a bit of Skyway Jacks history

Skyway Jack’s is one of my long-time favorite St. Pete breakfast spots, dating back to its original location by the old Skyway Bridge. But, in addition to the current location described in the Inkwatu post linked to above, there’s also a new, additional location: 11140 4th Street North, Saint Petersburg, FL 33716-2900; 727-576-4100. I haven’t been to it yet, but will eventually. Hope they were able to maintain the menu and ambiance of the old joints.

That’s why I was so happy to learn from the owners of Island Seafood Market & Bistro of Angie’s Front Porch Cafe (495 7th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, FL 33701; 727-320-4540).

Angie’s has a very nice Sunday brunch buffet!

Their website, angiesfrontporchcafe.com/frontporchcafe/, has an old address, the correct one is above. They also have a Facebook page.

Overlooking the historic Round Lake (pictured at the top of this post), Angie’s is in a vintage building (pictured above) that it shares with a laundromat. There’s plenty of parking on the street and in the lot immediately behind the building (the tow signs concerned me, but they assured me it was OK to park there).

Their website gives their lunch menu and breakfast menus. I love the fact that I’ve finally found a place where I can have a choice of plenty of salads, soups, sandwiches and wraps–just the kind of food I like for lunch. I’m not a sweets person, particularly, but if I were, Angie’s would have plenty to satisfy me. I will definitely try their key lime pie, soon.

But, speaking of sweets, they have bananas foster on their Sunday buffet. I’d never had that before. I didn’t even know how to dish it up; I had to ask. There, at least, you serve it over some very good French toast. I loved it. I have no prior experience to compare the quality to, but it sure tasted good to me.

The decor is comfortingly cozy and cluttered with cards, crafts, and tchochkes for sale. The place was packed with, obviously, very happy and friendly neighborhood regulars. It was a pleasant experience to eat there.

The Sunday I was there, there was an extremely good singer/guitarist of the very, very mellow variety. Usually, when I see that there’s “live music” somewhere, I groan and try to avoid going. Not with this fellow. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance and it was appropriate to the intimate setting at Angie’s.

I’ll be back to Angie’s!

Sometimes you see something that is so stunning, you’re actually able to overcome the inertia of living, go home, get the big camera (well…big for me; it’s just a lower end Nikon DSLR, but it’s bigger than my old Canon point-and-shoot which I still love and use a lot), go back out in the heat, drive back to the location, get out in the heat, brave the bugs (I’m a real sissy when it comes to flying, stinging bugs), and take some pictures.

It’s worth it though. I just love this tree. I’ve never seen it quite so glorious as it was today. I’ve blogged about it before here. At the end of that post, you can see the same tree when it’s not flowering.

Searching for that earlier post, I realized that I’ve actually got ten (10…!!!) posts on trees. I guess I really am a tree-hugger.

Here’s the list of those posts in case you’re in a tree-hugging mood yourself.

• It’s not all palm trees
• The kapok tree
• Spring
• More flowering trees
• Orchid, tree, jacaranda, royal poinciana, and tamarind
• Crepe-myrtle
• Yellow & orange fall foliage
• Red fall foliage
• Mount Dora Moss
• Monument

While I was out, today, I snapped this crepe-myrtle, too. These are everywhere down here right now. So easy to not notice how Pandora gorgeous is the place where we live. I remember one of my grand-nephews, who’d spent his entire life in the brown hills of northern California, helping me drive cross country a few years back. We took the southern route (my favorite) along the Gulf states. He’d never seen anything so green and lush in his life. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to see what’s around us through someone else’s eyes.

If you click on a picture, you go to a larger version. And, depending on the size of your monitor, if you click on that larger picture, you may go to an ever larger version!

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