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The Naked Eye Might Miss Tampa's Best Sights

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: January 29, 2009

TAMPA - The Big Guava - so much to see.

In fact, sometimes it's even the things you don't see. How many of you in town this week drove in from the airport and didn't catch that sign after you go over the big overpass, the one that says "Tampa," then switches to "St. Petersburg," so that if you weren't fast enough you found yourself on the Howard Frankland Bridge going to St. Petersburg?

I know some of you did. I've done it.

Maybe that's why there is that banner draped across the main terminal that says, "Welcome to Tampa Bay." We want you to see all of it, even the water.

Oh, yeah, Tampa definitely is different. If you drove into town on Interstate 75 or Interstate 4, you must have seen the giant Confederate flag. It's kind of odd because there were only two battles fought in the Tampa Bay area during the Civil War, and you would be hard-pressed to call them more than skirmishes.

If you came in on I-4, you also drove by that row of recreational vehicles planted in the ground, at an angle, by a local RV dealer. And he did that before gas went out of sight.

By now you might be getting the idea that Tampa is as much a state of mind as a place. It's not quite Old South, although it has some of that feel. It's not a Florida tourist town, although there is Busch Gardens, and the beaches are minutes away. It has a little of the urban North. There are touches of Spain, Cuba and the Caribbean blended with the New South culture.

Let me apologize if Tampa doesn't look like a tropical paradise. Back in 1984, when we hosted our first Super Bowl, they planted a bunch of palm trees, but a cold snap killed most of them.

But hey, it's not Pittsburgh. It's not Phoenix, either, and a lot of people don't think it looks much like the Florida they have heard about. That's because Tampa is a real town, with a port and industry and neighborhoods and schools. The sprawling University of South Florida is on the northern edge of town. It has close to 50,000 students.

If you want to see a neat university, well that's the University of Tampa, the place with the minarets downtown on the river. It's in the news because Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich spent a few semesters there studying something.

It's a great campus to wander around. You can look across the river at the downtown skyline, which is growing. The one that looks like a beer can is what we call "the beer can building."

Next to the beer can building is Tampa's most notable artistic sculpture, "The Exploding Chicken." I took a lot of grief after giving the then-untitled piece that name. But look at it and tell me that's not what it is.

Cuban Sandwich Reigns

A little bit about food. I mean that's what this is all about, isn't it? Do you really care about the game?

Our most famous restaurant is Bern's Steak House. But if you didn't make reservations a year or so ago, you're not getting in, so forget about that one.

We are home to the first Hooters and the first Outback, but Tampa's culinary gift to the world is the Cuban sandwich. Miami likes to say it is responsible, but it doesn't know squat. They don't make these things in Cuba, either. But you need to have at least one Cuban while you're here, pressed, hot and served with a deviled crab and maybe a cup of Spanish bean soup.

You can get a real Cuban in lots of places. Valencia Garden, on Kennedy Boulevard near the minarets, is a good restaurant. Brocatos, off 50th Street near Interstate 4, feeds about half of the city wonderful Cubans every day.

My absolute favorite Cuban is Michelle Faedo's, which you will never find. The address is 3609 N. 15th St., on the northern edge of Ybor City.

Some Sidewalk

Tampa's jewel is the great sweep of Bayshore. This week, if you try to go down Bayshore Boulevard you won't be able to see much for all the bleachers and corn dog stands. That's because we are getting ready for Gasparilla.

Say what? Yes, Gasparilla. Think Mardi Gras with pirates. Super Bowl is a big deal, but around here it's something to do while getting ready for Gasparilla.

It's named after pirate Jose Gaspar, who never really existed so we had to make him up. The deal is that a week from Saturday, Jose and his band of pirates will sail into town on that pirate ship you see out in Hillsborough Bay, along with a huge flotilla of non-pirate-looking craft, and take over the city after a parade. They do the same thing a couple of weeks later with a night parade in Ybor City, if you really want to live dangerously.

You probably will want to visit Ybor City. It used to be Tampa's Latin quarter before all the Latins moved to West Tampa, which is where you really want to go for good, cheap Spanish food. If you're hungry, try La Teresita or Arco-Iris, where you can get a mountain of chicken and yellow rice for less than you are going to pay to park anywhere near Raymond James Stadium.

But you do need to take a stroll down Seventh Avenue in Ybor and check out the historical tattoo parlors and nightspots.

You also need to buy some cigars.

Before Tampa was christened the Big Guava by a legendary local newspaper columnist, it was known as Cigar City, and you still can get a genuine, hand-rolled stogie to light up at the right moment.

The Naked City

Being naked is a big deal around here. It's a bigger deal in the summer, when the nudist camps in Pasco County, north of Tampa, seem to blossom, but Tampa also has gained an international reputation for its strip clubs. Our Web site, TBO.com, has a list and description of 40 or 50 clubs in town.

Drive along Dale Mabry Highway and you'll see clubs, including the most famous, the Mons Venus, which apparently has more than 300 strippers ready to take it off. Actually, this being Tampa, I'm not sure they take anything off. I don't think they have anything on for starters.

Oh, there are a million stories here in the Naked City. I hope you have a good time finding them.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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