Venice, Florida is a great little town. True, it does have the reputation of being “God’s Waiting Room”, along with other towns favored by midwestern retirees up and down the Gulf Coast, but it’s got incredible retro charm. And, it’s got a diner, which is a rare thing in these parts. The Lucky Dog is a Valentine Diner that was delivered from the company in Wichita to a little triangular sliver of property between Tamiami Trail and The Rialto in 1955. (From a website devoted to Valentine Diners, it looks like some version of a Dyne-​Quick, part of their line of “portable steel sandwich shops”.)

This diner was christened the Bel-​Bree, after its owners, the Breedings. Originally silver stainless steel trimmed in red and white, it was a local landmark — a real “old school” diner and community gathering spot for 39 years. But after “Mama Carrie” Breeding, died in 1994, it changed hands, and names, a few times. In 2007, it was purchased by its current owners, Alan Laskowski, a local chef who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and his sister Dawn Surak. They’ve given the place a makeover with a bright, lime green exterior, tropical colors on the inside, and a funky mid-​century vibe. It’s a tiny place, just 28 seats, and it has a miniscule kitchen that is too small for an ice machine or a conventional oven. Luckily, ice can be carried over from Laskowski’s other restaurant nearby, the menu does not suffer for lack of that stove, and the close quarters actually create a nice sense of intimacy as waitstaff and customers wiggle around each other.

Hot dogs are the big feature on the menu, twelve different varieties. My dear husband tried the sauerkraut, and I had a chili dog. They were good, almost as good as the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping on the gaggle of local ladies dishing about their upcoming 50^th high school reunion at the next table. (One of their classmates is still gossiping about who was dating whom back then, and she just needs to move on!) While some purists may grumble about the redecoration, apparently the locals still love the place.… As for me, I can’t wait to go back to sample more of their menu items, which include health-​conscious items (a Boca burger), gourmet treats (grilled cheese on sourdough with basil and tomatoes), and one of my favorite foods on the planet (Philly pork roll breakfast sandwich — guilty pleasure goodness). There are pancakes, omelets, eggs aplenty, and biscuits and gravy for the breakfast crowd, as well as burgers, fries, shakes and apple pie à la mode to keep the traditionalists happy at midday. (I was tickled to see “Root Beer, Dreamsicle, or Creamsicle Float” on the breakfast menu — woo hoo!)

As a Gulf Coast girl, I heartily recommend a visit to Venice. Be sure to check out the city’s new Venetian Waterway Park lining both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway, the studio and gallery of legendary nature photographer Clyde Butcher, the charming downtown shopping area, and the fabulous beaches. (It’s the Shark’s Tooth Capital of the World!) And be sure to have a meal — or two! — at Lucky Dog. Tell ‘em Flo sent you.

The Lucky Dog Diner: http://​www​.theluck​y​do​g​diner​.com/
Valentine Diners: http://​www​.kshs​.org/​p​/​h​i​s​t​o​r​y​-​o​f​-​v​a​l​e​n​t​i​n​e​-​d​i​n​e​r​s​/​10396
Venice Mainstreet: http://​www​.venice​main​street​.com/
Clyde Butcher: http://​www​.cly​de​butcher​.com/

I never met a buffet I didn’t like, and one of my favorites, back in the day, was BuddyFreddy’s in Plant City, Florida. In business since 1954, Elton and Evelyn Johnson’s place evolved from a gas station that sold sandwiches into the favorite of locals and tourists alike for Southern comfort food, served buffet style. We made many pilgrimages as a family for their righteous Southern breakfast feast: eggs, waffles, French toast, pancakes, bacon, sausage, grits, home fries, consumed in a large gracious room decorated with the glorious large-​scale paintings of John Briggs. TImes change, though, as did the fortunes of this restaurant. The restaurant was sold, there was expansions, then the other locations closed. Folks said that BuddyFreddy’s just wasn’t the same. We no longer made the trek to Plant City for breakfast.

Then, there was good news. The Johnson family was back in the restaurant business when Elton and Evelyn’s son Fred Johnson and his wife Tammy opened another buffet-​based restaurant, Fred’s Farm Market. Being situated right next door to the State Farmer’s Market in Plant allowed Fred and Tammy to get fruits and vegetables “as fresh as it gets” for the restaurant. On our first family outing, we were not disappointed.

Downtown Tampa has always been a little bit… “sleepy” once the the workaday crowd departs. As St. Pete Times food critic Laura Reiley put it so well a few years ago in her review of the Mediterranean café Paninoteca, “Downtown Tampa is like a bear waking from a long hibernation, blinking, befuddled and, apparently, pretty hungry.” (OK, you caught me. That’s not one of Florida’s own bear population; that’s a big blue Rocky Mountain bear that wandered into the city to peer in at conventioneers in Denver’s downtown; I just couldn’t resist.) Ms. Reiley went on to laud a new crop of downtown eateries bringing more people to the streets of Tampa after hours and on weekends than ever before. I’m a big fan of many of the the small, independent restaurants in and around downtown (Mise en Place, Spain, Bamboozle, Fly Bar, etc.), but what if it’s the middle of a sultry summer afternoon, and a bear needs a major shot of caffeine?

Your faithful correspondent had to take advantage of unseasonably glorious late-​Spring weather here on the Gulf Coast by being outside as much as possible (without doing yardwork), and the perfect place to go was Stafford U-​Pick in Brandon, for some righteous blueberries, a big bargain bucketful at $6/​lb. That may be work, but boy golly, it’s fruitful labor!

It seems like the U-​pick season in Florida is almost all year, with the possible exception of those Dog Days of Summer (hot, hot, HOT). But in olden days, there were no blueberries at all, outside the grocery store. Some noble scientists at UF changed all that some years ago with a blueberry breeding program(!) that resulted in new Southern highbush varieties bred for our climate, which the Staffords’ farm features in great profusion. The bushes are so laden that the fruit just falls into one’s outstretched palm. Moreover, the fruit is pesticide free; what doesn’t go into the bucket might go down the proverbial red road. Pick a little, eat a little, pick a little, eat a little , pick, pick, pick, pick…

Flo Rider is on the road again today, heading south, but before I go, I’d like to post an overdue ode to the Greatest Hand-​held Dessert Ever, which I discovered on a recent foray into Sumter County, Florida. On this particular Monday, my dear husband had a rare day off from work and thought we ought to do something fun with it. I was delighted when he agreed to accompany me up to Webster, site of a legendary (and huge) flea market, held only on Mondays. (I’m the picker; he is not, after all.) Webster was everything I had hoped, and worthy of its own post. For now, though, let’s leave that forty acres of treasures and head towards Bushnell, home of that incredible delicacy.