Where to eat in St. Pete?

We are heading off in a couple of weeks for our first adults-only vacation in 3 years (It's our anniversary ) We booked a condo on the beach in Indian Rock Beach a short drive to St. Petersburg and only 1/2 hr to Tampa. We'll have a rental car and are willing to drive for great food (above the standard "beach fare"). Suggestions from you folks for restaurants, both tres casual and fine dining would be greatly appreciated.

Also, we always enjoy occasional cooking- in during of our vacation- are there any local specialities we should try our hand at? We always cook up a bunch of Royal Red shrimp our first night in Destin and I'm wondering if there's something similiar in St. Pete that we don't want to miss.

Thanks for any advice-

Deb

Great time of year to head down there, Deb!

Just south of Indian Rocks Beach in North Redington Beach is a great place called Conch Republic Grill. Extremely fresh seafood and shrimp. It is on the main drag called Gulf Blvd. The address is 16699 Gulf Blvd.

Further south on Gulf Blvd is The Harp & Thistle Pub and Grill. They have live celtic music almost every night and a pretty good pub grub menu. It is tucked in a Howard Johnson but is easy to see from the street.

While in the area head north up Gulf Blvd to Clearwater and cross over east on U.S. 60 until you hit Highway 19. Take it up to northern Pinellas county and go to Tarpon Springs (look for the signs to the Sponge Dock or turn left at East Tarpon Blvd and go over to Alt. 19 and turn right. Go up about 5 blocks and turn left on Dodecanese Blvd where the Sponge Docks are.) Greek food paradise. Head down Dodecanese about 2 blocks and park your car for free behind Mykonos Restaurant. Eat there by all means, we think it is the best of all of the greek places. Greek salad, pastitsio, souvlaki, any fresh fish dish they have. Mmmmmmmm. Don't get dessert there. Walk out the front door of Mykonos and turn left. Walk down about a block to Hellas Bakery and get some Baklava Cheese Cake and Greek Coffee.

Enjoy yourselves!

For breakfast, coffee and newpaper in the outdoor garden out back, I am so fond of:

Sweet Sage Coffee Cafe
16725 Gulf Blvd.
North Redington Beach, FL 33708
727-391-0453

Probably could even walk there from your condo ...

Ed,

Great suggestions! I have a serious weakness for Greek food so that suggestion sounds particularly enticing(Of course that Baklava Cheese cake will be the undoing of any good I've achieved pre-vacation...Oh what an incredible idea, take two of the most scrumptous and fattening desserts ever and put them together... ) Any idea how far it is from Indian Rocks Springs?

Deb

Deb,

I'm assuming you mean Indian Rocks Beach just North of St. Pete on the Gulf side, right? It is 25 miles from Tarpon Springs, in the same County (Pinellas). Stay on Gulf Blvd heading north until you get to Clearwater and then go east on U.S. 60 until you hit U.S. 19 going North. If you want a slower less congested ride you could go north on Alternate 19 (Alt 19) and it will run you right into Tarpon Springs. Alt 19 also takes you right through Dunedin which has Honeymoon Island State Park where the beach is great. You can also catch a passenger ferry in the park to Caladesi Island State Park which is even better. Short drive for great food! Baklava cheesecake is the least sinful dessert you will find at Hellas, they have some incredible treats. Work it all off walking up and down the Sponge Docks looking at all the neat tacky gift shops. Who doesn't need a shrunken coconut monkey head to take home to the kiddo's?

Sally,

Walking distance and a relaxing breakfast sounds great (we don't get many around here- two kids ). Do you know if they do brunch/very late breakfast? ...we are planning on sleeping in as much as possible.

Deb

If you're passing through Dunedin, a pre-beach stop at Dunedin Brewery might be nice. It's been a long time since I was there but, if I'm not mistaken, one of the founders is a former Louisvillian.

Don Cesar downstairs is really good and a great deal for the price. We stayed at Indian Rocks a few years ago and there's this really fun piano bar called JDs where many local myusicians sit in and play and sing. It got wild in there!

http://www.jdsrestaurant.com/

I think it's worth the drive over to Tampa to experience Bern's, if you haven't been at least once. It's legendary - worth going just to see the wine list and the desert floor. (I haven't been for several years, but gave a friend of mine a gift certificate for a wedding gift and he and the new bride enjoyed themselves greatly!)

I second TP with the Bern's comment. Also want to throw in a really romantic and pretty upscale Mise en Place, Right next to the university of Tampa. They do a 3 course tasting with wine parings if that interests you and it was something like $55 a person for that. Not too shabby.

Prost!

Folks,

Thanks so much for all the recommendations! When I posted I wasn't sure I was going to get much of a response, Louisvillians being "Destin" beach goers, or so I'd been told.

Thought you'd enjoy this review of one of the Fabled local restaurants, Hurricane's that I found in my search.

Hurricane Restaurant
The food lacks just about everything you could imagine, and over priced to boot! The ambiance is terrific, if you're going to drink somewhere and have lots and lots money you don't mind spending - this is the place. The sunset view is second to none, if you get drunk enough the food gets better.

Hey, that's the new solution to any bad restaurant: just drink more

Deb

Okay, folks, you've been so great - please help me out with one more thing:

Any suggestions for must see places/things to do? Ed gave me some (Thanks Ed!) but I'd love additional suggestions for a truly memorable trip. Keep in mind we are travelling for total relaxation( lots of time to be spent lolling on the beach) and romance. We won't get another kid -free trip for quite a while and it's our anniversary.

(Obviously we will not be going to Hurricane's to watch the sunset and eat bad food )

Thanks again,
Deb

It's been a couple years, but the Salt Rock Grill near Indian Rock was excellent. http://www.saltrockgrill.com/