If you suddenly found yourself in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, what kind of restaurant would you expect to find on every street corner? I hear you thinking “Seafood, of course.” Well, you might well think so but you would be wrong. The Gold Coast of Florida has been overtaken sort of like food is overtaken in the gizzard, and graveled up by fast food. There are lots of McDonald’s (a Mickey D’s fish sandwich is NOT seafood), Wendy’s, Chili’s…well, you get the point. Last week when I was there, I ate breakfast at the local cafe whose motto must be “Our coffee – brown water that smells like finger nail polish remover – there’s plenty of it.” I asked the waitress if there was a local spot that served fresh seafood. “What do you mean ‘fresh?’” she queried. “Well,” I replied, “caught and brought to shore and cooked and served and never frozen.” “No,” she said thoughtfully, “I don’t think so. Shirley, is there a seafood restaurant nearby?” Shirley ambled over and said, “Oh, yeah. Go over to 66th St North and turn left on 19th Avenue. Go about three blocks and you’ll see the big sign on your right.” I was getting pretty excited by this time, visions of fresh fish in mind and I repeated the directions to be sure I had them right. “And I’ll see the sign.” “Yeah,” Shirley nodded, “it says Red Lobster.”
I had a salad for dinner.
