Travels with Sophie: Dog-Friendly Sanibel

Hi. I’m Sophie the Wonder Dog.

I like to get my people out of the house once in a while. The back yard is great and all, but there’s a big world to sniff.

Normally, what I do is have them put on my “sass”—I’m wearing my pink sass for this trip. And when they say “Load up,” it means they’re ready to go.

From what I understand, other dogs also like to get their people out there once in a while. And if those dogs are like me, they’re all about fun, so they might like to hear about our adventures. Maybe it will inspire them to take their people on some new adventures of their own.

Dog House Away from Home

All I can say is: Sanibel's Tropical Winds=Fantastic. Probably the only dog-friendly accommodations right on the beach. The grounds offered plenty to sniff, if you know what I mean—several other canine guests were staying there too.

The bed was great for afternoon napping and the terrazzo floor cooled my tummy after a hard morning of romping through the waves.

The Glorious Seashore

I couldn’t get enough. I mean, that’s why you go to Sanibel, am I right?

I’m a water dog by nature and I’m totally addicted to tennis balls.

What more is there to say?

Doggie Dining

Lots of restaurants on Sanibel invite people to bring their canine companions. Actually, Sanibel is a very dog-friendly destination—as long as owners are responsible and make sure to be respectful of the wildlife and conservation issues—no chasing birds over the delicate sand dunes, in other words (and I’m a bird dog!). We have to stay on a leash at all times (except when I’m treading water after those tennis balls) but it’s worth it to feel welcome in such a beautiful place.

So—at Sanibel's Island Cow, I sniffed everyone’s table along the way to ours. The guy brought me a bowl of water. Thanks, chump. He could have at least thrown me a bone, huh? The shrimp and grits looked like a nasty bowl of gravy—she sent it back and ordered red beans and rice, but I would have eaten it. Just sayin’.

Sightseeing

The Sanibel Lighthouse offers several sniffing trails and is adjacent to a nice little beach. I was ready to jump in, but they wouldn’t let me. Said something about “next time,” which I don’t even know what that means. (Usually they say stuff like they’ll be “back in five minutes.” And sure enough, there they are.)

But the sniffing was good anyway.

Sophie Snacks

You gotta love a place like Pinocchio's Ice Cream that gives us four-legged customers a complimentary “puppy cup” of vanilla soft serve. And a liberal sprinkling of unabashed adoration. That’s what I really love.

I’m looking forward to our next big adventure, which will probably be in about five minutes.

Agro-Marvel Thrives on People-Packed Peninsula!

It’s frickin’ hot out. Again.

That’s when I always seem to visit. Of course, that’s when the busy (an understatement) Farmer and Farmer’s Wife can stop and take a breath—between hectic growing seasons—to show me what’s new.

I’ve been an admirer of Gateway Organic Farm since I first pitched a story on this Pinellas County (FL) wonderland to my editor at Bay Area Business Magazine in the summer of 2008. Gateway is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) operation offering annual memberships that garner weekly or bi-weekly pick-ups of freshly harvested produce, November to May.

Hank and Pamela Sindlinger have been working hard with their grandchildren, scores of volunteers and grateful local-food enthusiasts and chefs, turning slow but steady miracles on this three-acre green strip wedged into suburbia.

This time, I was greeted by rows of giant black pots lining the fence—some 250 of them left over from the property’s landscape nursery days—put to good use, overflowing with squash and kiwi vines and herbs. (Photo, right: Muscadines on another fence)

They’ve cleared more land for more herb and vegetable gardens. The greenhouses contain a variety of alternative gardening experiments, from a tilapia tank and earthworm enclosures to hydroponic towers. Every project is made of recycled material. Their creativity turns someone else’s trash into useful components that meet their needs without wasting resources.

Everything has a purpose at Gateway. The chickens peck away at grubs and weeds when they’re rolled along the rows in the “chicken tractor,” leaving rich “chicken gold” behind. The bees buzz away from their hive boxes to help with pollination.

One of the greenhouses is used for special dinners, herb society klatches, and other get-togethers. The Sindlingers have big plans for future farm activities beyond planting and harvesting.

As usual, I came home with armloads of foraged treats from the now-scraggly gardens: kale, collards, buttery yellow squash blossoms, tawny and brittle coriander stems gone to seed, dill, oregano, sunflowers. The herbs immediately went into a lunch pasta tossed with olive oil, Roma tomatoes and garlic.

Supper was an adventure. I’d always wanted to make stuffed squash blossoms. Now I could. I carefully untwisted the delicate flowers, spooned a blob of feta and herbs softened with a little Greek yogurt into the cup of the bloom, dunked the bundles into a slapdash tempura batter and popped them into hot oil. Amazing and delicious.

I sautéed the greens with paper-thin sliced garlic from the tender bulb tugged gently from the earth only a few hours earlier. Now that I’ve tried home-grown garlic, I can say its light ethereal taste stood out like a dewey Merchant-Ivory heroine compared to the tightly papered, pungent Abe Vigodas you get at the grocery store.

Locally-grown food just makes sense, given today’s health concerns, energy woes and economic conundrums. Backyard plots and community gardens are sprouting up all over. With CSAs like Gateway providing yet another opportunity to eat local, we really have little excuse not to try it.

Gateway welcomes visits by appointment only during the summer. For more information, visit the website: http://www.gatewayorganicfarm.com/.

Good Times are Rolling for NOLA

Super Bowl win…City coming back to life…To celebrate Mardi Gras, here’s a version of my New Orleans article that appeared in the latest issue of VERTICAL, Tampa Bay’s beautiful new online style magazine!

Go to http://www.verticaltampabay.com/ to see more of this gorgeous publication!

I like to get lost in the past.

Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to New Orleans time and again. Shacked up for a long weekend in the French Quarter, I can leave the 21st century behind. Its architecture—ramshackle plaster, ancient bricks, mysterious courtyards—works as well as any time machine.

Many of the hotels, although modern inside, are built around old bones that have existed for over a century. A favorite haunt is the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, a former 18th century townhouse and its adjoining bar, May Baily’s Place (once a well-known Storyville bordello).

Dining in the past is easy too—no shortage of joints doing what they’ve done best for decades.

• Café du Monde: frying perfect beignets and perking chicory coffee since 1862 (don’t wear the chic black turtleneck—it’s not so chic with a snowdrift of powdered sugar across your chest.)
(http://www.cafedumonde.com/)

• Central Grocery: est. 1906; this Italian market’s prized invention: the muffaletta—a whopping sandwich smothered in olive salad, ham, salami and cheeses.

• Fiorella’s: It’s been around since 1937 and I’d love to sample some of their Italian specialties but I can’t get past the spicy fried chicken.

Drink up—the Quarter abounds with bars and cocktails that go way back.

• Napoleon House, ca. 1914: Sipping a Pimm’s Cup in a dark corner booth is a great antidote to the hot Southern sun.

• The Roosevelt Hotel bar’s Ramos Gin Fizz (trademarked in 1935)

• The Swizzle Stick Bar inside Loew’s Hotel, where, if you ask nicely, their top notch bartender will mix an Aviation—a lavender-hued marvel that first landed around 1916. (http://www.cafeadelaide.com/)

Some fab new attractions steeped in history that couldn’t have a more appropriate home base than New Orleans:

• The Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB) fosters a newfound appreciation for that oyster po’boy.

• The Museum of the American Cocktail (part of SoFAB) highlights the evolution of mixology with well-preserved artifacts. (http://www.museumoftheamericancocktail.org/)

• Bustout Burlesque at the House of Blues: Glittery, bawdy fun in the best tradition of Bourbon Street’s famous 1950s nightclubs before they went to seed (see photo above). (www.bustoutburlesque.com/)

New Orleans’ trademark joie de vivre took a big hit in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We can help with its continuing recovery by visiting and supporting the culture that gives us so much—music, art, cuisine, history—and teaches us how to let the good times roll, even when the times get tough.

Winging It (or Not)

There was a wrinkle in the time-space continuum when we checked in at the Lord Amherst Motel. The colonial décor conjured up the bicentennial. The bathroom even had a throwback to earlier days: a slot built into the ceramic wall tile for dropping in used razor blades!

We thought we should have some Buffalo wings to commemorate our trip. The Anchor Bar—where, reportedly, someone first fried up wings and smothered them in hot sauce—was in the opposite direction, back downtown. It was drizzly out and I was starting to sniffle. A former Buffalonian in Florida recommended Duff’s, which happened to be about five minutes away from the motel.

Duff’s was packed but we seemed determined, so we went in and put our names on the list. It’s a divey little place that opened in 1946, and they’ve been “wingin’ it” since 1969.

Duff’s is so popular, people park anywhere (including in front of the neighboring businesses) in order to eat there! In fact, when we walked in, there was a hand-written note on the front door asking patrons to PLEASE not park in the Falafel Bar’s parking lot. Falafel Bar?

David happens to love falafels. It’s a Middle Eastern dish—balls of chickpea flour and spices, fried and served in a pita with lettuce, tomato, and usually a sauce like the Greek tzaziki, made with yogurt and cucumber. But we were here for the BUFFALO WINGS! Right?

After a few more minutes waiting in the increasingly busy, noisy vestibule, we both admitted that we really weren’t that keen on chicken wings (they’re SO messy anyway!) and what we’d really like to try was…You guessed it, The Falafel Bar, two doors down.

We had an amazing meal of falafels, grilled chicken and potatoes, Greek salads, lentil soup, hot tea—we were stuffed and happy. And we didn’t miss the wings at all.

Buffalo Roundabout

The visitors’ center at the Darwin Martin Complex is one of the most lovely and intriguing I’ve ever seen. The modernist glass box doesn’t compete with the blocky residence yet it’s a design marvel in its own right.

We really loved the giant plasma touch screens hanging on one recessed wall. These techno marvels share information not only about the house, its architect and its inhabitants, but also the built environment of Buffalo itself, with interactive maps showcasing some of the highlights. The orientation video was projected onto a transparent glass wall in front of a row of benches. Trés cool.

The Darwin Martin House is said to be to be Wright’s finest example of his Prairie-style architecture. The family’s fortunes took a hit during the Great Depression and Darwin died in 1935, leaving his wife Isabelle saddled with debt. She closed up the house—she never really liked it—and retreated to the family’s summer estate (also designed by Wright) on the Lake Erie shore.

The city took ownership over unpaid taxes and it had several other uses until falling into disrepair, as great houses sometimes do, until it was rescued by a Wright-loving foundation that is raising money and restoring it to its former glory. Unfortunately, much of the house was off limits to regular tour guests because it’s in various stages of restoration, but we got to see the first floor and the reconstructed stable that is now the gift shop. The Gardener’s Cottage (below) represents an affordable and utilitarian residence designed for the working class man.

People seem to either love or hate Frank Lloyd Wright. His tumultuous, scandal-ridden life is really quite fascinating. I think in some cases, you can’t have that much genius without some accompanying madness.

I like his architecture—the geometric shapes are pleasing to the eye; the way they work within the landscape, and the scale and design are comforting. And it’s not all just straight lines and flat planes. He leaves plenty of room for finely crafted detail.

You can read more about Darwin Martin and the house that Frank built here: http://darwinmartinhouse.org/.

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