A few quick DDD stops in Tampa and Denver

I had a couple of weeks of vacation scheduled for the beginning of December and I knew that part of it would be in Hawaii to check out all of the island DDD locations but that was for the second week, now what to do before?  I had alot of ideas going through my head.  Up until a week before I had no definite plans, then Royal Caribbean put up for sale a cruise out of Tampa that I had been looking at for a few months and was too expensive for me.  The sale made this cruise very affordable and I booked it.  I called my friend, Damariz, in Tampa and the day before the cruise we decided to try a couple of DDD places in the Tampa area.  I had visited all but one of the are places, but one of the places I had tried, I really wanted to go to again so we had a few places to try.  Along with her son we went to our first place "Denny's All-American Diner and Dairy Bar" which is in an out of the way area of Tamp on Falkenburg Road (or better yet, it seemed out of the way to me).  This small carry-out is a great place.  The owner loves baseball so all of the burgers are named for famous baseball players.  I got the Roberto Clemente, a Cuban sandwich style burger along with fries and a canned soda.  Damariz got the Babe Ruth and her son got the Nolan Ryan.

My meal at Denny's, the Roberto Clemente!

For dinner we headed to a place I had been to a few months back, "The Tampa Bay Brewing Company".  We met my high school friend, John there along with his girl friend at the restaurant.  The place is in the historic Ybor City area of Tampa, where back in the day the cities Cigar making industry lived, now it is a revitalized are of shops and restaurants.  The great thing about the restaurant is that even though it is a brew pub, the chef uses all of the different brews that are made in-house in the foods and sauces in the recipes.  Our small group of decided that this would be a family style meal and each got different items so we could all try different things.  Damariz and I each got different style of wings, which were good, but a bit spicy for my taste (I am not a spicy eater).  John  got the awesome meatloaf plate that included mashed potatoes, this is the best item on the menu in my opinion!  The Beer brats were also ordered and they were also very good.  We tried a few of the brews and all were very good.  I can highly recommend the Tampa Bay Brewing Company whenever you are in the Tampa area.  I got to meet the chef and he signed my book (a new copy of the book as the other ones were full).  From there it was off to 4 days on the Jewel of the Seas and 4 days of doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every minute of it!

The Tampa Bay Brewing Company Chef and me

 After a quick stop at home to do the wash and do some other stuff I was off to Hawaii and try to DDD locations there.  As I fly standby and getting to Hawaii is very tough due to high loads I had to search around to find the best route to take.  As it turned out Denver would be the best way to go and Guy has been doing a few Denver area restaurants on the show so I decided to do an overnight stop there and try 2 or 3 places along the way.  After arriving and settling into the hotel near Denver International Airport I headed into the city to try some places.  I must say here that Denver i s a interesting place.  From the airport the city looks like a village underneath a Christmas Tree with the mountains towering overhead, but as you get closer, Denver is a big city!  My first stop was a small deli-diner called "The Bagel Diner".  This is a true Jewish-style diner.  I got the aptly named Triple D sampler. It included a Meat Knish, Matzoh Ball soup and a soup that had a matzoh like ball that tasted like turkey stuffing.  All of is was really good and I got to meet the owners who were great and really excited that I visited.  They signed my book and I then added a pin onto there map.  They sent me on the road with a homemade brownie that I packed for the long flight from Denver to Honolulu.  For dinner I headed into the city and went to a very cool place called "Steuben's".  This restaurant was built in an old garage and the garage doors are still there but the feel in the joint is something like the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" or the TV show "Mad Men".  It has a 1960's feel to it, minus the cigarette smoke.  The water is brought out to the tables in whiskey bottles.  I got to talk to the manager and she told me that the owner;s parents ran a place in the 50's and 60's in Boston also called Steuben's and this is an homage to them and the time.  I ordered the Lobster Roll and Fries and it was really good, a bit pricey, but good none the less. 



The Cool Steuben's Water service

Steuben's Lobster Roll

From Steuben's I headed to a place that on DDD they featured the restaurants desert, so I thought that would be a good way to end my Denver DDD visit.  I headed to an artsy type of place called "bang!". 

I ordered the Gingerbread Cake dessert and it was excellent, very tasty.  The restaurant is sort of weird, the kitchen is on the street front and you have to walk down an alley way to get to the entrance, a first for me.

My Gingerbread dessert

Well it was on to the hotel and after a night at the Marriott it was off to the airport for the 7 hour flight to Honolulu and the DDD places there.  See ya to the cold in Denver and Aloha to warmth, rain and rainbows of Oahu, but that's another blog!