Miami Vice - Part 4

 

So, after a fairly uneventful 3 hour drive up from Naples we arrived in St. Pete's and checked into our Hotel. We'd booked in for five nights and were looking forward to some serious relaxation, St. Pete's is well known for it's craft beer scene and I was particularly interested to see what was around and how it might be different from say, the scene in London or New York etc. St. Pete's is a scruffy place, not like the shining glass and steel towers of Miami more like Shoreditch (but with Sunshine!) but what it lacks in modern sparkle it makes up for in authenticity and genuine, welcoming and slightly left of centre people.

The weather was cracking, around 28 degrees without the slightest hint of humidity, perfect for walking around popping into the odd museum, eating ice creams by the sea and, of course, visiting some really distinct and interesting taprooms. First on this list was St. Pete brewing, their brewery being only a ten minute walk from our hotel, most of the familiar styles were on offer, I opted for a nice hazy IPA to kick things off with (see above) but they also had a bunch of more esoteric options like sours and imperial stouts, we had all week so I only had the one, which was delicious, and we moved on.

Most of the tourist and restaurant action was happening along the sea-front, thats where most of the "TTD's" (things to do) were too. For our dinner we opted for steaks (and usual accompanyments) and I was pleased to pair it with a wine from Ridge (one of my favourite US producers) and doubly pleased to see that it was a lot cheaper than the same bottle in the UK (about 2/3 price!) I must say that we noticed a general trend for things, especially restaurants, being significantly more expensive that the last time we were in the USA (2022), maybe that was a Florida/Tourist thing but some of the prices were truely eye-watering and the quality of the food not great value for money compared to, say, London.

During our stay in St. Pete's we visited several museums and galleries, there were a couple of stand-outs, firstly the fine art museum in the centre of downtown. They had an exhibition of Ansel Adams photographs, I love his work and it was a real treat to see the originals! (see below)

I particularly liked this one of Half Dome in the snow, I seem to remember having a poster of this on my bedroom wall back in the 80's! Another place that took our fancy was the Salvador Dalí museum, an unlikely setting for such a place but apparently a couple of uber-rich people who lived in St. Pete's back in the day, had a long standing friendship with the artist and collected over 90 of his paintings, including some of the really well known ones! It was a really cool place, more melting clocks that you can shake a lobster at!

To finish off our stay in the area we visited perhaps the most well known of all the craft brewers from there, "Green Bench". For those in the know this producer has had a string of well regarded brews that have even made it as far as the wilds of Berkshire England, and I was keen to try a few from source!

Their tap room is a rather splendid space (above) with loads of outside seating, a really chilled place to sup a few beers. I opted for a couple of their hazy numbers (see below) all of them were excellent, fresh as you like and really distinct flavour profiles and in thirty degree heat they were just the job!

After a really pleasent afternoon in the sunshine at Green Bench we retired back to downtown and our last dinner in St. Pete's. 

The next morning we awoke early and loaded up the car to make the 4 hour drive back to MIA and our flight back to London that evening. Fortunately, our Airbus A380 was waiting and everything was on time, the jet stream was particularly strong over the North Atlantic and the night seemed to pass really quickly. Arriving into a misty Heathrow at around 6 in the morning I was very pleased to have kept a warm jacket in my backpack, it felt freezing! 

Anyway, a successful holiday, relaxed and interesting, I learnt a lot more about Florida and in particular the craft beer scene there, we both felt that maybe some day in the future (perhaps post Trump) we'll be back!