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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! 😀
raquel@eRecipe.com says
March 23, 2012 at 7:10 PMGreat food and awesome view. I love onion rings =)
Big Dude says
March 23, 2012 at 8:52 PMYou find local restaurants the same way we do and your meals look awesome. We had your recent fish and baked sweet potato fries last night and it was delicious – will post it on Mon or Tues.
Pegasuslegend says
March 24, 2012 at 9:34 AMI love grouper! I make it all the time grilled but this really does look wonderful! Glad you had a great time!
anniebakes says
March 25, 2012 at 9:39 AMi love st. pete and love all of the hole in the wall local places–they are the best and the fresh fish is incredible!! anne
Kim says
March 25, 2012 at 12:27 PMSounds and looks like a wonderful time, Roz. Those are two gorgeous sandwiches.
Heather @girlichef.com says
March 25, 2012 at 2:14 PMOh my goodness that looks fantastic – the fish and the rings. Yum!
Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef says
March 26, 2012 at 1:15 AMI love Tampa and Treasure Island. It’s been a long time since I lived in Florida but I really enjoyed it.
Those onion rings made me swoon 🙂
Kitchen Belleicious says
March 26, 2012 at 3:10 PMif only i could sink my teeth into this!
the food dude says
March 26, 2012 at 9:35 PMMan, those onion rings look awesome! And those sandwiches look really good, this is my kind of place!
Sam @ My Carolina Kitchen says
March 27, 2012 at 6:00 AMWe lived in St. Pete for a while and loved to go to the St. Pete beach. There’s just something so special about that place and the little restaurants there.
Sounds like you had a nice time Roz. If you had come further down to Fort Myers, I would have loved to see you.
Sam
Roz @ weightingfor50 says
March 27, 2012 at 6:42 PMHi U.S. Roz. All the best to you in Florida from me in Vancouver. LOVE the food pictures and the views. Canadian Roz.
Lizzy says
March 30, 2012 at 5:40 PMSounds like a fabulous local treasure! I love onion rings, too…a guilty pleasure, but worth a splurge every now and then 🙂 Hope you’re doing well, my friend!
LindyLouMac in Italy says
March 31, 2012 at 6:41 AMWhilst the food looks great, I agree with you what huge portions. Have fun in Florida.
Ciao Chow Linda says
March 31, 2012 at 6:50 PMThose crunchy fish filets look so darn tempting. Wishing I could bite into one right now.
Jerry says
April 1, 2012 at 9:44 AMI am one of those rare Canadians who has never been to Florida. Picture sof delicious looking food like this might just get me heading south! Hope you had a great trip!!!
bellini says
April 1, 2012 at 11:10 AMBack in the day when we used to travel to Florida I always wanted to head north to St. Petersburrg.