The Bricks – Ybor City

 

Yesterday we headed to Ybor City to grab some lunch.  I had heard great reviews about a restaurant called The Bricks, but hadn’t had the chance to try it out before. 

As expected, it is located in a brick building, with exposed brick walls in the interior.  It is clearly aimed at a young crowd – The Skatepark of Tampa apparently opened it after decades of sending business to other local bars and restaurants. 

When you walk in, the music sounds like you might be in a Pac Sun or Tilly’s.  The TVs had footage of 80’s skateboarding kids and The Disney Channel playing.  They had ads for “The Church of Nintendo” game nights on Mondays, and they featured a chorizo soup called “Chorizard” (for those of you that didn’t grow up as 90’s kids, there was a Pokémon dragon named Charizard…I never even had any Pokémon cards, but I still recognized the name…)  

I was pretty excited to see Cigar City’s Cubano Espresso Brown Ale on the drink menu.  It’s a coffee beer brewed with local coffee beans, and tastes almost more like a Starbucks drink than a beer.   

 

I ordered The Bird and Pig sandwich – with roasted pulled chicken, bacon, apples, brie, and agave served on sweet bread.  From their Yelp reviews, it seems that this is pretty much everyone’s favorite sandwich there.  It was the perfect mix of savory and sweet – and they even served it presented in a heart shape! I had the mixed greens salad as my side, which was tossed in a tangy dressing. 

Lance had The Burrito – with oven roasted pork, black bean-corn relish, cheddar, and avocado cream in a pressed flour tortilla.  I thought the pressed tortilla was much better than the normal cold tortilla you’d get at a typical burrito restaurant. 

Whether you’re a skateboarder or not, I’d highly recommend checking this place out. 

The Bricks is located at 1327 E 7th Ave, Tampa, FL 33605  and is open 11am – 1am Monday – Sunday.       

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Hunahpu's Imperial Stout

 

Yesterday, I saw on The Revolution Ice Cream Company’s facebook page that they had created a new ice cream flavor – Cinnamon Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. 

Just in case you don’t know about this beer, it is Cigar City’s most sought after beer.  They brew it just one day a year, and release it the second Saturday in March at the brewery.  The Hunahpu’s Day event has become so popular that they had to start charging $200 per ticket to keep the crowds under control.  The beer made this list of The 10 Most Traveled For Beers in America and it has a perfect 100 score on Ratebeer. 

It gets its name from the legendary Hun Hunahpu of Mayan mythology.  Hunahpu was slain Dark Lords of the underworld, and his sacrificed body morphed into a cocoa tree, with a cocoa pod as his head.  One of the Dark Lord’s daughters, Xquic, picked a fruit from the tree and it spat on her, impregnating her with twin sons.  The twins grew up and defeated the Dark Lords to avenge their father, then transformed into the sun and the moon. 

The stout is aged on cocoa nibs, ancho and pasilla chiles, cinnamon, and Madagascar vanilla beans.  Unfortunately with it being so rare and the event being so expensive, I’ve never had the chance to taste it, but it sounds incredible. 

 

The line at the ice cream parlor was longer than I’ve ever seen it.  It seems that the word spread about their one batch of the cinnamon flavor – although it wasn’t marked on the board with the rest of them.  Lance and I each got a scoop of it – plus I had a scoop of their Mocha Mint (coffee ice cream with Thin Mint cookies), and Lance had a scoop of the What’s Up Nutter Fudger? (chocolate peanut butter ice cream with chunks of nutter bars). 

 

All our flavors were delicious.  I’m glad we were able to try the special flavor because the stout made the cinnamon ice cream even richer.  I still wish I could try a sip of the beer on its own, but the ice cream was great. 

If you want to read more about The Revolution Ice Cream, check out this post from last September.  They constantly have events and come up with new flavors, so like their facebook page if you want to stay updated.  Coming up on Sunday, April 12^th from 1 – 7pm, they will have food trucks, live music, a bounce house, and BOGO ice cream all to benefit the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) at USF, so if you’re free that day, go eat some ice cream for a good cause. 

The Revolution Ice Cream Company is located at 220 W Brandon Blvd #104, Brandon, FL 33511 and is open 12pm – 10pm Monday through Saturday and 1pm – 9pm on Sunday.

Cigar City Brewery – Tampa, FL

 

Lance and I both worked on his birthday last Sunday, so I told him we could do whatever he wanted to celebrate on our next day off together on Tuesday.  So of course, part of that celebration had to include drinking some beer. 

We’ve been making our way around all the Tampa Bay area breweries, but surprisingly we hadn’t made it to Cigar City yet.  We’ve been to the Brewpub (which has fantastic food), but the brewery tasting room was a fun experience. 

 

 

When you first walk in, there’s a separate growler-filling station with about a dozen beer choices.  Next you walk past a merchandise booth with Cigar City shirts, mugs, and even beer-scented soaps. 

The main tasting room had 18 of their own beers on tap along with 6 from guest breweries.  We ordered flights (you can’t get the guest beers for flights, but I wanted to try the Cigar City ones while there anyways…) 

 

I liked the Cherry Berliner Weisse – although it’s only 2.7% ABV, so it’s nothing strong.  On the other hand, the Mercielago was REALLY strong.  It’s an ale aged in tequila barrels with cumin and lime peel.  The tequila was a bit overpowering for me, but Lance liked it. 

I was really excited to fill up a growler of their Cubano Espresso brown ale.  I had a sip of my brother’s a few weeks ago and it was amazing!  It’s brewed with espresso beans, vanilla, and cacao nibs.  He had it in a frosty mug and it almost tasted like a frappuccino.  It’s been brewed in previous years with beans from Mazzaro’s Italian Market, but this year I’ve read that it’s being brewed with Buddy Brew’s Cubano Espresso coffee.

Unfortunately, everyone else seems to like that beer as well – they were completely out by the time we went to fill up our growlers!  We filled up with some Jai Alai instead. 

Cigar City Brewing is located at 3924 West Spruce Street, Tampa, FL 33607 and is open 11am – 11pm Sunday – Thursday and 11am – 1am Friday – Saturday.