First Watch – Tampa, FL

 

Lance’s birthday is this weekend.  Since he’s on the email list for First Watch, he got sent a coupon for a free birthday entrée! Until recently, I didn’t realize it was a chain outside of Tampa – apparently they have over 100 locations around the country. 

Lance started off with his normal black coffee, and I tried their Day Glow juice – made from carrot, orange, lemon, and organic ginger.  The juice was really refreshing and tasted very fresh.  It wasn’t super sweet like orange juice – the tartness from the lemon along with the carrot and ginger was a great balance. 

I love their different pancake varieties (I wrote about them back when I posted about First Watch in July…)  Instead I decided to try one of their specials – the Smoked Salmon Benedict. It had two poached eggs on Ciabatta, topped with the salmon, tomato, hollandaise, red onion, and herbs.  It came with a side of greens in lemon white balsamic (so it was relatively healthy for a Benedict breakfast…)

Lance had the Chickichanga – a Mexican style egg dish.  It had whipped eggs with spicy chicken, chorizo, green chilies, cheeses, onion, and avocado in a tortilla topped with Vera Cruz sauce and sour cream.  It came with a side of fruit and potatoes.   The fruit wasn’t anything special, but the egg dish was excellent!

 

If you haven’t already, sign up for their email list because it’s well worth it to get the free birthday meal! 

First Watch has several locations – we went to the one at 3712 Henderson Blvd

Tampa, FL 33609 which is open from 7am – 2:30pm every day. 

Village Inn - Tampa, FL

This morning we had a late breakfast at the Village Inn.  It’s been here in Tampa since 1961 and I’ve eaten there plenty of times.  Until today I actually didn’t realize they had locations outside of Florida.  It turns out that the first Village Inn opened in 1958 in Denver, Colorado. 

It has the traditional diner atmosphere with plenty of booth seating.  They have old photos of Tampa hanging on the walls – and even have one of their 1960’s menus framed showing $0.50 buttermilk pancakes and $0.90 waffles.  The prices are still very reasonable, but our breakfasts were $7.59 each.  We both picked from the “Inn-credible V.I.B.” breakfast, which lets you pick any 4 breakfast items from a list of 30. 

I ordered the Cinnamon Toast pancakes, country potatoes, grits, and sausage links.  And Lance had the Buttermilk pancakes, Cinnamon Sugar Donut Poppers, Sausage Links, and Bacon. 

I realized it was one of the least colorful meals we’ve had in a long time…all in various shades of beige.  But it was pretty tasty.  We really enjoyed both the cinnamon pancakes and donuts.  The grits were kind of mediocre, but I guess I shouldn’t expect anything too fancy (I really should have gotten fruit to add something healthy to my plate instead). 

Today was “Pie Rush Wednesday” which means with every meal, you get a free slice of pie!  Of course we were way too full after our meal, so we took the pies home and they’re still in our fridge. We got slices of Strawberry Rhubard and Triple Berry.  They are both topped with large granules of sugar with a crispy crust. 

So for about $15 we got 2 large breakfasts and 2 slices of pie!  Even without the pies, our meals were so filling that we skipped lunch entirely. 

Village Inn is located at 215 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33609 and is open 6am – 2am Sunday through Thursday, and 24 hours on Friday & Saturdays.