All Entries in the "Channelside" Category

Get your frozen drink on at Wet Willies

When in Channelside killing time before a movie or the nighttime entertainment, have a stop into the institution that is Wet Willies (615 Channelside Dr Ste 116, Tampa, FL 33602, (813) 221-5650). It’s a given fact that warm weather, particularly the warm weather found in high humidity climates like Tampa, should be quenched with frozen booze. After all, what’s more satisfying than forcing liquor with the concealing power of semi-frozen slush down your face when the sun has baked the world around you to triple digits and you’re sweating buckets?

Lots of bars and restaurants have a slushy machine or two. It’s generally a good way to add more girlie/fruity options to the drink menu, even with the cost of equipment. Wet Willies takes the concept a step further. All of their drinks are served this way, tumble frozen in a constantly churning washing-machine-like wall of multi-colored booze-tinis.

Their marketing is bright, drawing on long time bar slang and region-centric names for drinks we all know and love. Bright colors, a friendly atmosphere and a half dozen young people manning the drink vats makes for a fun trip to boozeville. While the drinks aren’t cheap (around $8 each), you’ll find yourself drinking less because the ice really does slow you down.

My personal favorite is the strawberry daiquiri, a classic frozen drink if there ever was one. From the constant tumble, the slush is smooth and easy to go up the straw. No lumps or chunks of ice, and it is so cold that you’re instantly relieved from the heat.

Channelside 4th of July Photo Post

Channelside put on a great photo show on July 4th, though it was surprisingly short. The whole thing, from first blast to grand finale probably only went on for 20 minutes. I remember the previous shows I’ve seen in Detroit and New Orleans going on for at least 30-40 minutes. That said, I got a few decent shots.

The rest of the photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisbaldwin/sets/72157620833560687/

Restaurant Review: Gallagher’s Steak House

While in channelside, Kara and I decided to use up a gift certificate that I had for $25 off dinner for two at Gallagher’s Steak House (615 Channelside Dr, Tampa, FL 33602-5406, (813) 229-8000). Long known for being a high end seafood and steak house, I knew going in to expect high prices. I wasn’t quite expecting the a la carte nature of their menu.

Gallaghers is the kind of place where you can see and be seen. Lots of famous and semi famous people eat here, and the atmosphere is dimly lit and powered by booze, so you can only imagine the kind of shenanigans that actors and politicos get into around here. The staff is proper and attentive and eager to answer your questions. As far as service goes, I was very pleased with their attention to detail.

When ordering from the menu, you order a meat (or set of meats, as the surf and turf implies) and all side items are served in large sidebars, enough to share. At $25+ per meat item (as much as $45 for the surf and turf) and $10+ for each side, this can add up quickly. Our total bill, even after the $25 off was $54.34 and we ordered to two lowest end items on the menu, the chicken and pork chop. We decided to split a Caesar Salad and some mashed potatoes, as that was about all our budget could allow in such a fancy place.

The salad came out quickly and was exactly as I expected. Fresh cut lettuce, crispy bread wedges, creamy caesar salad dressing and grated parmesan. The dressing was particularly satisfying, not sour or oily. Was this salad worth $9? Probably not, but it was pretty good.

The entrees came out within 20 minutes and they were both grand in size and smell. Before I even broke into my dish, I was impressed with how large they were and the fragrant aromas that filled our table. I dolloped out a few heaping spoonfuls of potatoes onto my plate and began eating away at the chicken.

The chicken was very moist all the way through, a delicately slow roasted bird that had just enough crusty exterior to hold in the juices while not being overly done. They covered the chicken in a creamy broth and pepper, bringing out a great mouth feel and subtle but proper taste from every bite. The breast and thigh were both creamy all the way through. Even the wing meat, a portion I usually consider to be tough, fell off from the bone when pulled with a fork. The potatoes were creamy and buttery, if perhaps a bit too watery. I prefer mashed potatoes with a bit of lump and starch to hold them together. These were far more blended and whipped, much more like pancake batter. All and all, it was a delicious combination of meat and starch, especially considering I was scooping the potatoes up with the chicken pieces and taking both in with each bite.

Kara’s porkchop was massive in stature but didn’t hold up to the taste level either of us had expected. It was dry throughout and burned along the edges. Normally a seer on pork makes it taste better, but these char marks were overly done and lead to a tough pork that was burned on the outer edges and dried out throughout the cut.

