Bars & Spirits

For more than year, I have chased unicorns.I’ve searched the Tampa Bay area. I’ve hunted in Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Cleveland andLas Vegas. I’ve walked through dozens of doors, but I often strike out.I’m not chasing mythical creatures. My unicorn...

SILAS DENT’SAfter 39 years of business, Silas Dent’s Steakhouse at 5501 Gulf Blvd. in St. Pete Beach has been sold to the owners of Caddy’s on the Beach. It will be retrofitted and reopened as the boat-up Caddy’s St. Pete.In 1978, Ted Stambaugh, Rob...

When Abigail StClair studied at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., she set her sights on preveterinary classes, specifically marine mammals. Why? Because it was the hardest curriculum. A postcollege stint as a whale trainer at the Mystic A...

It took me an embarrassing number of years to overcome my (unreasonable) paranoia about making jam that would somehow give my friends and family botulism. The nasty, if rare, illness — which can lead to paralysis, death, etc. — is caused by a toxin g...

This year, Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing upgraded its range of canned offerings, retooling artwork and adding a couple of popular and previously limited brews, including Guayabera Citra Pale Ale. The meteoric rise in popularity of the Citra hop variety ...

TIERRA VERDEIt has always been a charming restaurant space, tucked at the back of the little shopping center adjacent to Billy’s Stone Crab on the way to Fort De Soto Park. I reviewed it when it was the German Crepe House, and maybe again shortly aft...

You may notice a new name in the cooler this week, as another Tampa Bay brewery has launched a line of canned beers. The first canning run from Tampa’s 81Bay Brewing Co. includes The Sun Viking IPA, Coffee Porter and Reel Slo Irish Red Ale. Reel Slo,...

Watermelon has always felt indulgent to me: a staple of backyard Fourth of July celebrations, a respite from the summer heat. The last time I had it, I was sipping a watermelon-mint cooler in a Brooklyn cafe, trying to escape the sweltering air that ...

By Leah EskinGrit is grainy and annoying, as in: What’s that grit on the countertop? It’s grating, as in: Scrubbing the countertop makes me grit my teeth. It honors pluck: That girl’s got grit. Perhaps it could also pinpoint one speck of the breakfas...