Touring Tampa on Day 9 of our trip revealed some really interesting stuff to us.
After spending most of Friday driving a couple of hundred miles all over the area, we knew where we wanted to zoom in to. We decided to spend at least part of the day on our shared passion...food and nutrition. So where do we head first? A fast food place called EVOS! Fast food..WHY? 'Cause it's healthy fast food...well, as we soon discovered, sort of. The deal is these folks seem to be offering a "healthy" alternative to Micky D's, etc, when in fact, it's really only a sort of less bad alternative. They definitely are targeting the Whole Foods crowd, but if you start asking specific questions about ingredients the Boogie Man pops up. The menu's pretty straight forward, Burgers (from the menu, "naturally raised beef""hormone/anti-biotic free"), fries (air baked), shakes (again from the menu, "low fat organic milkshakes"), and other fast food stuff like chicken strips, wraps, and salads. Sounds good and healthy, right? Ok, here's the lowdown. The shakes, except for vanilla, all contain the, by now, infamous and dreaded HFCS, high fructose corn syrup. We have yet to see HFCS listed as an organic ingredient in anything calling itself "organic." They have a ketchup bar, filled with lots of neat flavors...all using HFCS too. They serve coke (HFCS) products, which is really ok, since they also offered, as an alternative, organic soft drinks from our Santa Fe friends at Blue Sky Sodas. We find all this a bit inconsistent. Why don't they offer organic ketchup and other condiments and charge a little more. We think many people wouldn't mind paying the upcharge. So who are these people trying to please. We guess the same people who shop at Whole Foods and trust everything they're buying is "healthy." The difference is Whole Foods doesn't claim that something they sell is "organic" when it contains obviously non organic ingredients. The food was tasty, but nowhere in the restaurant could we find a list of ingredients. We don't know how much fat we ate, how much sodium, or other not so healthy things were in our food. If you say you're "healthy" the question becomes, what does that word really mean? Nice try, but these folks have a way to go before we'll want to visit again! On a lighter note, we also visited a total of four heath food stores, and found all of them to be well stocked and fun places to shop...and they were ALL busy! Tampa's a health nut town. There were two most interesting surprises in the grocery store category too. The first was the Publix Greenwise store, near downtown. It's been opened since 2008 and is a cross between a Whole Foods store and a Texas Central Market (for those of you who know what that means). This place rocks! Gourmet cheeses, wines, produce, fish, meats, all displayed beautifully, and bountifully. What a concept! There are only three of them so far, Tampa, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach, but we guess there will be more soon.The second was a store we 'd never heard of called GFS Marketplace. Seems this chain is based in Michigan and offers an interesting mix of bulk type groceries at low prices and restaurant supply type items. It's a little hard to explain. You just have to be there to see it for yourself. Another very cool discovery in South Tampa is Pane Rustica on Macdill Avenue. By day, this tasty looking place is a casual bakery style restaurant and take out. All breads and pastries are made in house and the oven is the size of a bedroom. Amazing breads!! At night, it turns into an upscale eatery, featuring dishes like (again from the menu), "Red wine, porcini, and potato bisque with chive cream" or "Fennel seared salmon, toasted Israeli cous cous, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, olives, arugula, blood orange butter sauce." This place rocks too. In fact, Tampa rocks! We have enjoyed the people and places here alot, and now we look forward to heading to Miami and visiting with brother Eddie and sister (in-law) Pat....
After spending most of Friday driving a couple of hundred miles all over the area, we knew where we wanted to zoom in to. We decided to spend at least part of the day on our shared passion...food and nutrition. So where do we head first? A fast food place called EVOS! Fast food..WHY? 'Cause it's healthy fast food...well, as we soon discovered, sort of. The deal is these folks seem to be offering a "healthy" alternative to Micky D's, etc, when in fact, it's really only a sort of less bad alternative. They definitely are targeting the Whole Foods crowd, but if you start asking specific questions about ingredients the Boogie Man pops up. The menu's pretty straight forward, Burgers (from the menu, "naturally raised beef""hormone/anti-biotic free"), fries (air baked), shakes (again from the menu, "low fat organic milkshakes"), and other fast food stuff like chicken strips, wraps, and salads. Sounds good and healthy, right? Ok, here's the lowdown. The shakes, except for vanilla, all contain the, by now, infamous and dreaded HFCS, high fructose corn syrup. We have yet to see HFCS listed as an organic ingredient in anything calling itself "organic." They have a ketchup bar, filled with lots of neat flavors...all using HFCS too. They serve coke (HFCS) products, which is really ok, since they also offered, as an alternative, organic soft drinks from our Santa Fe friends at Blue Sky Sodas. We find all this a bit inconsistent. Why don't they offer organic ketchup and other condiments and charge a little more. We think many people wouldn't mind paying the upcharge. So who are these people trying to please. We guess the same people who shop at Whole Foods and trust everything they're buying is "healthy." The difference is Whole Foods doesn't claim that something they sell is "organic" when it contains obviously non organic ingredients. The food was tasty, but nowhere in the restaurant could we find a list of ingredients. We don't know how much fat we ate, how much sodium, or other not so healthy things were in our food. If you say you're "healthy" the question becomes, what does that word really mean? Nice try, but these folks have a way to go before we'll want to visit again! On a lighter note, we also visited a total of four heath food stores, and found all of them to be well stocked and fun places to shop...and they were ALL busy! Tampa's a health nut town. There were two most interesting surprises in the grocery store category too. The first was the Publix Greenwise store, near downtown. It's been opened since 2008 and is a cross between a Whole Foods store and a Texas Central Market (for those of you who know what that means). This place rocks! Gourmet cheeses, wines, produce, fish, meats, all displayed beautifully, and bountifully. What a concept! There are only three of them so far, Tampa, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach, but we guess there will be more soon.The second was a store we 'd never heard of called GFS Marketplace. Seems this chain is based in Michigan and offers an interesting mix of bulk type groceries at low prices and restaurant supply type items. It's a little hard to explain. You just have to be there to see it for yourself. Another very cool discovery in South Tampa is Pane Rustica on Macdill Avenue. By day, this tasty looking place is a casual bakery style restaurant and take out. All breads and pastries are made in house and the oven is the size of a bedroom. Amazing breads!! At night, it turns into an upscale eatery, featuring dishes like (again from the menu), "Red wine, porcini, and potato bisque with chive cream" or "Fennel seared salmon, toasted Israeli cous cous, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, olives, arugula, blood orange butter sauce." This place rocks too. In fact, Tampa rocks! We have enjoyed the people and places here alot, and now we look forward to heading to Miami and visiting with brother Eddie and sister (in-law) Pat....
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