Category: Tampa Bay

Brent Britton, tech lawyer and friend to the Tampa Bay tech community, celebrated his birthday at the Bulla Gastrobar’s Luna Lounge rooftop bar, and we were there to join him. It was a gorgeous afternoon and evening, we were at one of Tampa’s nicest places to have drinks and tapas, and it was wonderful to see friends in person again (and the open-air venue helped).

One of my missions with the accordion is to make people’s special days a little more special, and I was only too happy to do that for Brent:

(Last year, Brent provided me with an incredibly helpful suggestion for dealing with a notorious copyright troll who was nastygramming me, and it worked. Even in small ways, he’s a big help to Tampa Bay techies.)

Happy birthday, Brent!

Last night, Anitra and I were joined by our just-on-the-other-block neighbor Jenn, and local friends Emily, Erinn, and Michelle on Southern Brewing’s lovely patio, which Erinn has cleverly described as “Mr. Miyagi’s yard, if he’d opened a bar instead of a car lot.” It’s an open, yet comfy space, surrounded by a wooden fence for Daniel-san to paint, and lots of palm and bamboo. It’s one of the many reasons I love living in Seminole Heights.

Every Tuesday from about 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Seminole Heights locals hold the “Tuesday Tipplers” event, where we gather at Southern Brewing and Winery to have some good beer, good food, and most important, good company.

Tuesday night is Locals Night, which means that if you can prove that you live in a local ZIP code (33602, 33603, 33604, and 33605), you get a free beer with a purchase of a beer. Combined with happy hour, this turns into a really good deal.

Red Hat BBQ provides the food on Tuesday, and their ribs are excellent. They even have vegetarian options, such as vegetarian “ribs”, and their collards are cooked without meat to flavor them, yet are still tasty.

If you’ve ever driven south on Florida Avenue past Trip’s Diner, you may have seen the structure pictured below on the south end of Trip’s parking lot:

It’s the local “Twice the Ice” ice vending machine, run by Ice House America, which boasts a network of more than 3,500 ice vending machines around this world. It’s automated, open 24 hours, and a convenience that I’ve overlooked until recently.

This one is Seminole Heights’ very own, where you can buy filtered water for 25 cents per gallon (3.8 liters) or  dispenser, a five gallon (about 19 liters) bag of ice for a dollar, or fill your cooler with 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of ice for $1.75.

I moved to the neighborhood two years ago, and on the rare occasions that I’ve had to purchase ice, I’ve been paying way too much for too little at the gas station like a chump. Later this year, when it’s time to have guests over for cocktails, I’m going to have make use of this machine’s services.