THIS IS A REPOST FROM A TRIP TO FLORIDA A FEW YEARS AGO. NOTE THAT SOME BUSINESSES MAY HAVE CLOSED IN THE MEANTIME, SO PLEASE CHECK BEFORE YOU MAKE PLANS
DUNEDIN, FLORIDA – It was the spring of 1993. I don’t remember the weather in Toronto. I only remember that I was heading down to a town called Dunedin in Florida to cover the Blue Jays in their spring training games for the Toronto Star, where I was one of a trio of baseball beat writers.
I’ve always had a strong liking to warm weather, palm trees and casual, walkable cities. I’d been to Orlando one or maybe twice but don’t remember having been to the Gulf Coast.
I picked up a rental car at the Tampa Airport in March of 1993 and drove over the Courtney Campbell Causeway, rock and roll tunes (and probably some Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffett) ringing from the car speakers and the windows all the way down to soak in the views of Tampa Bay and the smell of the salt water.
After a relatively short drive I found myself in an adorable, small town with a vibrant Main Street, cute shops and pretty harbour on the Intracoastal Waterway, with brilliant white sailboats under a warm, blue sky.
I fell in love. I took morning walks on Victoria Drive, a partly dirt and partly paved (I remember more dirt than asphalt back in 1993) road with romantic homes featuring wide lawns and big front porches overlooking the water. I dined at a funky spot in town called Kelly’s and ate tacos at Casa Tina. I took regular trips out to Honeymoon Island to admire the beach, or occasionally over to Clearwater Beach.
A home along Victoria Drive in Dunedin, Florida. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I covered the Jays during spring training for a couple weeks at a time from 1993 to 1998. I’ve been back to Dunedin, oh, I don’t know, maybe a dozen times since then. I love seeing the Jays play on a sunny spring day. I love sitting on a patio near the water at lunch with a blackened grouper sandwich in one hand and a cold beer in the other. I love wearing my flip-flops and shorts and the Dunedin t-shirts I’ve taken to buying each time I go. I love the sunsets from the small pier and the bike trail and the little park with the bandstand and the old-time orange crate murals that dot some of the walls of downtown buildings and the row of towering palm trees that line the park south of downtown, where you can stroll or bike and watch dolphins slip through the gentle waters of the Intracoastal Waterway. And I adore a town that has become my favourite one in the state of Florida, no offence to other great communities I love in the Sunshine State.
I was lucky enough to be back for a couple days in January of this year, where I stayed two nights at the sleek Fenway Hotel (see my earlier blog) and also took in some new and already well-loved sights.
Dunedin is home to a lovely marina. Try the Olde Bay Cafe for a beer and a bite. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I took one of the Fenway Hotel bikes out one day so I could admire those Victoria Drive homes, which I often dream about buying. I snapped a few photos of high-back, wooden chairs in the shade of slender, swaying palm trees a few feet from the water’s edge and watched other bike riders meander along the road.
The next day the Visit St. Pete/Clearwater tourism folks hooked me up with an electric bike from the folks at Pedego Dunedin, who have a shop just a couple feet from the Pinellas Trail in the heart of downtown Dunedin, which seems to stretch out a little further each time I go but still has a ton of charm; colourful buildings, casual surf shops, galleries, antique stores and fun restaurants.
Main Street in Dunedin, Florida. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I took a few minutes to buy some new shirts at the Suncoast Beach Co. and had a fine blackened fish sandwich overlooking the harbour at Olde Bay Cafe. I wandered along Main Street for a few minutes, checking out new spots and old faves such as Kelly’s, a fun restaurant that has a much nicer, larger back patio than I remembered. Next door, the Chic a Boom Room is a fun bar that often features Drag Queen Bingo, a wildly entertaining evening out that always draws a crowd. Maybe not something you expect from a town founded by Scottish settlers, where you’ll often find bagpipers whirling a tune at the downtown bandstand, but that’s another reason I love this place.
