Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Crime in Drew Park?  That’s how it goes.

Crime in Suitcase City?  What do you expect?

Crime in Ybor City?  Such is life.

Crime in South Tampa?  OMG!  This is horrible!  Send in more cops!  Raise my taxes!

Tampa Tribune Community Columnist Buzz Kelly writes an opinion piece that is sure to be well-received outside of Palma Ceia.  Buzzy K says crime is out of control in South Tampa, and your Tampa Police Department needs to increase patrols:

…it’s increasingly clear we need more protection. The weekly crime reports are rising - vandalism, robberies, car thefts, home invasions. This once idyllic part of Tampa is changing. We need marked cars cruising the streets, patrolling, watching, checking. I’ll say this: If South Tampa is becoming Baghdad, and if my taxes have to go up so Humvees can guard us, I’ll pay it.

Good Grief! The last thing we need is a bunch of cops driving Hummers. But what about this rising crime in South Tampa?  I haven’t read that anywhere. It must be true, because his victimized friend agrees:

Telling me about it later, she said, “This is South Tampa, a safe neighborhood … things like that aren’t supposed to happen here!

How many stories do you read in the papers and see on the news on a daily basis?  But Buzzy K is not concerned with crime until a personal friend of his is a victim.  The best part is that he already is convinced that TPD prefers South Tampa anyway:

“South Tampa has the fastest police response time in the city, usually less than 10 minutes…

C’mon, now Buzzy!  That’s ridiculous.  Do you really believe that TPD pays more attention to SOK than the rest of the city?

I asked TPD PIO Andrea Davis about that. She told me that there are no statistics to back up Buzzy’s claims, and suggested Mr. Kelly check out the TPD website.

We did it for him.

A quick glance at the Tampa police crime activity maps shows steady crime rates throughout South Tampa (priority 1 and priority 2 crimes) across the last six months - no rise in sight.

As for response time, according to the 2008 budget, TPD has an average response time of under 7 minutes for priority 2 crimes.  For the entire city.

This is the sort of thing that feeds the reputation that those who live in South Tampa are nothing but selfish brats.  But we know plenty of South Tampa folks who do not feel this way.  Based on this and a couple of his previous columns,

• When we vacation, we’re rich enough to afford an animal lady to care for our pets.  You should too.
• The recession is great!  Poor people are desperate and will work cheaper!

perhaps this is the closest his posh life has been to crime, and he’s just a little freaked out.

Thanks to Cappy’s Pizzeria on Bay to Bay in Palma Ceia for being rude to us this past Friday evening. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have stumbled upon little Vino E Pasta on Gandy instead.

Our original plan for dinner on Friday had been to try out Cappy’s again. This time we planned to order Cappy’s New York style pizza. The place was crowded when we got there with folks standing around for tables, which was fine and what we expected. We put our name on the list at the front door and helped ourselves to beers from the cooler. After waiting a few minutes, we noticed that one of the tables on the small deck outside had opened up. We were pretty sure we had been told on a previous visit that outside was “open seating.” Just to make sure, Traci asked one of the guys behind the counter if outside was open seating. He said it was indeed seat yourself so outside we went to the table.

Within a minute of us sitting down, the server told us that, sorry, we had to leave. I asked why and she said she had promised the table to another group. I explained that we had asked at the counter before taking this table (i.e. we didn’t just “steal it”) and she told me the guy “didn’t know what he was talking about.” Next, a guy who I assume was the manager, walked up after we had already exited the table and were walking out. Instead of being apologetic or offering us another table or letting me explain things, he tell us “just leave” and walks off. Wonderful. The service was mediocre previously, and I didn’t like their Chicago style pizza, so shame on me for giving the place a second chance. Never again.

