Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse – Tampa, Florida

Last night we had the privilege of previewing the brand-new Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse on South Dale Mabry in Tampa before it officially opens on tomorrow.

We were sad when GrillSmith closed in that location awhile back because I love their pumpkin crab bisque (luckily, they are moving into the old Grille One Sixteen location further up the road just north of Kennedy…) 

Terra Gaucha has run a successful restaurant in Jacksonville since 2015. They worked with BDG Architects to convert the previous Grillsmith location into an elegant new space that is now fit for the churrascaria style dining experience. This culinary style originated with the South American cowboys, or “gaúchos,” who grilled meats over an open flame.

I’ve been lucky getting to preview the transformation of the restaurant since I work for the architect. Our interior design team did an amazing job (you can read more about the design concept here). I love the beautiful wine display at the entrance as well as the custom sculpture and painting by artist Marc De Waele.

We had never visited a Brazilian steakhouse before, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. For dinner, restaurant patrons have the option for either a gourmet salad and hot bar or the “full rodizio experience” which includes the salad bar as well as unlimited access to over a dozen varieties of meats cut tableside. We were invited to be part of the “friends and family” night to sample the menu, so our meals were complimentary (minus the drinks…)

They have a diverse wine menu, but we tried their cocktails instead. Lance had the caipirinha, made with cachaça (a Brazilian rum), sugar, and lime. I had the same but with muddled pineapple and mint, which I’d definitely order again.

As we were seated, we were served cheesey puffs of bread along with caramelized bananas. The bread was good but I wanted to keep room for all the food to follow. However, we did devour the bananas (they brought us another plate of them after we cleaned the first plate).

When I heard they had a salad bar, I pictured it being more like a Sweet Tomatoes, but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. They had a few meats and cheeses (including an enormous wheel of parmesan), grilled pineapple, roasted garlic, soups, salads, and more.

Once we had our fill of that, we flipped over a card to signify that we were ready for the servers to bring us meat. It seems that the second we flipped it over, we had half a dozen people dashing our way to serve us. We almost had to flip the cards over as soon as we turned them to green because otherwise we’d never have the opportunity to try the meats they cut for us. 

My favorite of the meats was the Porco Com Parmesao (pork tenderloin encrusted with Parmesan cheese). It is soaked in white wine and herbs before being roasted and coasted in cheese. I also enjoyed the smoky Linguiça (Brazilian sausage) and the Picanha (their house specialty premium sirloin). The rest came by so quickly I could barely keep track of what I was sampling. You can see the variety of meats here (we thought it was funny that the “gauchos” were labeled the same as the meats on the menu…hopefully they weren’t turning us into cannibals!) 

Our waiter, Dennis, was extremely welcoming and attentive. He asked for our feedback on the drinks and dishes, which was all positive on our end. I would have loved to have tried one of their desserts, but we were beyond full at the end of our meal. 

While we really enjoyed ourselves, we’d have to save this for a special occasion because it is pricier than we’d spend on a typical date night. Plus, as much as I enjoyed the food, I just don’t eat enough to make any all-you-can-eat establishment worth it. Lance already said he wants to come back for his birthday though because for him, the more meat the better. I wish there was a way to visit and enjoy the salad bar with a smaller sampling of the meats rather than the unlimited option.

Happy to have another new restaurant concept in town and we wish them the best!

Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse is located at 1108 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33629.  They are open for lunch Monday through Friday 11:30am – 2pm and Saturday/Sunday from 11:30am – 3pm. For dinner, they are open from 5 – 10pm Monday through Friday, 4 – 10:30pm on Saturday, and 4 – 9pm on Sunday.

Surf & Turf Dinner for Two

I’m officially a Mrs. now!!! Our wedding was better than I could have imagined and we feel so lucky.  Can’t believe that after 5 years I can finally call him my husband. 

I took off work the Wednesday – Monday of the wedding week (we are honeymooning later in June…)  so it was back to work on Tuesday.  But my coworkers made coming back so much better by throwing me a really wonderful party to celebrate the wedding!  They had a potluck with all the kinds of foods I like, decorated our conference room, gave me flowers and balloons, and best of all gave us a huge basket of food to make a romantic dinner for two. 

Food gifts are my favorite so it was absolutely the perfect present for us!  The basket they gave us was packed with every single ingredient we’d need for the meal, down to the spices.  

They even gave us caviar and a bottle of wine (I had this one before while on a work trip to Gainesville – The Prisoner is a spicy red blend from Napa and it’s delicious!)

We registered for an electric grill after seeing the same one at our hotel in Austin.  I love it because you don’t have to deal with the mess of gas or charcoal.  We picked it up the day we planned to cook our fancy meal – luckily Lance is handy because it came in a thousand pieces and had to be assembled. 

While Lance build the grill, I started to prep our food.  The recipe they gave me had a side of mashed potatoes but I baked them whole instead (since that’s what seems to come with steaks at classy restaurants…) I followed the steps from Gimme Some Oven to make the perfect baked potatoes. 

The salad for our meal had grilled watermelon, which I’d never tried before.  One of the dishes at our wedding was actually a watermelon arugula salad, so this was the perfect side to go with our first fancy meal cooked as a married couple. 

To grill the watermelon, we just cut rounds of it, rubbed one side with olive oil and sprinkled with sugar, then put that side down on the grill for about 3 minutes.  The recipe from A Whole New Twist says to give it a quarter turn (don’t flip them) part way through so you get sear marks both ways. 

The shrimp they gave us was already cooked but we drizzled some oil on them with salt & pepper and let them heat up a bit on the grill as well.  We also grilled up some bacon wrapped scallops (although we had even more scallops with our main course too! 