After she picked from it what she wanted, I cut the pork chop into much smaller pieces and coated each one in potatoes, making it palatable. Once the steam from the potatoes coated the meat, it brought back some of the flavor and tenderness that the chop needed. Even with the potatoes, the burned taste couldn’t be overcome.

As a finer place to go, Gallaghers has everything you might want for a night out, assuming you have a larger budget to work with. Everyone around us was heartily enjoying the steak and lobster. Though the pork chop fell short, if the chicken was any indication of the quality of their specialties, I’d give Gallagher’s another try.

LocalShops1: Hyperlocal shopping for the Tampa Bay Area

One of the things I’ve always found interesting about the web is how easy it is to get to powerful databases of information. What I’ve always found annoying is trying to find that information specific to a region.

For us Tampa Bay residents (and those in the surrounding counties of Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota), you may find some help in the hyper local shopping site, LocalShops1.com. They are committed to promoting locally owned, independent shops. The mission of this site is to be a place where shoppers and business owners can come to network, on social and business levels to exchange ideas, post sales, become involved in the community. Out in the “real world,” they plan lots of fun community events, charity fundraisers and store parties.

About to celebrate their 1st anniversary, Local Shops is focused on highlighting high quality businesses in and around Tampa. This site does what other yellow-pages style sites do, but in a cleaner format and each business is hand selected and reviewed for inclusion instead of an across the board inclusion that many directories do. Signing up is FREE, and can be done here:
http://www.local-shops-1.com/LocalShops1/membership-options.html

There’s lots of good news coming out of this organization. They recently began embarking on a $250,000 advertising campaign with the Tampa Tribune, WFLA, tbo.com, Tampa Bay Magazine, Tampa Bay Business Journal and Genesis radio stations 1040 and 820. They are in the midst of a complete redesign of the website to make it easier to use. In August, they are launching “1Card”, the ultimate discount card for local business.

Dualing Pianos at Howl at the Moon

When I heard about Stump’s Supper Club and Howl at the Moon (615 Channelside Dr, Tampa, FL 33602, (813) 226-2261) I admit I had low expectations. I thought about all the half hearted piano based lounge acts that I saw in Vegas and New Orleans, and I wasn’t exactly excited to go. After wrestling with the idea, I decided to give it a try and I’m glad I did.

I went on Thursday night, met up with the piano men and got a front row seat while I was waiting for them to start. The place was pretty dead at 10PM, but people began trickling in as the set started. It’s important to note that this isn’t your granddad’s piano bar. The songs they play are all pop hits from the last forty years, and they draw on the crowd for suggestions.

Some of the songs are obvious choices, originally written for piano such as Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”. Others, such as their piano rock renditions of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” were stunningly powerful and funny renditions. Since this is an 18+ venue, the language took a turn for the blue during some of the songs, often parodying the lyrics of the pop song. Want a funny example? “I want to poke her face, pa-pa-poke her face.. with my weiner.”

You can thank Ty Chaney for that little ditty. His showmanship is nothing short of Vegas quality and his attention to detail and honest interactions make him the kind of performer that I wish I could see every night. His accompanying piano man, Dan Slyker, is all the wingman that a piano playing entertainer could ask for. When he’s not on the ivories, he would hop behind the drums to fill out songs as needed.

The fun of Howl at the Moon is being an engaged audience member. You’ll find yourself singing along at full volume. You’ll have a pile of song suggestions scrawled out and passed up to the piano men, who will gladly take tips to play your tune. You’ll most likely be surprised at exactly how much fun this all is.

I’m waiting for the two piano players to contact me for an interview, because I think their story needs to be heard. Anyone who can start out “White Rabbit” loud and get progressively louder only to follow with the most insane version of “Welcome to the Jungle” is worthy of both my praise and my attention.

Tampa Tweetup at the Florida Aquarium

This past weekend, I attended the Tampa Tweetup at the Florida Aquarium (701 Channelside Dr Tampa, FL 33602, (813) 273-4000). This was my second tweetup and my first time at the aquarium.

The thing I’ve come to expect from Tweetups was proven at this meeting. Everyone is supposed to come together to mix and mingle, but there’s really just a lot of thumbs on keypads as people compete over the tweet wall. This wall, being updated constantly by tweeters in the room, occasionally makes me laugh but a lot of it is self service non-sense as well.

