717 South – Tampa, FL

 

Last week, we headed to 717 South for date night.  We had a CL Deal, so we got a pretty fancy dinner for a great price.  It was a Friday night, but surprisingly there was almost no one in the restaurant.  Every other time we’ve been there it’s been packed!

 

We started off with a Jai Alai & a Syrah (my wine was excellent!) 

 

 

And usually free bread isn’t worth the calories, but 717 serves complimentary toasty bread with a delicious tomato dipping sauce before the meal. 

 

For my meal, I chose one of the house specialties – lollipop pork chop.  It was served lightly smoked with Old Smokey Tennessee “apple pie moonshine” sauce, asparagus, and bacon-truffle mac & cheese. 

Lance had the hanger steak – with a fried egg, house cured bacon, baby arugula with gorgonzola vinaigrette, cilantro chimichurri and house-made white cheddar stone ground grits.  He actually got the same meal last time we went there.

 

We both cleared our plates – the food at 717 is always fantastic.  I loved the sweet sauce on my pork chop, but chimmichurri served with Lance’s steak was even better! 

It would normally be a bit pricey for us, but it ends up being reasonable if you have a CL Deal or Groupon.  Just make sure that you tip on the pre-discounted amount.  My credit card company actually sent me an alert making sure I meant to give a 40% tip – they must have thought I was just being extra generous. 

My parents gave us a bunch of CL Deals as Christmas presents this year, so we’ll have lots of date nights already paid for! 

717 South is located at 717 South Howard Avenue, Tampa, FL 33606 and is open 11:30am – 10pm Monday – Wednesday, 11:30am – 11pm Friday – Saturday, 5pm – 11pm Saturday, and 5pm – 9pm on Sunday.