Station House – St. Petersburg, FL

Since we moved into the house & got married, we really haven’t been eating out as often as before.  We love our new kitchen so we actually end up cooking in more frequently, and we’re trying to be better about saving money. 

But last night we decided to celebrate our first 2 weeks of marriage with a date night out in St. Pete.  We had a CL Deal to Station House that was about to expire so we decided to go there.  I had gone there a few months back during my bachelorette party.  I think it was actually better this time around since most of the food is small plates and meant for sharing, which is easier to do for a date night with 2 instead of 15 people. 

Parking is sometimes difficult on the weekends in St. Pete unless you want to pay at a garage, but we found a spot near the Dali museum and took a walk since it was so nice out last night.  Station House’s location is great – right in the heart of downtown.  

It’s interesting because it’s actually a multi-purpose building.  The restaurant is in the basement but it is much more than just that.  The 2^nd level is a social club and used for events.  TeBella and Kahwa have their own mini coffee and tea shops set up in the building.  And their “Mind Body Station” hosts yoga classes on the 2^nd floor as well as in their rooftop garden.  It also incorporates a coworking space where creative professionals can set up shop and work rather than bringing their laptop to Starbucks (they can even rent a desk, office suite, or meeting room). 

The restaurant has a speakeasy vibe – we enjoyed live jazz music with our craft cocktails and small plates of food.  Our waitress, Sarah, was super friendly and recommended all the best things on the menu.  She said she’d only been working there a week but you would have never known she was so new.  She said we were her favorite people she served that night.   

I had the Russian Punch which was a tart fruity cocktail with berries & champagne.  Lance’s Suffering Bastard drink was good for him but definitely too strong for me – it was blend of gin and whiskey, luckily over a lot of crushed ice. 

We started with the Cedar Key Clam Dip which is served with their homemade potato chips.  While they weren’t Datz chips, they were pretty tasty and went well with the dish.  Then we had the Cauliflower Taboule which was fresh and felt very healthy. 

The Radicchio Salad was interesting because the bacon lardons were the same texture and color as the radicchio leaves – it was a crunchy mix with pecorino romano cheese, garlic croutons and topped with a soft poached egg that oozed over the whole salad as the dressing. 

My favorite part of the meal was the Dark Lacquered Pork Cap, which we were told is cooked all day in its own fat, so it was super tender.  It was served over a mirliton slaw with roasted peanuts and the meat had a caramelized glaze topped with scallions.  I wish we each had our own plate of it instead of sharing it – I love any dish that is Asian-inspired. 

We finished with one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time.  It was a Dark & Stormy Budino – which is a sweet Italian pudding.  It had layers of thick custard with flavors of rum, butterscotch, and key lime.  We literally licked the little mason jar it was served in clean.     

They didn’t really know what to do with our CL Deal but eventually figured it out – we didn’t mind hanging around awhile though since the atmosphere is so nice.  The price is definitely more than we’d spend on a normal dinner out, but our coupon made it a lot more reasonable. I love that nothing we ordered was a dish I would have made for dinner at home.  All the food was original and creative.   Sure we’ll be back again!  

Station House is located at 260 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.  They are open Monday – Thursday 7am – 1am and Friday – Sunday 7am – 3am.  

Atlanta Restaurants

 

I had training for HON Office Furniture in Atlanta this past week.  It just happened to be on Tuesday/Wednesday (which are Lance’s days off work each week), so he joined me for the work trip.  While I was in class, he wandered the city, and then in the evenings, we ate our way around town. 

On our way out of town, our flight out was delayed because of thunderstorms, so we enjoyed beers at the Cigar City brewery right in the Airside C terminal.  They brew beer right there in the airport– and even have some specialties that aren’t available at the other locations (I really liked the Tony Jannus Pale Ale – named for the world’s first commercial airline pilot, who flew from Tampa to St. Pete, Florida). 

We got to Atlanta Monday evening.  One of our all-time favorite restaurants is Canoe – we discovered it last time we were in Atlanta (read more about it on this blog post…)  The menu is innovative and perfectly executed, and the view is beautiful.  It is on the Chattahoochee River and has a beautiful garden behind.  Well, we couldn’t miss an opportunity to eat there again, so we took an Uber there for dinner (it’s a little drive from midtown/downtown Atlanta, so it would be hard to get there with public transportation). 

If you haven’t used Uber before, we had a great experience with it!  Our drivers were much friendlier than the taxi driver that we had from the airport, and if you go here or use my referral code amandan1158ue, you’ll get your first ride for free!  

Lance tried the Wild Heaven Eschaton Quadrupel based out of Decatur, GA, and I had their 4^th Sun Rising cocktail with Old Fourth Distillery, SOHO Lychee, lemongrass, lemon, and egg whites.  My drink was deliciously tart – but probably went a little overboard with the egg whites.  It was hard to get through the thick foam to sip the drink. 

We started with the peppercorn crusted kangaroo loin with caramelized onion tart, olive, and black vinegar gastrique (since when else will we have the opportunity to try kangaroo…)  If I hadn’t known any better, I would have just thought it was steak. 

For our main courses, Lance ordered the pork tenderloin and I had the lamb sirloin.  His actually came with multiple types of meat – the tenderloin, house made sausage, and braised pork belly, with apricot and natural jus.  Mine was served over English pea tortellini, minted tomato jam, and pistachio butter. You really can’t go wrong with anything you order at this restaurant.  We probably went a little overboard with the meat dishes that evening, but it was all fantastic. 

