It’s that time of year again.
Thanksgiving day, the day when most Americans are gathering around table with friends and family, and brace themselves for the inevitable ruckus of a typical Thanksgiving gathering.
And ruckus it is. People who barely speak to each other all year long are thrown together for a day long party encompassing way too much food, usually ingested over one large dinner and several small snacks while watching the football games…and the inevitable mind games played out in every family which usually erupt into play, oh, around the table at Thanksgiving, and sometimes way too much wine and beer and song.
it’s fun, it’s loud, it’s spirited, it’s Thanksgiving in America. The day we travel more, eat more, and probably drink more than on any other holiday.
In Tampa, people have a variety of choices of entertainments, menus and distractions to take their mind off the dinner table, the ground zero of the family gathering,
Let’s start with a radical idea. Eat out.
The cost of a family dinner has soared, and this year, will be 13% higher, including four more bucks for a 16 pound turkey. So, if you take the family out, why not plan to make it special, and different, you’re going to splurge anyway, it may as well be interesting. And no dishes to wash later!
Columbia Restaurant, founded in 1905, is the oldest in Florida and has six locations throughout the Tampa Bay Area.
Now, this is no ordinary restaurant, the Colombia is known far and wide for it’s Spanish – make that Columbian – menu, and boasts proudly the best black bean soup on earth.
And on Thanksgiving they will be serving that black bean soup, along with a traditional Thanksgiving day dinner of Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, et al.
But the plus is, if you don’t want the usual fare, you can eat from their huge menu of some of the most delicious grub in town.
Add the beauty of the surroundings -especially the flagship restaurant in Ybor City- and you will be satisfied indeed with the choice.
The Thanksgiving dinner is prix fixe at $19.95 for adults $5.95 for children under 10
Columbia Restaurant 2117 7th Avenue, Ybor City, Tampa 33605 813-248- 4961
http://www.columbiarestaurant.com and reservations are a real good idea
Now, if you still want to do the deed and mess up the kitchen, and gather around your own table, well maybe you can ease that 13% higher dent, and ease some of the stress of the whole holiday season by bowling for turkeys! That’s right, MacDinton’s Irish Pub % Restaurant in the chic SoHo section of Tampa is sponsoring a bowling tournament, with frozen turkeys as prizes…and there’s no cover.
The bowling touranment is on Tuesday, November 22, from 9PM to Midnight, thus if you don’t win one of the prized turkeys, you’ll have plenty of time to get the feast together on your own dime.
And while you’re at it, the food and drinks at Macdinoton’s, which you can sample between strikes or spares, are, well Irish, and a few classic jAmerican burgers as well, and barrels of Irish beer and liquors.
MacDinton’s Irish Pub & Restaurant 405 S. Howard Avenue, Tampa 813-251-8999
http://www.macdintons.com
The day after Thanksgiving, when everybody is still slugging it out on Black Friday in most stores throughout the land, how about some real entertainment. The kind of entertainment that takes you down memory road, and will chill out any of those left over frazzled nerves from Thanksgiving day.
The Straz Center for the Performing Arts is featuring a lollapalooza of a show, entitled, “The Florida Orchestra – The One and Only Frank Sinatra.”
With, you guessed it, so many of the many hits of Frank Sinatra when he was with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.
Now, this is not for kids. They probably don’t know who this fella Frank Sinatra is!
Let them take their time at the mall, and all of those stores bursting with frantic shoppers.
You go down memory lane with Ole’ Blue Eyes!
November 25 8PM
David E. Straz Center for The Performing Arts Ferguson Hall 1010 North McCinnes Place, Tampa 33605
Tickets are 25.00 813-229-STAR (7827)
And the entire holiday season in Tampa is graced by the presence of…ICE! And ice skating. That’s right, ice skating, outside in Tampa!
Well, a huge tent in outside in Tampa. Right smack at the front Curtis Hixon Park on the riverfront in downtown Tampa and surrounded by some of the culture and entertainment and restaurants in the downtown area…
The skating rink is open 4-9 PM Monday -Wednesday, 4-10PM, Friday, Noon-10PM Saturday, 4PM-9PM Sunday.
Each 90 minute session costs $10.00, and skates are included. 813- 274-8615
Open until Jan 1,2012
There. Now you have great food, great beer and wine and Irish whisky, a chance to win a turkey and bowl at the same time, A marvelous trip back into time with Mr. Frank Sinatra, and a chance to show off your skating game and all in one in one weekend!
Go for it! And have a great Turkey Day