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Published: March 7th 2009
Wes and I have a tradition when we fly out of the Tampa Airport. We stay at a hotel close to the airport, enjoy an amazing sunset dinner at the elegant Rusty Pelican, and leave for the airport before the sun comes up next morning. This time, we programmed Old Hyde Park Village, Tampa into the Magellan and Jeeped on down from Ocala. Old Hyde Park Village is a "lifestyle center" (residential/ retail/ restaurants) near downtown Tampa. Zita had given us a post card promoting a benefit showing of Princess Diana's Dresses in a former furniture store in the village. After a great lunch at Timpano, we found the exhibit. A gang of volunteers were painting and otherwise spiffing up the venue. The show had actually opened hastily for Super Bowl (in Tampa this year) but the REAL show, spiffed up with new paint and better lighting was being worked on when we popped in. Happening upon the "production phase" of the exhibit was like being back stage and the gracious producer of the event allowed us to look around and take a few pix. There are some 17 day and evening dresses and suits. Catch Diana's Dresses if you're in
On the Circle Old Hyde Park
This "Life Style" Center has a fairly good mix of residential, retail, restaurants and events. Stores like Anthropologie, Williams Sonoma, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor and some independent stores. Signs of the times; there are several vacant storefronts. We hope it will sustain itself. Nice old timey neighborhood near downtown Tampa.Tampa between now and May 1, 2009. It's worth the $20 donation AND, Hospice of Tampa will benefit from your largesse.
Old Hyde Park Village has a parking garage and ample security. We were enroute to the hotel with two suitcases and two computer bags in the back of the soft top Jeep with plastic rear windows i.e. no place to hide the stuff. So, a security guard advised Wes to park "On the Circle" and allow us to exceed the 30 minute zone parking rule so she could keep an eye on our Jeep. It's wonderful when people extend themeselves like this. As travelers we appreciate many examples of good hospitality like this. Old Hyde Park Village has some nifty independent boutiques and well known names like Brooks Brothers, Williams Sonoma, Anthopologie, Ann Taylor, etc.
The "Tampa city look" is way different from the "beach bum looks" we seem to favor lately. Black is just as popular in Tampa as it is in New York (forget about Florida "colors" in Tampa)! The look is sophisticated. The men - especially the young ones - are pencil thin, dressed in very dark, conservative clothing with white or pastel shirts
Old Hyde Park Street Scene
This is a very nice area near Tampa's downtown. Not too many people around and some of the store fronts are empty. Hope it can survive the current economic times. and neckties. Very, very spiky hair is de rigueur! Would love to have the corner on men's hair products in Tampa.
Our dinner at the Rustic Pelican was wonderful. Great food, great sunset and interesting people. "Sound bites" picked up from nearby tables were peppered with words like "agent," "relief pitcher," "when I played on the Olympic team," etc. Eavesdropping is fun. We think they were associated with the NY Yankees there for spring training.
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