A group of seven or eight men get together for lunch every Wednesday in the back room at the Valencia Garden restaurant. They are older than dirt. Buck Setzer, who just turned 94, asked me to join them last week. ...more

January 9, 2009

I can't even imagine how many melons have been thumped and tomatoes squeezed. How many vats of homemade bean soup have been served and how many times someone has leaned over the counter for that special cut of meat for an equally special occasion. ...more

August 6, 2008

Big deal. The plan is this: Wednesday night, on cable television broadcast around the world, someone by the name of Criss Angel is going to attempt to escape an abandoned Clearwater Beach hotel before it blows up. ...more

July 27, 2008

Sonal Mashruwala has a passion for chatting. She talks to her customers, to vendors and to a reporter visiting her business, Ganesh Market & Chaat Cafe, 6204 N. Armenia Ave. ...more

July 23, 2008

I was sitting in the front dining room at the Valencia Garden. It was lunchtime and, as is usually the case at the Valencia, the room had its share of politicians and business types on hand, wolfing down whatever with yellow rice. ...more

June 25, 2008

Elegance emanates from the stately old home off U.S. 41 in Ruskin, bespeaking an earlier time when afternoon breezes ruffled lacy curtains on open windows. ...more

December 13, 2007