Saturday, October 27, 2018

Lunching


      Yesterday we drove over to St. Armand’s Circle, which sits between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s known for its exhaustive, and exhausting, range of high-end shops, restaurants, and galleries. I postponed the shopping for a day with people who don’t wear out after the 7th dive into a clothing store (i.e. a female friend) and joined My Guy for lunch and checking off one more item on our October bucket list. We’d promised ourselves we would make good use of this month and go to all the places that are too crowded in the popular winter months. 
 

        
   Thus, the Columbia – a landmark restaurant with amazing Cuban and Spanish food.





          It’s so classy - although surprisingly affordable - that they make their signature 1905 salad (for the year the restaurant was founded) right at your table. 




         

      It’s also so laid-back that you might have a surprise visitor to
your table from the patio seating outside.

9 comments:

  1. Glad to know that if you wait long enough you can experience great places like this one! Cute bird. :-)

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  2. This female would tire long before the seventh dive into a clothing store. Lunch looks and sounds good though.

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  3. Those servers dress up as in days of yore even if the patrons don't.

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  4. Agreed. Sad that it's the norm now for the servers to be better dressed than the patrons.

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  5. high-end shopping. I can't think of anything more boring. on my trip to Portugal two of the women wanted to ge into every high-end clothing shop and look at every friggin' piece of clothing while another friend and I waited impatiently outside. and it wasn't like this was clothing exclusive to Portugal. they could find the same clothing here.

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  6. Smart visiting these places off season. Love Cuban food. My Dad learned a lot of their recipes when he grew up in Key West. I could barely pronounce half the delicious meals he fixed us.

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  7. Love that place! Been there many times! It's so cool to see you refer to places I know. :)

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  8. (I should clarify -- I mean I love the Columbia. St. Armand's as a whole is fun to browse and walk around but I haven't bought much there. It's all out of my price range!)

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    1. Me too. In some of those places I feel like I'm re-enacting that shopping scene with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

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