05-12-09

05-12-09
I'm starting off with a request. Anyone that has a picture of me and my airplane (Archer or the Cherokee 6) please email a copy of it to me. I have pictures of my planes but none of them have me in the picture. Thanks. I 've been busy snoozing with Peanut keeping me company and watching the Price is Right, did you know Bob Barker dosen't host this anymore, Drew Carrey does, life goes on. We finally decide where lunch will be today, Acropolis, located in what will eventually be a walk around bedroom community, Winthrop. They have one in New Tampa and one in Ybor and I predict that this restaurant will be the next big Chain to come from Tampa/St Pete. Outback, Shells, Hooters all started here and their business model allowed them to excell and expand. Acropolis' Recipe: select a nice building with 16' tall ceilings in a convenient location, serve good Greek food along with American Favorite Standards in sizes that people can either split or they can take home for lunch the next day,charge a low price but one that allows you to still make money, give 2 4 1 homemade Sangria and Margarittas all day every day. Happy hour 3 2 7 everyday, everything is half price. All drinks, all beers, all BOTTLES of wine included. Great service. Hookahs that come in 28 flavors can be had on the outside dining areas. Once the word gets out to the rest of America we will be seeing this restaurant everywhere, get here now so you can say,I remember when they started. We sat at the bar for lunch, Damon brought me a beer and ice tea for Dixie. Food arrives,I got the Acropolis salad, lamb gyro meat piled high over mixed greens, potato salad, olives, greek peppers, red and green peppers, 1/2" thick piece of Feta cheese,tomatoes, pita, tzatziki and greek dressing. Dixie got the Spanakopita, light and flaky Fila pastry dough stuffed with spinach and cheese and served with a greek salad. Unfreakingfreshbelievablygood. There's a new word for Webster. This stuff was good. During our meal Damon filled us in on use of the hookahs, their specials, steroid use in baseball, he made the first batch of the day of Sangria and Margaritas in the large decanters for the rush later on in the day, he told us about the napkins that they throw and the plates that they break and the musician they have and basically he told us everthing we wanted to know. Good employee, the manager came over to make sure our meals where fine. For dessert we split a choholate baklava, a little chilled but still good as anything sweet you can think of eating. All food perfectly presented, I don't think they missed a trick. This will now become one of our regular hangouts. Oh yeah only $26.75 without tip. I get home from lunch and Bob and Barb from Boss Pump and Well already have my pool pump running again even though I only called them this morning, that's good service. I just got a call from John Lynch. After I drop Evan and Holly off at the airport they are picking us up at our house and we are going to a new place. We will have a cocktail before heading out to let rush hour traffic subside and then we will be headed to a new place, Datz Delicatessen & Foodie Market, over by the MacDill area. It's actually cloudy outside today, hope it rains, we haven't had rain for a month, let's hope todays the day. John and Sherry show up at 6:30 and we have a cocktail, we are still trying to duplicate the Bon Ton Rum drink but we still don't have it zeroed in yet. Practice practice practice. We luck out and get a parking spot right in front of the place. It is a huge place, over 6000 sq.ft.of pure heaven sent specialty foods. Finally a place that has a niche for the good stuff. They have outside and downstairs tables available, but we opt to wait for a table upstairs. First we check out the market downstairs, there is a band playing (they have live entertainmet 7 days a week), it is the open ceiling design, tall ceilings with exposed beams and AC venting with nice brick work mixed in. The first case holds their 75 specialty beers, next the dessert case, next their 150 kinds of cheeses, their fresh homemade salads case, there is a wall of 20 different kinds of breads,15 different kinds of bagels, 100 kinds of sandwiches, 1700 bottles of wine. This place has got it all. We sample some proscuitto sliced right off the leg as you watch, unfreakinfreshbelievablygood, there's that word again. We head upstairs to wait at the bar,Blue the bartender brings Dixie and I a wheat beer Oberon, or something like that, and Sherry and John opt for a flight of wine, "The Lighter Side of Italy", it comes on a place card with the name of each wine so you will know what to reorder. They don't have liquor so Blue handles the pours for the whole place. It is a Tueday and the place is packed. When you have them packed in on a Monday and Tuesday you know you are doing something right. They have flights of cheese, Charcuterie Flights, Cheese and Charcuterie Flights, Wine Flights. The Flights are the easiest way to sample all the stuff that they have. The main menu is incredible, it goes on and on and on, Full meals, snacks, soups, salads, specials of the day, sandwiches, beers, wines, you need to plan on spending a half hour just looking before you order. We are in grazing mode so we sample their homemade chips with blue cheese and chives sauce drizzled over them, and then we try three flights of different cheeses, ham and salami. The "Goodfellas" (3 different salamis) being all of ours favorite with the "Menage A Trois" (3 different cheeses) coming in a close 2nd. Their sommelier, Pam or Pat, (we are now into drinking mode so I'm not sure), came over and explained that she buys the wine wholesale and then only charges retail at the restaurant, how refreshing is that! No gouging of prices. We tried a flight of "Killer Cabs" and decided on a bottle of B.R. Cohn Cabernet (the best of the flight) $25.99 a bottle, to go with what we were eating. Blue brought out a Flight of desserts, that's right flights of "Fantasy", carrot cake, orange cake, and chocolate cake with truffle chocolate bacon balls. Holy crap this is good stuff. Totally satisfied that's it for us. Everybody, and I do mean everybody, could not do enough for us, Josh(who has been working there only 5 days) broke his back to make sure we were taken care of, Blue the bartender,the girl behind the counter that carves the hams, Aaron the trainee, Rook our waiter, Michelle, Leigh, Jess and if I forgot someone I appologize, everyone was GREAT. This is like Walt Disney World For Foodies. $130 not including tip. We'll be back.See Ya Brian