DDD with my buddy Tampa Boy!

In 2005 I was selected (through a self-nomination process) to be a part of a team at United called the TED Employee Advisory Council or EAC.  TED was a division of United that was built to operate Coach (Economy) service on routes that were usually in markets that cater to leisure or vacation travel.  The aircraft (Airbus A320) held 156 seats in one class vs. about 135 in 2 class seating.  The TED leadership decided to create the EAC to get employees from many different departments within the company to get input from the employees who work with the product.  The EAC helped the leadership team to understand what was going on in the operations of the product and also to make decisions to improve the product both to our paying customers and to the employees that work with the product.  (As a side note, I have kept the office notice with the announcement of my selection, which was dated and timed at 40 minutes AFTER my mother passed away).

The EAC had about 25 members and one of them, Marc, has become one of my best friends.  (Another EAC friend, Karin, invited me to celebrate my 200th DDD visit in her hometown of Honolulu, but that is another story and also in the future!)  My time on the EAC was for a little over a year and of all the teams I have been on, this team clicked almost immediately.  I believe that it was due to our leadership sponsors, Anna and Nicolette, as on our first evening they arranged for the team to have a Pizza Party Get-together near United's headquarters near O'Hare outside Chicago.  At our meeting in early December Marc and I really bonded, it was a typically cold day in Chicago and everytime we even went near a door Marc complained about how cold it was (he worked at the Tampa station a prime TED station) so I just said "Come on, quit being a Tampa Boy!"  It sort of stuck and I have called him that ever since. 

Tampa Boy and his TED Towel

Now how does that have any bearing on DDD?  Well, let me tell you!

I had been promising Marc that I would visit him and his lovely wife Suzette for a long time and it just never really worked out.  As May 2011 was approaching I saw that I might be able to visit around Mother's Day and we made the plans.  Now Tampa Boy knows about my DDD travels and he asked if there were any in the Tampa area to try out.  Now I had been to all the places in the area but I thought I would check out the "Flavortown USA" website to see what was left to try in Florida.  To  my surprise I saw that there were 5 new places, they had been filmed but not yet shown on the show,  To me these places were good, I would just visit them BEFORE being aired but Guy had been there so that was good enough for me!  I flew done on Mother's Day morning and we headed to Tampa Boy's home in Tarpon Springs.  His hometown is very cool.  A Greek community that is famous for it's Sponge Docks and Sponge fishermen and alot of Greek shops and restaurants.  It's sort of a piece of Greece in South Florida.  Tampa Boy had suggested that we try some of the places, so who was I to argue!  We headed out to St. Petersburg to a small lunch counter-general store called "Munch's Sundries and Restaurant".  This small roadhouse produces great breakfasts and lunches, I got the special of the day which was a deep dish Shepard's Pie.  It was filling and delicious.  The place is adorned with nostalgic signs and funny bumper stickers, a real homey pace.  I told Tampa Boy about the book and that in most of the places there is a Guy Poster and a painted "Guy Ate Here" sign on the wall, that became his quest at all of our stops find both.





From there he asked what was the next place.  Boy was I surprised, it seemed to me that he had already gone way out of his way, but he insisted, so I told him the next place was in Bradenton, which was at least 45 minutes away and over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  So we headed south to our next stop.  After and quick stop at AAA for a map (he told me NOT to bring my GPS, I bet he doesn't stop for directions either) we passed and then found "Jose's Real Cuban Food".  This place can only be described as a dive!  It is small and isn't the greatest to look at from the outside, but as you enter you can smell the wonderful food being prepared.  I had to try the Cuban Sandwich, one of the best I have ever had, Marc got the small bowl of shredded pork, both were unbelievably good.  The real treasure of this place is Jose, himself.  A friendly and funny guy with one-liners that any stand-up comics would be jealous of.  He told us all about Guy's visit and how he got started, just a wonderful visit.

We headed back to Tarpon Springs for a delicious Greek dinner with Suzette.  The next morning we headed out to try a few more places before my 5pm flight home.  Our first stop was a very small carryout place in a rural part of the Tampa area called "California Tacos To Go".  This guy produces all types of Mexican foods with a California twist.  He grew up in San Diego and was trying to produce the type of foods that he had grown up with.  I got the Fish Tacos and thankfully it wasn't too spicy.  He uses Fried Grouper and it was great, a nice large fish portion.  I got my book signed and off we went to a very unique place with a unique name.  The "Tampa Taco Bus" is an extremely busy and popular lunch spot.  There really is a bus there,with seating both inside and out.  The bus is the kitchen and I got the Shrimp Quesedilla, very tasty.  The funny sign on the bus stated "Broken English Spoken Perfectly!", well I beg to differ.  I had a real hard time conversing with the staff and they didn't understand about the book, I guess I will have to visit another time to take care of that.  Our last stop was in a popular night time area called Ybor City.  It was (and maybe still is) the center of Tampa's Cigar industry.  We visited the "Tampa Bay Brewing Company"  This place is very much like a Brew pub restaurant.  Marc was not feeling too well, so we just got some of their fresh made Root Beer and some hot pretzels.  The Root Beer was amazing, it tasted just like Root Beer Barrels candy.  I will have to try that place again as it was pretty slow on an afternoon but at night I bet it really gets hopping.

Off to the airport and a quick flight back home.  As you read this remember most of these places have yet to be aired, so I guess this is a preview blog!