My experience at Cappy’s left me in a pretty crummy mood and I wasn’t really up for waiting in another line. As we turned onto Gandy we thought of Vino E Pasta, a little Italian restaurant near the corner of Gandy and Himes that we had passed many times before but hadn’t tried. Now seemed like as good a time as any. Vino E Pasta doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside, with its dim lighting, the restaurant was nicer than we expected. It didn’t take long to notice that this place provides a level of service and attention that is much higher than you typically get at mid-priced restaurants around town.

As the name Vino E Pasta implies, the restaurant’s fairly simple menu is built around wine and pasta. An interesting twist is that the restaurant has a fixed price wine list (all wines are around $5 per glass and $24 per bottle if I recall). We’re not big wine drinkers, but after the Cappy’s fiasco we figured why not and ordered a bottle of white. We also received a complimentary bruschetta sampler. For my entree, I went with one of the specials, a salmon stuffed with crab meat and pasta on the side. Traci decided upon a penne pasta with a marinara sauce with sausage. Each dinner came with a nice side salad.

My salmon with crab meat was excellent as was my pasta. Traci’s pasta was good too. Going all out, we split an order of tiramisu for dessert. This ended up being a pricey meal with the wine and dessert, but still a good deal. I think you could do dinner for around twenty bucks per person. This may not be the best Italian in town, but if you’re looking for a neighborhood spot where not only is the food good, but they’re likely to treat you like a regular even on your first visit, then this place fits the bill.

Bottom-line: Thanks to a rotten attitude from Cappy’s, we had the chance to try Pasta E Vino. Good food and friendly service was a pleasant surprise at this nice little neighborhood Italian restaurant.

You’ll remember a bunch of us blogger types met at Hawks last week. Tribune reporter Sarah Hoye stopped by to chat with a few of us and find out why we would meet in person. Jim Johnson provided the answer:

“We’ve built a blog community online but don’t know each other off-line,” said Johnson, a public relations specialist who ran for state representative in 2002. “It’s more of a curiosity factor, and you have a better understanding of why they post what they do when you meet.”

The bottom of the story includes a small list of those websites run by those with whom she chatted, such as Jim Johnson’s The State of Sunshine, Sticks of Fire, and Matt’s Florida Food Hound. Also quoted in the article was Tim Fasano of Tampa Taxi Shots).

There were plenty of others there that night, and I hope to include them all. However, going by my memory is a bad idea, so I apologize in advance if I leave anyone out. Feel free to leave your info in the comments. Folks I had never met include Ryan from Creative Florida (hey -where’s that podcast?), and Clark from as did Clark who writes a ridiculously inconsistent trickle of consciousness. Chuck Welch made it from Lakeland Local. Both LittleJoe Litton and Wayne of Pearce’s Paradise made it. In addition to Jim and Matt quoted in the article, other Sticks contributers made appearances too. Delightful DC Dave, Left Field Kate, Lisa of books and film fame, Theoretical Joel, Jason / editengine, Food Dude Matt, and Journeyman Tim.

The chronicler of Tampa Weekly Options, Eric Sturm also showed up at the get-together (read bits of his interview with Dave Simanoff in a Trib story about Tampa Bay’s young networking professionals).

Other posts on the meetup:
Tampa Taxi Shots: Blogger meeting a huge success
Out in Left Field: A blogging event

Did you know that the City of Tampa has a neighborhood department. Yup. TheCity of Tampa Neighborhood and Community Relations mission is to “bring government closer to all people by serving as the liaison between the government and community to help Tampa thrive and shine.”