The salad was pretty easy.  We cut up the grilled watermelon and served it over arugula with the shrimp and some bleu cheese. The dressing for the salad was very simple too - 2 T balsamic vinegar, ¼ t Dijon mustard, ½ t raw honey, 2 T extra virgin olive oil, and ¼ t ground sea salt.  I could make a bigger version of this into a dinner sometime. 

Then we began prepping our steaks.  They got us two giant filet mignons – and I was a bit worried because I never cook steak myself and didn’t want to end up ruining them.  I usually leave it up to the pros at restaurants.  But I followed Iowa Girl Eat’s recipe and they turned out perfectly. 

I’m planning to use the spice rub from that recipe any time I make steak in the future.  It was a blend of salt, peppercorns, fennel seeds, red chili pepper flakes, dried minced garlic, and dried minced onion.  I don’t have a mortar and pestle so I put it all in the food processer and blended until the fennel seeds got chopped up a bit. 

It was actually very easy.  Just rub the steaks in olive oil, generously spread the spice rub on both sides, then sear in an extra hot cast iron skillet with 2 T melted butter until they get nice and golden.  Then, put the whole skillet in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes (this ended up being just enough to cook them rare – but obviously keep an eye on them so they don’t get overdone!)  

Once the steaks were ready, I took them out and covered them with foil while they rested.  In the meantime, put the skillet back on the stovetop and sauté some minced shallot and garlic.  The recipe said to use red wine (which of course would make it even better) but I didn’t want to waste our good one on cooking.  So I added in a cup of beef broth along with a sprig of rosemary and another tablespoon of butter.  As that simmered down, it turned into an amazing sauce to top the steak. 

Then for the scallops, pat them dry with a paper towel then season with salt & pepper.  I put these in a separate skillet with 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil until they got a nice sear. Just before they were done, I tossed them into the steak sauce to finish them up. 

This is probably the best meal I’ve made for us.  It says “dinner for two”, but it really could have been for four since it was so much food.  We actually ended up making a steak salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing for lunch the next day with all the leftovers.   

Since there were so many steps to this meal, I don’t have the time right now to break it all down, but you can visit these sites to get the full recipes: 

The Perfect Baked Potato - Gimme Some Oven

Grilled Watermelon Salad with Shrimp & Arugula - A Whole New Twist

Surf and Turf for Two - Iowa Girl Eat’s

Thanks again to my coworkers for such a sweet welcome back from the wedding week!  

Chocolate Soufflé for Two

For Valentine's Day dessert after our salmon dinner, I wanted to make something that would make just enough for the two of us.  I had a bar of Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt as a favor from my friend Liz's bridal shower.  And recently I bought these cute fox ramekins (surprisingly, they were from Walmart on sale - set of 4 for $10).  The center ends up being gooey like a molten lava cake.  Topped with raspberries, it was the perfect treat to end our meal (along with some chocolate wine!) 

Chocolate Souffle for Two (adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction) 

Ingredients:

• 3 oz dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T egg (crack 1 egg, beat it, and use 2 T)
• 6 T all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/8 t baking soda 

Directions:

1. Spray each ramekin with nonstick spray (I use coconut oil spray).  Preheat oven to 350.  

2. Coarsely chop the chocolate.  Set one ounce aside.  Combine the other 2 ounces with the half and half in a medium heatproof bowl.  Microwave 25 seconds, then stir vigorously until melted and combined.  Reheat in 5 second increments if necessary.  Once melted and smooth, whisk in the brown sugar, then the oil, egg, and vanilla until combined.  

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Pour the wet ingredients in and fold with a rubber spatula until there are no lumps.  Pour evenly into ramekins - they should be about 3/4 the way full.  

4. Drop the remaining chocolate into the centers of the cakes, using a spoon to fully submerge.  

5. Bake 15-16 minutes, rotating at the half way mark.  The centers will stay slightly gooey.  Top with raspberries and serve immediately.  

Keel & Curley Winery and Two Henrys Brewing – Plant City, FL

We’ve been making our way to as many local breweries as possible when we have days off together.  We had bought a CL Deal for Keel & Curley winery awhile ago and finally had a day off recently to go check it out.  They specialize in fruit-infused wines – but also a few years back launched a brewery on site as well called Two Henrys Brewing (named for Henry B. Plant and Henry Flagler). 

The winery/brewery is located on a pretty big property with a large back patio overlooking a lake and vineyards.  We visited pretty early in the afternoon so it was pretty quiet, but the crowds started showing up and filling the tasting room as the day went on. 

I had a wine flight and Lance sampled their beers.  Their most popular wines are their blueberry varieties, but I also tried flavors like Key West Key Lime, Black Raspberry Merlot, Tangerine Zinfandel, and Peach Chardonnay.   

Personally I actually preferred their beers.  The wines were much too sweet for me (I probably would have liked them more a few years back, but I’m starting to enjoy beer more than wine at this point.  But my favorite of the wines was the semi-dry blueberry. 

Of the beers, the one that stood out to me was their Roasted Jalapeño Blueberry Porter – it didn’t seem too spicy at first, but you could taste the jalapeño kick in the aftertaste. 

They offer a tour around their property by tractor – they do charge, but since we had plenty to spend with our CL Deal, we decided to take a ride.  Our guide told us all about the history of the winery and we got a backstage tour of their facilities. 

For a local stay-cation, I think it’s definitely worth heading to Plant City to check this place out. 

Keel & Curley Winery and Two Henrys Brewing is located at 5210 Thonotosassa Rd, Plant City, FL 33565 and is open 2pm – 7pm Monday – Wednesday, 2pm – 9pm on Thursday, 10am – 11pm Friday – Saturday, and 11am – 7pm on Sunday.