The Pedego bikes can go up to 30 km/hour, but I tried a combination of cycling and motoring to at least get a little (okay, hardly any) exercise. I explored some fun neighborhoods along the water that I’d never wandered into before and discovered a beautiful, sandy beach on a small key that’s maybe 150 meters off shore. When I was there a group of kayakers were heading out for a picnic, and how great an idea is that?
Kayaking to a small key near Dunedin, Florida. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I took the Pinellas Trail north from downtown to Honeymoon Island State Park, where you’ll find a busy beach and kayak and canoe rentals, as well as stand-up paddleboards and Sea-Doo’s for rent. It’s only a couple miles from the mainland to Honeymoon Island State Park, where you’ll find a series of fantastic nature trails that wind through forests of palmettos, live oaks and cypress trees. I spotted a couple bald eagles’ nests and watched a couple of Ospreys having a morning chat with one another in another nest.
The trails get progressively quieter as you make your way west towards a lonely beach that looks out toward the town of Tarpon Springs, famous for its sponge diving. If you’re looking for solitude and great kayaking or paddle-boarding, this is your spot.
Another great activity is to take a quick pontoon boat ride over to Caladesi Island, often rated one of the best beaches in the United States. It’s been super-quiet every time I’ve gone (probably five or six times by now), and there are tremendous opportunities for shell seekers. They also have interpretive trails that explain the flora and fauna of the area, which I love checking out.
Relaxing at Honeymoon Island Stare Park in Dunedin, Fllorida. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I finished by electric bike tour with a visit to Dunedin Brewery, where creator Michael Norman Bryant filled me in on the brewery’s history and his experiments making orange wine as a youngster in Kentucky.
“My mom had an old recipe book and I wanted to make some kind of alcohol. I thought it might impress the ladies. But I couldn’t ask her to buy me the ingredients, so I used what we had at the house; basically oranges, sugar and yeast.”
He later tried making wine from grapes and then moved to Dunedin, where he started making his own beer.
“I was making all kinds of crazy stuff in my garage, like chocolate raspberry stout. Interestingly, the guys wouldn’t try it. They were worried about their reputations, I guess. But women were happy to try it. I always say women led the way when it comes to craft beer.”
After filling out mountains of forms, Bryant was finally able to open Dunedin Brewery in the mid 1990’s. Others came before him but have since closed, making Dunedin the oldest, sustaining micro-brewery in the state.
I didn’t dine here on this visit, but I ate dinner at the brewery with my wife a couple years ago and had a fine meal. They also have live music and a nice patio out front.
Dunedin Brewery founder Michael Norman Bryant. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Bryant, who likes to wear t-shirts that promote other craft breweries versus his own, also runs a nearby beer spot called Anti-Brewery, where his Dunedin Brewery workers can work on a smaller scale and experiment to their heart’s delight. Not only does that mean fun beers for locals to try, it makes his workers that much happier.
I’ve almost always dined on Main Street when I’m in town. This time, my friend Leroy took me to The Restorative, a small place on Patricia Ave., a few blocks east of downtown. The restaurant is in a small strip mall across from a bowling alley, so it doesn’t quite have off-the-charts curb appeal. But the food was outrageously good.
Owners Jason Borajkiewicz and his wife, Erin “Cricket” Plunkett, serve meals only from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday. They have a website and they’ll answer emails. But there’s no phone, and they don’t take reservations.
“Not even for my grandma,” Borajkiewicz tells me with a smile.
Perfect scallops at The Restorative in Dunedin, Florida. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The menu changes constantly, and most items only last a week or maybe 10 days before they swap it out for something fresh.
“We do what we want to do, when we want to do it,” Borajkiewicz says. “We all carry around notebooks for when we get inspired, and we check the Instagram accounts of top chefs to see what they’re doing.”
“Farm to table is great, and we have great produce and meats in Florida,” he said. “But I want the best I can get. If it’s local, that’s great.”
