Visit to Tarpon Springs

Here are said sponges!

Last weekend, Steve took me up to Tarpon Springs, which is about a half-hour north of Clearwater. We had never been before, but we knew it was the "Greek Town" of Tampa. I also heard from colleagues that Tarpon Springs is known for their sponge docks (?), so we wanted to check that out. And there happened to be a crafts fair that weekend as well, so we got to enjoy that, too!

The highlights:

Eating lunch at Hellas

Of course we had to eat Greek food for lunch. Hellas is famous up there, and we had to try it. While the restaurant is popular, it's huge, and you don't have to wait too long once your name is on the list. The restaurant has multiple dining rooms and is heavily decorated; it made me think it was the Greek version of Columbia, the Cuban restaurant in Ybor City. Our waiter, Demetrios, was Greek (obviously), and he was very friendly; we are visiting Greece in the fall, so he was giving us tips about where to go (or mostly just confirming that we're planning the right things!). 

I ordered the combo of spanakopita and tiropita. The first is spinach, while the other is several kinds of cheese. Yummy! 

Tasting at Tarpon Springs Distillery

After lunch, we walked to Tarpon Springs Distillery. We love trying different spirits, and they had A LOT to choose from. The place wasn't very busy, so we actually got a one-on-one tasting with their master distiller, Barry Butler. They offer several kinds of whiskeys, two gins, a rum, and several interestingly flavored spirits like Claresso (coffee but not a liqueur), Guaco Loco (liquid taco), and Aquavit (liquid Reuben sandwich). We skipped the ouzo, since neither of us like black licorice. It was fun trying things we had never tasted before, and it inspired us to get creative with our cocktails at home!

This is Barry. He gave us a private tour of where all the spirits are made and walked us through the process. The tasting and the tour were free (!), so we made sure to buy a bottle. We chose the Gramling Woods Rye Malt Whiskey: it was so good, and seeing as it won a double gold medal, other people like it, too! We'' definitely bring it out during our next bourbon party!

Visiting Breweries

After the distillery, we drove just a couple minutes to East Tarpon Avenue, which feels like the main street of the little downtown area. We visited Two Frogs Brewing Company, which had a large selection of beers, including several sours that don't taste like beer at all (which is how I like it!). We befriended the British man sitting next to us at the bar. He was a beer aficionado, and he had SO many recommendations for breweries in the area. We were driving, so we couldn't go to all of them, but we stopped by a few!

The two pink ones were fruity beers (not sour at all), and the dark one was a Christmas stout (tastes like coffee and chocolate). 

After our visit to Tarpon Springs, we drove south to Dunedin. We had gone there a few months ago and did tastings at Cotherman Distilling Co., the Dunedin Brewery, and HOB Brewing Co. But there were even more places to check out! This time we hit up 7venth Sun Brewing Company (and I had a grilled cheese from the Hop Scotch Cafe next door), and Woodwright Brewing Company. That's not even all the breweries in town, so we'll definitely go back. We might event visit Woodwright again, which had live band music trivia, which is pretty cool!

We have lived in Florida nearly two years now, and we love exploring our new home. There are so many more places to see and things to do! But our next adventure is St. Louis, MO. Stay tuned for that blog post!