300 John Ringling Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34236
941.388.2888
http://www.tommybahama.com/TBG/StoresAndCafes/TropicalCafes.jsp
Still in Tampa…Stacey wanted to take a drive down the coast until we found somplace charming and cute to stay the night. No specific plans, no specific destination, no reservations. Not the way I usually travel, and it unnerved my normally very ‘do advance research and plan’ self, at first, but I went with it. We drove through Old St. Pete and I was ready to move to Florida at this point.
After driving down through Bradenton, we cut over to Anna Maria Island and continued south to Longboat Key. We eventually drove into this completely charming and adorable area called St. Armand’s Circle. Stacey and I were yelling to park the car so we could get out and walk around. From the look of it, not many chain stores…it was full of unique, one-of-a-kind places to browse, my kind of places. We were starving as it was now about 2pm so we contemplated a couple of choices, then settled on the Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafe. I knew it would be expensive because of the name, but that was OK. It is a chain, but not a large one, and this one sits, guess…right above the Tommy Bahama store. It’s very cute and looks somewhat like a Disney version of Old Havana. I got a Mango Iced Tea, and SQ and I decided to split the Tommy’s Great Big Crispy Fish Sandwich. I’m not sure what kind of fish it was, the menu described it as a beer-battered local island fish. After taking a bite I didn’t care, it was just really incredibly good. I guess for almost $14 it should be. And it was also very big and very crispy, and topped with these incredible sweet honey-roasted onions. Final thoughts - I would give this 2 1/2 stars out of 4. A bit expensive, but you get your money’s worth.
After getting some dinner advice from the waiter, we left to shop around the area a bit. And we still needed to find a place to stay for the night.