Olive Oil Co. minipost

I'll write about one of the first Sarasota restaurants I visited- the now defunct Olive Oil Co.
I didn't actually eat anything, but I DID drink something. I was ordering for my boss. Some sandwich and a drink...a panini, I think. I got a chai tea latte! I love chais. I would murder someone possibly for a chai...ok, maybe not. But that day was my first day of work and I was hungry. Ironically, I just went there again today for a different boss...it's called the Venue, but it's closing in two days. Awkward, they were out of bread, the rent was too high, and they only seemed to have a few things left. So new boss got a bagel. Apparently it was a GREAT bagel, though.

Mi Pueblos

There are generally two reasons why I go out to eat, being an extremely frugal person: uncontrollable curiosity, or someone else wants me to go with them. One of my roommates recently got obsessed with a Mexican restaurant on University Parkway called 'Mi Pueblos'. It seems fairly authentic, and I've been there twice now (with the same roommate).
The first time I went, I was impressed with their 'living food' and vegan menu- suitable for a raw food diet. I ordered some kind of taco on it, then a drink called 'licuado de chocolate' caught my eye. It was a kind of blended chocolate drink, and tasted really good, kind of bittersweet. It also wasn't so huge that you'd get sick, but I wish it wasn't so expensive, around $6, which is more expensive than Starbucks. And Starbucks is the standard for expensive. Anyways, the living taco thing was pretty good, and felt healthy (you get energetic after that kind of health food).
The next time I went I got a huge avocado salad. I'd eat a shoe if it had avocado on it so....uh..it was good! A friend got their horchata, a sort of rice drink that I'm dying to try.
But...I think my roommate is over that place so...I think this is where we part, Mi Pueblos.

Pastry Art

Pastry Art...was awkward for me. For reasons I am not at liberty to state.
A little back story. Pastry Art was, for me, that place that I always looked sort of wistfully at, mentioning it vaguely to whatever friend I was with on the way to wherever in the mild hope that they would screech, "THAT SOUNDS AWESOME, LET'S GO THERE". But it never happened.
Until my mysterious circumstances that led me to finally check this place out.
Unfortunately, I had a dilemma. I was freaking hungry because I hadn't eaten for four hours, but I couldn't very well shove all the awesome fancy pastries and stuff in my face because:

a) I had to uphold an image with the particular company that day
b) I'd be hungry like five seconds later
c) I am not made of money

so for whatever reason, I ordered this HUGGGEEE croissant and a chai tea latte. It was delicious, and cost me $7 total. The croissant was good enough to temper my dismay when they totally forgot my chai, and I eventually had to go without it because I had to suddenly leave. Hmm...I don't know, Pastry Art. You were good, but I also essentially spent $7 on a croissant...and gave a tip. What the heck. Good thing I'm benevolent.

Traditions

I'm actually in Boston right now.
But because I have to write something...I'll write about my Sarasota traditions!

WINTER TRADITIONS:
Hot chocolate at Starbucks
Walks at Ringling Museum for free thanks to my Ringling student VIP status, yeah
Run around in Myakka like a weirdo

SUMMER TRADITIONS:
Walk on the beach
Candy apple at Kilwins
Walk in this random rich beach neighborhood near St. Armands Circle (The houses here are AMAZING)

And every summer, when my family comes down to help me move back home, on the way back to Clearwater we stop at this restaurant called the 'Crab Shack' somewhere in Manatee. It's not fancy and we go at an odd hour, but they make some darn good food after you've been moving junk all morning.

Pho Kali

I went to Pho Kali in my second year. A firend and I were craving for some Vietnamese food (St. Pete is the land of Vietnamese food, so people from around there develop the thirst young), so we decided to hit Pho Kali. It's on Main street, and the reason I'm writing about it today is because I'M HUNGRY and I WANT THEIR SPRING ROLLS.

Pho Kali has awesome spring rolls. They're chewy, wrapped in rice noodle thing, and have shrimp in them. They are the bomb. They also make a really good soup called tom yum soup. It's spicy and awesome in the winter (when we went). They have some interesting tea drinks, but we passed. Overall, Pho Kali's some solid stuff.

Drunken Poet

Since I'm short on money this week, I'll do a few past-visit posts.
This one shall be dedicated to the Drunken Poet.
The first year I came to live at Ringling, I was super homesick. My mom visited once, so we got some food, and landed at the Drunken Poet. We had a totally hilarious Bulgarian waiter who was incredibly monotone, and ordered us some NOODLES. They were good! This place seemed to teter between fancy and affordable...a strange sort of fusion Thai-everything else place. We had the smallest table in existence as well.

Yoder's

Yoder's is a magical land.
If you drive down South Tamiami, make a left at Bahia Vista, and follow it for about three billion hours (aka TOO LONG), you will come across a strange place. The women ar ein modest dress, the men have little beards and hats, and everyone's riding bikes. Welcome to the Amish community of Sarasota. Also welcome to the place where you may choose to happily die.
Yoder's, the main restaurant, is a sleeper. The food is ok. According to my rich cousin, the turkey is a little dry. After my rich cousin had dessert, she was swearing up and down everything was fabulous and she was going to donate all her money to the Amish and they should be in business always and forever. She settled for buying me some pumpkin bread and pumpkin butter from the market next door (I may or may not have a thing for pumpkin...canned pumpkin is $1.45 at Sweetbay right now...). Anyways, Yoder's is a nice lil place where all the food is homemade by fresh faced girls in dresses. It's ok. ...let's get to the pie. Order the pie. Hopefully you brought some friends because it will be a huge piece of pie. It will also be the best piece of pie. Ever. We got peanut butter chocolate. RFGLFHGF It's delicious filling on delicious crust topped with delicious peanut butter powder.

Then go buy some homemade whoopie pies and some stuff from next door. The sweet potatoes are 59 cents per lb. Being a staple of my diet, I know sweet potatoes, and I know a good price for sweet potatoes.


...I love Amish land.

Kilwins

HAVE I REALLY NEVER POSTED ABOUT KILWINS?
Ok so...freshman year I had a problem with Kilwins. An obsession. The ironic part is that I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't actually eat any of their ice cream. I would go a ridiculous amount of times just to watch my friends enjoy every last bite of their gourmet ice cream while I stirred my peach frozen yogurt or sipped my unsweetened ice tea or...well. Until I found THREE things that I will kill for at Kilwins (ironically, I stopped going right after I tried each...what the heck)

a) Chocolate Apple thing: AN APPLE DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE and maybe also caramel or something...A+

b) Hot Chocolate: It was 90 degrees out when I tried this. I didn't care. I want this stuff to flow in my veins. A+++

c) Choco Puff: THE BEST AND CHEAPEST THING IN THE STORE
IT'S TWO MARSHMALLOWS ON A SKEWER DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE FOR $2.48 or something. So. Magical.


I just went this week for the first time in a while. I bought a chocolate apple for my roommate, and ...nothing for me. Oh Kilwins, whyyy.

Columbia + Le Macaron

Well, my grandma visited the other day, so after some extremely slow-paced window shopping (I just can't pay attention very much anymore) she required some fare of a slightly higher class than Kilwin's- cue THE COLUMBIA (in cursive letters). This mainstay of Florida, with it's addictive bread and fancy cloth napkins, has a location in Sarasota that I've been to once. I've been to every COLUMBIA restaurant in Florida, so I'm pretty good at determining if something is Columbia-y enough...this was.
I was all adventureous and ordered chicken croquettes. AMAGADDDD they were fabulous. FABULOUS. So fabulous I felt a little reluctant sharing with my grandma...but I did, because I too am fabulous. The bread was awesome as usual, and not even my grandma could complain about their extremely attentive service. The Columbia is off the chain...except I feel weird walking by it in the middle of the day and see those of a higher caste leisurely eating lunch...I think it's jealousy and bitterness.

Afterwards, I beelined to Le Macaron, a shop that sells this extremely hard to make French cookie that I can actually make and was planning to make a business out of. Granny bought a box for me against my wishes, and testing commenced...mine were better, and not tinged with the taste of more bitter futility.

Yume Sushi + Regal Theatres

This time I hit up the movie theatre, Regal 20, to see a movie. The place is nice and big, and fairly clean. The seats are comfy too! You can get a $1 popcorn if you do something that I forget, but I passed, because we went super late at night. Luckily, the theatre has a parking garage (with free parking!) so you don't have to wander around in creepy ghost town downtown Sarasota at 1 AM. More places should follow the theatre's lead...they definitely can attract some people, especially with the conveniently placed Applebee's right across from the entrace, open late, tasting great (I didn't actually go, I just figure all Applebee's taste pretty ok).

Before that though, we went to Yume Sushi. Nice little sushi place with some yummy stuff on the menu...I got tamago/egg nigiri and some always a good choice tuna. It's a little small, and there's always some random old people going on a first date next to you (seriously, two and a half couples finished and were sitted within the time we were eating...they flirt so awkwardly...) but it's got some good food. I prefer my old haunts in St. Pete for sushi, though, like the nightclub-esque Hiro's (open until 4 AM!!!) or the extremely quiet and old people-ish Edo's (the waitress was like our sushi mama...she even made my favorite kind specially). Anyways...till the next bite, time for other stuff.

Cafe Amalfi Part Deux

Well, oddly enough, I ended up going to the same place mentioned in the last post, Cafe Amalfi, with a seperate group of friends!
Being hungrier this time, not to mention strangely seated in the same room (see, it must be par the course to seat girls in there), I ordered something different- a big salad. I think it was called the signature salad.
Um...wow. It was awesome. It was some kind of big salad with lots of apples, walnuts, and cheese. So much cheese. Dusted all over. It was sooo super good, especially to a hungry person.
I still didn't get a dessert though. Is this considered foreshadowing of another visit?

Cafe Amalfi

The other day my friends and I tried out a fairly new little restaurant called 'Cafe Amalfi'. Located on Tamiami Trail near Fruitville, it was conveniently a short distance from school. So off we went. We got ushered into the 'wine room', which is kind of seperate from the rest of the deli style restaurant. I'm guessing that's like...the girly room or something. I don't find wine as exciting as most ladies, so...whatever? Nice fake fireplace in there.
Anyways, I ended up eating the best fried mozzarella stick I've ever eaten, and I don't even really like fried food. It was like a tiny gooey mozzarella heaven inside there, in the lightest coat of heart attack. I then ordered my caprese salad, which had super high quality tomatoes (yellow ones too!) and mozzarella (I am secretly mozzarella princess), but kind of...small. I'm used to getting weird little caprese salads when everyone else has giant bowls of fettucine or something (or in this case big calzones) though, so I was prepared. Then we looked at desserts, which were pretty awesome, but expensive. Next time, I guess...overall, nice place! Good food, friendly staff, tiny parking lot~ what more could you ask for?

Whiteberry

Starting the game off right will be one of the more unique things I like about Sarasota- the crazy amount of ice cream/gelato/froyo/shaved ice/frozen custard/whatever else they think of shops. It was my mission in freshman year to go to all of these establishments in Sarasota by senior year, I think I'll fail terribly.
My poison of choice is probably Whiteberry, over on Main St.
True to it's trendfollowing ____berry name, it's cute, trendy, and overpriced, but still delicious enough to make me and my roommates fork over some money. They specialize in the real, tart soft serve frozen yogurt that has become popular on the U.S. west coast, not the ice cream-like stuff sold in stores here. Those establishments are generally self serve (one of the self serves just opened back home, so I am crazy amazing excited!), but Whiteberry decided to take that aspect out. After you choose your cute little swirl of yogurt, you get to pick some toppings. Ignore the boring stuff like crushed oreos or m&m's, and go for the ULTRA good fresh fruit, or you waste a visit (unless you choose chocolate chips, coconut chips, carob chips, or mochi. Mochi is the best decision you will ever make).
They also serve smoothies and some sort of fancy 'French-style' iced coffee but coffee isn't my thing...and they used to serve cupcakes but that might have been booted too.
Anyways, if I don't patronize the heck out of the new (~*~*~SELF SERVE*~*~*!) froyo place back home, Whiteberry will probably remain a tradition until I graduate.

Hello

Heyyyy, this is my little journey to find fun things to do in Sarasota.
Introductions are never very accurate, so I'll keep it short and sweet.
I live in Clearwater, but due to college, I'm living a frugal student's life in Sarasota.
My first impression of Sarasota? Dull.
My current impression of Sarasota? ...well, better...
My favorite place in Sarasota? You'll see.
I like beaches at night, sweet things, and weather.
I don't like messes, lying, waiting or rushing.
I have a strange feeling this blog will be mostly about food, especially sweet things, since after homework, work, exercise, and free time, there's only one thing to do...eat your food!