Borajkiewicz said he worked for a while in Martha’s Vineyard.
“We grew our own tomatoes, but how good were they?”
I had hoped to try the lamb ribs that were on the printed menu, having never heard of lamb ribs as a dining option. But, true to the owner’s word, they only have enough for a few meals and someone who arrived for an early dinner has snapped up the last portion.
I quickly forget about what I’m missing as I devour a series of sensational dishes; ginger-garlic meatballs, wonderful, house-made pasta with seafood, a great salad tossed with a warm egg yolk and absolutely tremendous, perfectly cooked scallops with mushrooms and charred cauliflower.
Jason Borajkiewicz at his restaurant, The Restorative. JIM BYERS PHOTO
It’s a small room with a few scattered prints on the wall and a little area at the back where you can relax if they don’t have a table ready yet. But you don’t come here for the décor, you come for the food. And it’s outstanding.
I don’t have room for dessert, but I notice that one of the offerings in early January is Norwegian Christmas bread, something that struck the fancy of Borajkiewicz one day.
I think I’m safe in saying that The Restorative might be the only restaurant in the world with ginger-garlic meatballs and Norwegian Christmas bread on the same menu. Yet another reason why I love this town.
AND HERE’S PART OF ANOTHER PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED POST ON DUNEDIN
What to do and where to eat
Dunedin’s downtown has grown tremendously over the years, with an array of new shops and restaurants, including CaraCara (https://caracaratapas.com/) and the city’s first craft cocktail bar, the Sonder Social Club (https://www.sondersocial.club/). The folks from Caracara also run Taco Baby, a tiny shop around the corner. Of course, you’ll also find Irish pubs and casual spots for a cold beer and a sandwich. I love sitting by the city’s beautiful marina at the Olde Bay Cafe and indulging in a local beer with a grouper sandwich or fish tacos. Casa Tina makes good Mexican food, while The Dunedin Smokehouse does wonderful ribs, brisket and other bbq specialties, and offers a great patio. Blur is a funky nightclub that features regular “Drag Queen Bingo” nights. I walked in once and saw a guy with a big beard and a vivid pink dress shouting out bingo numbers as a group of women visitors laughed uproariously.
Great activities include a visit to Honeymoon Island State Park, where you can swim, walk the beach or take a pontoon boat to Caladesi Island, which has been voted as having one of the best beaches in the United States. https://www.floridastateparks.org/honeymoonisland
Clearwater Beach is maybe 15 minutes away by car and is one of the best in the U.S. It’s also home to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, home of Winter the Dolphin from the movies of the same name. They do a lot of important research on animals and water quality and recently set free a pair of turtles who had been injured and nursed back to health. The facility is undergoing a major expansion.
Art fans will want to wander a few km’s east of Dunedin and check out the concerts, workshops and art displays at the Safety Harbor Arts and Music Center. http://www.safetyharborartandmusiccenter.com/ Safety Harbor also is home to a wildly decorated home called Whimzeyland that you can check out for free. You’ll find everything from hundreds of bowling balls to wine bottles, a rainbow of artificial and real flowers, and colourful mosaics. https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Landmark—Historical-Place/Whimzeyland-1573760972953570/
Where to stay
A few blocks south of downtown Dunedin, and a five-minute walk from the Jays’ TD Ballpark, is the boutique Fenway Hotel. It’s a Marriott Autograph Collection property with beautiful rooms, a rooftop bar with killer sunsets, free bikes, great food, a pool out back and regular, live concerts in the lobby. They also greet guests with a refreshing kir royale when they check in. https://www.fenwayhotel.com/. If you’re on a budget, the Best Western Plus Yacht Harbor Inn has nice rooms and is right on the water. There’s also a fine Holiday Inn Express and Suites right downtown. And I enjoyed the small Meranova B & B a few years ago. It’s in the heart of downtown; just across the street from some of the city’s best shops and dining spots.
