Writes of Passage

1517 E Seventh Ave., Unit A
Tampa, FL 33605

… more pix on Google Maps, Yelp & TA.

One of many cigar bars on 7th Avenue in Ybor City.

The owner, I think, is a lady: her photo is on the wall. There was only one staff at 7pm on this Friday, who’s very friendly and courteous. The rollers are off, or too early for them to return. The entire 7th Avenue is dead at this hour – will come to live in a couple of hours.

We got our cigars and headed to Sterling next door.

1531 E 7th Ave,
Tampa, FL 33605

Sterling Cigar Lounge & Bar

… more pix & videos on Google Maps, Yelp

We stopped by this bar @ Ybor after dinner at Casa Santo Stefano: a nice roof top cigar bar, with live music.

The bar has two outdoor sections: one on 7th Ave and one on the back. Good service. Lockers for patrons who pays about $1,000 a year.

The band: pretty good. It takes them about 27 minutes to set up. Mom takes pix and videos, daughter Corrine Oliviia sings, who has good voice. I thought she’s pretty and just over 20; but she said she’s isn’t 25 any more. She sings so hard, broke one of her shoes. Oh well.

When we leave at 9:45, there are two guards by the entrance.

I took couple of pix of our pleasant server but probably won’t post it here.

As I watched the jazz band to set up their station, I learnt a good lesson: it TAKES a bit time and it’s a hard work.

The mother daughter team arrived at 7:32, didn’t finish set up till 7:58, this doesn’t include the time packing and loading, drive and unloading …

The daughter has a pretty good voice.

1607 N 22nd St,
Tampa, FL 33605

… more pix on Google Maps, Yelp & TA

Will return.

Across street from Columbia in Ybor I love their tiles: colorful and beautiful. High ceiling, brick walls, really good ambiance, service and food.

Lovely stems. Warm bread. The mussels and grouper with pesto is delicious.

The tiramisu is to die for.

The roof top is nice but the view is so so.

The water in the bathroom is painfully slow. What do they have in the hand soup bottle?

After dinner, we stopped at two cigar bars: La Faraona Cigars and Sterling.

1112 Apollo Beach Blvd.
Apollo Beach, FL 33572

… more pix & videos on Google Maps, Yelp & TA

Will return.

On the water and pretty big. Great view. The wrapped around outdoor section on two sides are pretty big. Decent food, good service – there are 20 of us and one young lady served us adequately.

My crab cake is ok, so are many others.

I did ask for French Open tennis to be up on one screen but they didn’t – either she forgot or they don’t have the channel.

It’s a 90+ degree day. When I went out to their desk – the outdoor section, although hot but relatively comfortable out. My group chose to stay inside. Oh the flies.

250 Apollo Beach Blvd.
Apollo Beach, FL 33572

… more pix on Google Maps, Yelp & TA

Will return

For Italian restaurants, this one is better than Joia.

We came for lunch. It’s empty and we chose the last booth.

At first there was only one young lady serving, who’s very pleasant and efficient, and very pretty – hope this last adjective isn’t going to get me in trouble with Yelp and anyone else.

Looking at the booth in front of us, we decided no appetizers. We’ve 3 main courses

Chicken piccata
Eggplant Parmesan
Veal Parmesan

The spaghetti is al dent and all are pretty delicious.

.., and huge portion: the reason is bec they’re off the dinner menu when we thought we ordered off the lunch menu (so many menus …) Maybe the staff should confirm it at time of ordering, to avoid any confusion. We were going to pay but they re-ran the bill. I think they put dinner menu out during the lunch time, is just to give dinners more choice.

We ended up with a few doggie bags – I took their bread too – they are warm and delicious, and probably will be threw away.

Btw, I’ve been talking about spoons (dessert mostly) – their pasta spoon is HUGE, has to be the biggest I’ve seen in a restaurant so far. Oh well, what do I know

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and a happy Mother’s Day 2024 to moms.