordered a water and the Eddie’s Monster Burger… and proceeded to wait 45 minutes for the food to be cooked. While waiting for my beast to be cooked, my lady ordered Fried Mushrooms and a side salad:

This is after about 20 minutes of eating this monster plate of mushrooms, the picture does not do the quantity of food justice. The salad was what you would expect when ordering a side salad. Later in the day, I baked the remaining mushrooms and even reheated they were fairly good.

From here you can see the massive quantity of fries. What may be difficult to see is how deep this dish is, it’s more like the dog-bowl for Beethoven (see ‘Huge Slobbering Dog’ from lame family movie).

What you may be able to ascertain from this shot, is that the burger is in fact larger than my head.

Yes, this is fucking huge. I have most likely bitten off far more than I can chew. When the burger came out the owner of Eddie’s (his name is… Eddie) came out and shook my hand, gave me some encouraging words and informed me that 10 people have attempted this monstrosity and that only 1 person had even finished the plate. Eddie is one of those older guys that you immediately like. He’s got a bit of a lewd mouth, and a friendly manner.

So, into the fray I go. I decided that I would start off with the fries as I felt like they would be more difficult to muscle down at the end. My strategy was a bit off in retrospect, as the sheer mass of the burger is fairly daunting after you rip into it. My only fluid would be water (I eventually had a couple sips of diet pepsi just to change up the flavor of what I was consuming/clear the palate). What I neglected to state was that 3 pickles were tossed into the hot mess, not that it drastically changed the quantity there or made the challenge more daunting.

After about 7 minutes I had cleared the majority of the fries and moved onto the burger which I loaded up with Mustard and Ketchup.

Above is a shot at the 10 minute mark. I could feel myself begin to slow down. I had developed and insidious feeling that I was going to hit critical mass. One thing to note, before going into a food challenge you should try to expand your stomach. Whether you do that through good ‘ole over-eating or eat huge salads with every meal and keep packing it in when you’re feeling full. Prior to this challenge I had been reducing my daily intake throughout the past 2 weeks, trying to be healthier. In hindsight, this was a poor decision to assist in crushing this challenge.

As you can see here at the 15 minutes mark, my progress has great slowed. I’ve only managed to eat a bit more of the bottom half of the burger, pack a way a few more fries and finish the pickles.

Above, you can see me at the 20 minute mark. By the end of the 30 minutes, I hadn’t pushed much further than this, I tossed down a few more bites of burger and bemoaned how packed I felt. In terms of the food, the fries were excellent as they were thick-cut, seasoned well with salt (and no other seasoning) and cooked well; crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. As for the burger, my only beef with the beef is that it lacked salt and pepper… it tasted like it was only lightly seasoned. The actual meat itself was good and cooked to my specification. According to our waitress, the burger was created from 6 other of their “normal” burgers.

In closing, I was bested by this beast of a meal and had to dish out the $24.99 for the plate. Come visit me and I dare you to give it a shot.

-Matt in Tampa
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Judging by the name, you wouldn’t expect this joint to have a focuse on their food. And you’re right! The selection is fairly uninspired Pub-fare, as well as being a bit pricey for what’s available. You have an array of sandwiches, 4 salads, or appetizers to choose from. All of which carry a price tag about $2 over what you’d expect.

I ended up ordering a salad. Essentially it’s an oversized garden salad, and I asked for Balsamic Vinagerette on the side:

Yup, there it is. Some diced tomatos, a mix of greens (not just iceberg with romain on top, it was a fairly good mix), 2 croutons (toasted bread with a basil and oil mixture), cheddar cheese, red onions, and green peppers. The salad was supposed to come with Cucumbers… but they were out. The flavors all meshed well, the ingredients were fresh but I did miss not having cucumbers. The salad was satisfying but I wouldn’t put a $7.50 price tag on it and call it a deal. Overpriced for what I received but the beer made up for it. The real reason to come to the Dunedin Brewery is to have some delicious micro-brews and enjoy some music.
I ordered a Celtic Gold to go with the salad and it went well. It has a strong almost citric bite, yet it didn’t have a sour twist at the end. The beer wasn’t sweet like PBR nor was it bitter like a strong ale, it was crisp and refreshing… a solid summer beer.

In closing, decent food that was overpriced. I would advise grabbing your grub elsewhere and showing up here for the beers (no liquor served at this establishment).

-Matt in Dunedin
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars