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These are some seriously crazy huge freshly beer-batter dipped onion rings that we joyfully noshed on while overlooking one of the inland waterways off of Treasure Island near St. Petersburg, FL, USA!  What a fun and definitely popular place!  Goodness, it was happy hour and there wasn’t an empty seat in the 3 room establishment . . . mostly senior citizens drinking around the lengthy bars too!  Ahhhh, to be retired and living in the warm sunshine!

Anyhow, whenever we travel, our plans always include asking where the locals go for good food (you know, the places that never have to advertise and that are so popular that there are never any specials or coupons offered . . . essentially the ancient old ‘gold-mines’)!  For the first night dining here in St. Pete Mr. M. and P. and I were directed to a delicious dump called Sea Hags Bar and Grill on St. Pete’s Beach.  We totally loved it!  Live music, lots of happy people, great food, and cocktails to satisfy the souls of these two travelers!

We’re suckers for hand-made, on-the-premise breaded onion rings . . . and the bigger the better we say!  This platter of  O-Rings was almost nabbed by every character sitting at the bar before it made it’s way to our table and was nearly a meal in itself.  But alas, we couldn’t stop there for “Pete’s sake”!

So on with the next course:  A huge fresh-out-of-the-gulf fried grouper sandwich so tender and sweet!  And surprise of all surprises!  Something that I rarely see on a menu south of the Midwest:   a monster-sized breaded pork loin sandwich!  HEAVEN ON A BUN!  These sammies were so huge that we saved half of each for today’s lunch and then some!

Perfectly unhealthy fried food . . . but fresh unhealthy fried food!  😀

 
Above:  The Fried Breaded Fresh Grouper Sammie!
 
Above:  The ultra-huge monster-sized Fried Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sammie 
(compare to the size of the large hamburger bun!)
 
 
A view of some gorgeous boats floating in the docks along with a few happy people at the end of the outdoor section of the restaurant where there were literally only a few tables left for strangers like us who arrived a bit late for happy hour!
 
Cheers from St. Pete/Tampa Bay, Florida!