The Tweetup was organized by Julia Gorzka of BrandTampa fame. She made a quick introduction with that crazy energy that she has. Then, we had to sit through a presentation by the aquarium staff, a small payment of time in return for getting to use the aquarium for our meeting (no cover charge!). Thankfully, I was already pretty liquored up by the time that started so I kind of drifted in and out of consciousness.

I got bored of the Tweetup aspect pretty quickly and moved out into the aquarium with a small group, snapping photos and taking in the many exhibits. The aquarium itself has some interesting stuff, but nothing I’d ever pay the $20ish to attend.

For instance, their “shark tank” didn’t have a single Great White, or even a Bull Shark. The sharks they did have were the kind you can buy at an exotic fish store. Not impressed. The scariest thing they had was a giant grouper, which I immediately thought would make an awesome sandwich. I also didn’t see one squid. Really? An aquarium without a squid?

Here’s a few picture highlights:

Mom’s ride the Streetcar FREE this Sunday

On Mother’s day, Sunday, May 10th, treat your mom to a ride on the TECO Line Streetcar System, running throughout Ybor City and Channelside. It’s fun and moms ride FREE all day Mother’s Day when accompanied by their families.

Plus, mothers can ride the streetcar to Bennigan’s Channelside and get 20% off their meal!

Click the link below to print out the flyer with details.
http://www.gohart.org/departments/marketing/news/mothers_day_2009.pdf

Dragonboat Racing at Tampa’s Garrison Channel

You know those motivational posters for Teamwork? Someone really should make one about Dragonboat racing, as that’s the very essence of what I think of when I think of teamwork. A dragon boat, nothing more than a decorated slender canoe powered by a team of approximately 20 synchronized rowers, is surprisingly complicated. While the mechanics are simple, the rhythm and strength and endurance required to be truly exceptional at it can only come with practice and teamwork.

Each team is made of a mascot/caller/drummer who keeps the beat and ensures everyone rows in synchronicity. They are at the front of the boat, ensuring eyes stay on them and the goal. The rowers make up the middle of the boat, holding short but wide paddles capable of moving as much water as possible in a confined stroke. The rear is made up of a tiller/sweep/helm. Watching them all work in unison quickly weeds out any weak links, and it’s obvious that many of these teams train year young to maintain their cohesion.

Today, several teams of dragonboats took to Garrison Channel, a thin strip of water separating Harbour Island from the St. Pete Times Forum and the rest of Channelside. Racing in small groups of five teams, the races ran continually throughout the morning. This, the 6th annual Tampa Dragonboat Race, brought corporate teams and Dragonboat enthusiasts alike.

Here’s some more photos of the action:

The rest of the 300 photos I took can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisbaldwin/sets/72157617508221199/

Free Electric Cart Rides to Channelside/Ybor

I’ve seen these all over, and I wondered about what they are. This is an awesome idea and I’m going to be using them the next time I go to Ybor so I don’t have to worry about parking costs or potential legal issues from drunk driving.

Story from St. Petersburg Times:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article989786.ece

TAMPA — The little electric cart zips up to the curb of the Channelside entertainment complex.

Three clubgoers run up, and ask the driver: “Can you take us to the Embassy Suites?”

“Next stop, Embassy Suites,” he replies as they climb in.

A breezy few blocks later, the three step out and hand over no fare, just a $5 tip. Downtown boosters say the free rides are a welcome addition, helping turn the neighborhood into a place to live, work and play without needing a car for short trips.

“It improves the experience of downtown,” said Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership.

Read the Whole Story from St. Petersburg Times:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article989786.ece

Watchmen at the IMAX, starting tomorrow

For those who have never seen a movie at the larger than life IMAX theatre, this weekend may be the perfect opportunity. The IMAX Screen at Channelside, 601 Channelside Dr, Tampa, FL 33602 (813) 221-0700) is truly something amazing. Expanding to over 5 times the size of a standard screen and shot at a much higher resolution, you can see how truly impressive a film can be once you’ve seen it in IMAX.

Digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of the IMAX Experience, the Watchman is a comic book tale created by living-legend Alan Moore. A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, the film is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the Watchmen?

Showtimes this weekend are as follows: