Who? What? Where is this place? Let me get you up to speed. Here are a few things to note about Dunedin (pronounced de-ni-din):
- One of the oldest towns on the West coast with almost 4 miles of waterfront yet able to maintain their small-town charm.
- Embraces its Scottish Gaelic heritage with a yearly Scottish Dunedin Highland Games.
- The 39-mile Pinellas Trail bisects the downtown area which holds a number of microbreweries, restaurants, an Art Gallery, a chocolate shop and fun vintage stores.
Interesting little city, hard to pronounce the first time you see it, but definitely a place for a future repeat visit. It’s located north of Tampa/St Pete. We’re branching out of Central Florida for weekend activities.
Things are starting to loosen up around the state and everyone is trying to get back to some type of new normal. We have several goals this day. One, taste some new brews and two, eat at a favorite Cuban restaurant.
At the beginning of the main drag was The Dunedin Woodwright Brewing Co.
At the moment, the only way to visit, was to sit outside. They had some overhead shade which made it more bearable. The photo on the right is their interpretation for social distancing, ordering your brew outside with a glass barrier -formerly a window.
They had a foodtruck Coattails Kitchen and what goes great with beer – a pretzel. Unfortunately, they sold out the previous day and we had to settle for French fries. Ok, if we must. They were good, very good French fries. 🙂
One of their employees recommended our next stop, 7venth Sun Brewery.
The only seating was outside and I got overheated just walking the several blocks to find it. This is not the place to visit in the heat of the day. Hence very few photos. I found some info in a Brew booklet.
Our last brew stop was another unusual name. Their sign says it all.
This particular place we could sit inside (rules are strange here) and they had floor fans to keep the air moving. While no air-conditioning, they knew how to keep the place bearable even in sunny, hot Florida. Not everywhere was selling half-pours, or if so, it wasn’t obvious. At least this place I could get a ‘baby’ beer since I’m the designated driver.
Earlier I mentioned Art was part of this environment. Here’s one example. It’s one way to keep padlocks from appearing everywhere.
At the beginning of this post, I also mentioned Cuban food………………….
Friends of ours had taken us here, several times, and its always a great repeat! First thing that arrived was Cuban bread, slathered with butter – Yum. You really have to pace yourself or you could fill up on this alone.
Although not really needed…………..we ordered an appetizer to share, fried yucca. A fabulous garlicy oil dip enhanced their flavor.
My entre arrived. Roast pork with two sides (French fries and black bean soup were my choices. LOVE the pork! It was way too much food, but leftovers were brought home.
Eric had a dish that featured beef.
We were too full for dessert at the restaurant. But….……..later that evening, I had a craving for some ice cream (you know, it fills in the cracks 🙂 ) . My new personal favorite at Ritters in Clermont is the turtle sundae with hot caramel, hot fudge and a few chopped pecans. I can eat the whole thing!
We have made several trips to Ritters during our furlough. They even gave us a ‘frequent repeat visitor’ card since they recognize us. We’re trying to limit our visits to once weekly to keep the ‘furlough 15’ pounds off.
My previous post talked about the ‘pesky squirrels’ that are hogging our backyard bird feeder. Eric got a surprise one morning. He was keeping the birdseed inside of a 5-gallon bucket with a lid, inside of a Rubbermaid box in our back yard. Yep, you guessed it. The squirrels found it. They gnawed a whole in the Rubbermaid box (upper left), gnawed a hole in the lid AND the squirrel was in the bucket!
Man – if I just had a photo of that.
Darden Travels 