Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas at COLUMBIA is cool Latin cuisine in St. Petersburg, FL

Tonight we returned across the peninsula to St. Petersburg (the city, as opposed to the beach where we are staying) to COLUMBIA RESTAURANT located atop the PIER with beautiful views of the downtown as well as the bay. Samuel joined us in the historic restaurant which has its roots over 100 years ago in Ybor City (the original is still there and now seats of 1700!) where it was founded by Cuban immigrants in 1905. We started with a pitcher of the SANGRIA de CAVA made tableside with Cristalino Cava and Torres brandy...YUM YUM and Samuel quickly got his STEAK & FRIES which was very akin to the French "steak/frites" in that it was a simple yet tasty hanger-like cut with fries....he devoured almost al of this large child portion (FOR $4.95 WITH DRINK!!).

We chose several tapas to start with and loved them all: CROQUETAS de POLLO were served with the very hot COLUMBIA HOT SAUCE on the side and were creamy tasty versions made with Cuban bread crumbs. The MEJILLONS y CHORIZO "Andres"was an almost entree sized portion of plump PEI MUSSELS with tomato (huge cooked chunks), basil, spinach, garlic, white wine and lemon with the homemade Columbia chorizo...this was a dream dish.

SHRIMP & CRAB ALCACHOFAS was more of a creamy dip from artichoke, shrimp & crab served with large oyster-like crackers.

Will and I decided to split an entree of POMPANO en PAPILLOT which is a dish that dates to the 1940's and has stayed on the menu for some time. Made with SHRIMP, CRAB, ARTICHOKE and White Wine Butter Sauce and baked in parchment paper the fish came completely burnt the first time. Our super server, Earl from Arkansas, was back within 2 minutes with a fresh and delicious portion, served with yellow rice and peas. We were impressed and very happy. A bottle of ANTU NINQUEN 2004 Syrah from Chile was a great and huge impressive wine. This is a joint venture in the Colchagua Valley by Paul Hobbs and Mont Gras Vineyards which would easily top anyone's super impressive wine list from Chile. Will loved the CREMA CATALANA which was burned tableside to his desire and Sam gave it a "two pats on his belly" rating, although he really like his STRAWBERRIES served in strawberry sauce with whipped cream. We all went happy and spent tons less than the previous night--surprise!