We were really full, but the dessert we had last time was one of the best sweets we’ve ever had, so we finished with their gourmet cracker jack sundae. 

I kept my receipt because it says I bought 1 kangaroo…

For summertime, it really wasn’t that hot outside and it was great weather for wandering their gardens.  There were fireflies lighting up and we visited the chicken coop where they get all the fresh eggs for the restaurant. 

After my training the next day, we visited the Wrecking Bar Brewpub.  We actually wanted to go on our last trip, but it was closed when we were there before.  It’s in the Little Five Points neighborhood in an old Victorian mansion.  The tables were set with pretty wildflowers.  Our waiter recommended the Corn Pups and the Georgia Duck, so we went with his suggestions.   

I’m not normally a fan of hot dogs – personally it just seems gross that it’s a mixture of all rejected meat parts.  But these were made from chedderwurst, battered in corn bread, and fried.  It was served with curry ketchup and yellow mustard – it was good, but would have been better if it was with a whole grain or spicy mustard. 

The duck was served with chioggia beets, red beet root, swiss chard, radish, chanterelles (a type of mushroom), and duck jus.  The presentation was very pretty, and the flavor was just as great as it looked. 

We finished with a peach crisp (which actually turned out to have blueberries as well).  It was topped with oatmeal streusel and vanilla honeysuckle gelato. 

Finally, the last day we had to fly back home, so we had a really early dinner around 4pm.  Several of my classmates from the training had eaten at South City Kitchen the night before and said it was amazing, but another set of people said it was so crowded, even on a Tuesday night, that there was over an hour wait.  We made reservations, but there really wasn’t a need for them when we showed up for such an early dinner. 

They didn’t start serving their full dinner until 5pm, but we ordered from their abbreviated bar menu, which had some of their specialties. I liked the Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan ale from Mississippi and Lance enjoyed his Hoplanta IPA – but I wasn’t as much of a fan of Terrapin’s Peach Farmhouse Ale (too sweet). 

We had the buttermilk fried chicken and the shrimp & red mule grits.  It seemed like we should get Southern specialties while we were in Georgia.  Both were really authentic dishes and very filling.  The red grits were a bit heavier than I’m used to – with poblano peppers, house made tasso ham, and smoked tomato gravy.  We didn’t have room for any dessert this time (and figured even if we did, dessert three nights in a row was probably a bad idea…) 

Atlanta has so many fantastic restaurant options – happy to have had the chance to try a few new ones this time!  But Canoe still tops the charts for me…definitely go there if you have the chance.      

Canoe is located at 4199 Paces Ferry Rd SE, Atlanta, GA 30339  and is open for lunch 11:30am – 2:30pm Monday through Fridays, for dinner 5:30pm – 10pm Monday through Thursday, and 5:30pm – 11pm Friday & Saturday, and 5:30pm – 9:30pm on Sundays.  They are also open for Sunday brunch 10:30am – 2:30pm. 

Wrecking Bar Brewpub is located at 292 Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307 and is open 4pm – 11pm Monday – Thursday, 12pm – 12am Friday – Saturday, and 11am – 10pm on Sundays. 

Southern City Kitchen is located at 1144 Crescent Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30309 and is open 11am – 10pm Monday – Thursday, 11am – 10:30pm Friday, 10am – 3pm and 5pm – 10:30pm on Saturdays, and 10am – 3pm and 5pm – 10pm on Sundays. 

Bucket’s Grill – Tampa, FL

 

We tried to go to Bucket’s Grill about a week ago, but since it’s right down the street from MacDill Air Force Base and the President was in town, it was impossible to drive the couple blocks to get to it.  Tonight it took us barely 2 minutes to get there. 

They opened in July, and all the reviews I’ve read have given them praise.  They only have 2 Yelp reviews so far (both 5’s), but their facebook page has 50 reviews, 43 of them rating it 5 stars, and the rest giving the restaurant 4 stars.  Plus, I read a review on the blog SOG City Oracle (SOG meaning South of Gandy), which called it a “South Tampa Bucket of Goodness”. 

Bucket’s specializes in comfort food and the prices are incredibly reasonable.  Tonight was pretty quiet, with maybe half a dozen other people in the restaurant (it was a rainy weeknight though). 

While there are some healthier options on the menu like grilled fish, a black bean burger, and salads, there is also a "Cardiac Burger" which includes 2 Angus burger patties, bacon, fried egg, and onion rings topped with lots of cheese (with an appropriate price of $9.11 – which may be the phone number called after the heart attack caused by the burger...)

We went for some of the less-healthy options, including Kai’s Mac and Cheese Bites, Q.T.W. Sweet Potato Waffle Fries, and the Jack-N-Jack (flapjacks with Jack Daniel’s whiskey maple syrup served with shredded Cuban pork).  

The Mac and Cheese bites were made with pepper jack so they had a little kick of spice.  The sweet potato fries were some of the best I’ve had – Lance said they reminded him of food at the State Fair.  The brown sugar coating almost made them taste like churros. 

The pancakes were an interesting combination – like a twist on the popular chicken & waffles.  They were very generous with the pork – it was both on top and in between all the flapjack layers.  Although I’ve never had pork with pancakes before, it was a perfect sweet & salty mix once topped with the boozy syrup. 

Our meal including 2 beers only came to $22 after tax.  Nothing fancy, but a very enjoyable meal.  I’m sure we’ll go back again, especially now that we know that they have $0.49 Wing Mondays and $1 Taco Tuesdays. 

Bucket’s Grill is located at 6231 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611 and is open 11am – 11pm every day.