They also include a list of 104 Tampa neighborhood groups. Unfortunately, only 26 of them have a website:

• Ballast Point Neighborhood Association
• Bayshore Beautiful Homeowners Association, Inc.
• Bel Mar Gardens Neighborhood Association
• Davis Island Neighborhood Planning Task Force
• South Seminole Heights Civic Association
• Lowry Park Central Civic Association, Inc.
• Hunters Green Magnolia Chase Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• The Marina Club Of Tampa
• Davis Islands Civic Association, Inc.
• Oakford Park Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Riverside Heights Civic Association
• The New Tampa Community Council
• Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Palma Ceia Neighborhood Association, Inc.
• Palmetto Beach Community Association, Inc.
• Civic Association Of Port Tampa City, Inc.
• Ridgewood Park CPCA, Inc.
• Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association
• Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association
• Gandy/Sun Bay South Civic Association
• Swann Estates Neighborhood Association
• Tampa Heights Civic Association
• Tampa Downtown Partnership
• Temple Crest Civic Association
• The Virginia Park Residential Neighborhood Association
• Wellswood Civic Association

I grabbed them all from the city, so if there are bad links, please let me know.

Last Friday night we were in the mood for pizza and wanted to try a place we hadn’t been to before so we decided on Cappy’s Pizzeria on Bay to Bay in Palma Ceia.  I had received generally positive feedback about Cappy’s after my review of the Gourmet Pizza Company a few months ago so I thought it was worth giving this independent pizzeria a try.

Last year, Cappy’s moved from its long-time location on SOHO into an old two-story bungalow on Bay to Bay.  I like the location and the funky style of the place.  We had expected the restaurant to be busy, since it was a Friday evening.  What we didn’t expect was that the place would be packed with little kids and families.  Our wait for a table was made more bearable, though, by Cappy’s cool “serve yourself” beer case.  This fits perfectly with the vibe of the place, minus the rug rats.    

After about a thirty minute wait, we were seated.  Cappy’s menu smartly keeps things simple.  We decided upon a small Greek salad to split as a starter, an order of cheese bread, and a medium-sized deep-dish “Cappy” pizza.  “The Cappy” is their name for a supreme.  After placing our order, I looked around and noticed that most folks were eating Cappy’s New York-style pizza and not the deep dish Chicago-style, but at this point I still thought we were in okay shape.  How wrong I was.

First out was our Greek salad and cheese bread.  While the Greek salad was delicious and better than I expected, the cheese bread was a little disappointing.  While the bread tasted fresh, it could have used some garlic and other seasonings to make it a little more interesting. 

As for our pizza, not only was it drenched in sauce, which overwhelmed the flavor of the toppings, but the sauce itself was pretty bland.  The toppings also seemed non-existent.  For the above average price, I expected more. I’m no expert on deep dish pizza, but this certainly wasn’t a pizza I’d wait in line for again.  I’m guessing that Cappy’s New York-style pizza is what brings people back.

Whatever the case, Cappy’s might have the best New York-style pizza in the world, but their deep dish makes me cautious to go back.  Cappy’s is only open at night and cash-only. I’d wait until after 7pm on the weekend, otherwise you may feel like you’ve stepped into Chuck E. Cheese. Parking is tight. There is also a second Cappy’s location in Seminole Heights.  The Seminole Heights location did flawless on its last health inspection, while the Bay to Bay location didn’t do nearly as well.

I still have Eddie & Sam’s NY Pizza in downtown Tampa  on my list to check out.  What other local pizza joints do you think I should try?     

Bottom-line: I can’t speak for the old location in SOHO, but I like the vibe and atmosphere of the Bay to Bay location.  We didn’t have a good experience with their Chicago-style deep dish pizza, but maybe you’ll have more luck with their New-York style pie. 

Inspection Scorecard:  Last Inspection - December 2006 - Violations - Critical (8), Non-Critical (3).

Tonight, Plant hosts Miami Washington in the state semifinals. The winner goes to the title game next week in Miami.

Go Plant Panthers!

15 years ago…

October 8, 1991 – Gay Culverhouse, president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, challenges Palma Ceia Country Club’s bylaws during a speech to the Network of Executive Women at Tampa’s Centre Club. Culverhouse cited what she considered to be discriminatory practices that prohibited women from gaining full club membership. “I’m doing this for women,” Culverhouse said. “We are corporate leaders.”

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.