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Dec. 16th, 2003 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petermarcus"I wanted those waters to be blue. And they were not. They were the nighttime waters, and how I suffered then, straining to remember the seas that a young man's untutored senses had taken for granted, that an undisciplined memory had let slip away for eternity."
-- Louis (Anne Rice), Interview with the Vampire
I drove up the barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico, to try a restaurant I had passed in Indian Rocks Beach. Chateau Madrid, it is called, a mixing of European culture in a single appellation that may be perverse even for American melting-pot standards. Here is how you get there from Treasure Island, Florida, on a Tuesday night: You drive north on Gulf boulevard, passing 600,000 hotels offering rooms for adults only, families welcome, Canadians welcome, Wir sprechen Deutsch (though, oddly no blatantly French advertisements even with the blanket "Canadian" come-hithers). You pass a single miniature golf course, then two others named Smugglers Cove done in pirate motif ("Feed live gators while you golf!").
Chateau Madrid is a pretty place on the outside, a little dingy on the inside which might make it a bit more authentic when it comes to European restauranteuring. There is a nice, almost required picture of Don Quixote at the bar; an etching more realistic than, but obviously inspired by, the Picasso.
It was a slow night. The martini was not up to the standards that such a prime location might require. The duck had a lovely sauce, but was overcooked. There were no, to my dismay, cervezas de España, merely the generic stock of Corona, Heineken, Coors, Mic, Bud, and Grolsch. The ambiance was...lacking.
I have only lived here for a month now, as of today. I have started a search for a replacement for my hangout in Atlanta, a wonderful bar/restaurant called Food 101. Good food, good ambiance, good clientele. This was my first attempt in Tampa Bay, and I swung and missed.
I drove south toward home, windows open in the 70 (21) degree weather watching the black-clouded sky above the inky waters of the Gulf. Unlike Louis, the character with which I identify most in Gothic fiction, I love the sea at night. But then, I'll take it just fine in the daytime as well. At least I have the choice -- I might be bitter, too, if I were denied the blue-green shimmer of the sea on a cloudless day.
I need to get in back in the Florida mode of living in a resort. The years I lived in south Florida, the years I lived in Orlando...I need to recapture that patience. I'm searching for like-aged ambiance in the height of snow-bird season, right on the beach. I wouldn't trade where I'm living for anything, but I'm thinking for my next place, I might need to go more urban, less resort.
In the meantime, I picked the next potential spot to try. A review may be forthcoming in the next few days.
-- Louis (Anne Rice), Interview with the Vampire
I drove up the barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico, to try a restaurant I had passed in Indian Rocks Beach. Chateau Madrid, it is called, a mixing of European culture in a single appellation that may be perverse even for American melting-pot standards. Here is how you get there from Treasure Island, Florida, on a Tuesday night: You drive north on Gulf boulevard, passing 600,000 hotels offering rooms for adults only, families welcome, Canadians welcome, Wir sprechen Deutsch (though, oddly no blatantly French advertisements even with the blanket "Canadian" come-hithers). You pass a single miniature golf course, then two others named Smugglers Cove done in pirate motif ("Feed live gators while you golf!").
Chateau Madrid is a pretty place on the outside, a little dingy on the inside which might make it a bit more authentic when it comes to European restauranteuring. There is a nice, almost required picture of Don Quixote at the bar; an etching more realistic than, but obviously inspired by, the Picasso.
It was a slow night. The martini was not up to the standards that such a prime location might require. The duck had a lovely sauce, but was overcooked. There were no, to my dismay, cervezas de España, merely the generic stock of Corona, Heineken, Coors, Mic, Bud, and Grolsch. The ambiance was...lacking.
I have only lived here for a month now, as of today. I have started a search for a replacement for my hangout in Atlanta, a wonderful bar/restaurant called Food 101. Good food, good ambiance, good clientele. This was my first attempt in Tampa Bay, and I swung and missed.
I drove south toward home, windows open in the 70 (21) degree weather watching the black-clouded sky above the inky waters of the Gulf. Unlike Louis, the character with which I identify most in Gothic fiction, I love the sea at night. But then, I'll take it just fine in the daytime as well. At least I have the choice -- I might be bitter, too, if I were denied the blue-green shimmer of the sea on a cloudless day.
I need to get in back in the Florida mode of living in a resort. The years I lived in south Florida, the years I lived in Orlando...I need to recapture that patience. I'm searching for like-aged ambiance in the height of snow-bird season, right on the beach. I wouldn't trade where I'm living for anything, but I'm thinking for my next place, I might need to go more urban, less resort.
In the meantime, I picked the next potential spot to try. A review may be forthcoming in the next few days.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:40 pm (UTC)My favorite Mexican place ever is down there. Carmelita's. Has the best margaritas too.
Mmmmmm...
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 07:50 pm (UTC)And I'll be waiting for the next review!
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:09 pm (UTC)I keep meaning to tell you -- my landlord is from Winnipeg. Lives there most of the year (though he's in town now.) Heh, every time he calls me, the first words out of his mouth are: "How's the weather down there?" Winnipeg is your origin, right?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 06:14 am (UTC)have you ever read the witching hour? it is a tome...
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 06:31 am (UTC)I've read the Witching Hour series -- my favorite part in that is also the beginning, when Rowan tools around SF Bay in her boat, up to the part where she comes across Michael and they discover his powers.
I just can't read any of her stuff now. I think the last one I read was Pandora or Lasher, and I just shake my head.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 06:34 am (UTC)what came after the witching hour?
i think, out of the vampire series, i've only read the vampire lestat & interview. i haven't been able to read any more of them. maybe, if i can find some of them at garage sales or something, i might try again, just for some "light reading" over the holidays.
what other 'gothic' fiction do you like that you've read?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 06:53 am (UTC)Just about anything early by Clive Barker. The Great and Secret Show and WeaveWorld are two good ones. A few secret societies in these ;)
After Witching Hour came Lasher, then Taltos, then Merrick. I realize now, I did read Taltos, too, but I didn't get into that as much. Didn't read Merrick. She also wrote Ramses the Damned, a mummy story, that isn't bad. Definitely lighter than Interview. The later vampire books involve the Talamasca. Lestat, actually, becomes good friends with the director of the society.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 10:04 am (UTC)And you're right...Anne Rice's writing has been trite at best for years. Disappointing.