Sunday, May 31, 2009

Places I Eat: The Columbia Restaurant ~ St. Armands Circle, Lido Key

Opening in 1959 on St. Armand's Circle, the Columbia Restaurant has been serving Sarasota the best Spanish/Cuban cuisine in a cosmopolitan Mediterranean setting in Lido Key. If you were coming to Sarasota for a few days, the Columbia Restaurant is a must!

Our favorite tipple to start with is always a pitcher of their Sangria de Cava. Cava, Spain's version of Champagne, makes a lighter more sophisticated version of the well loved Spanish drink.

You can order from their extensive Tapas or Entree menus, but I seem to stick to my favorite in the summertime: If eating inside, I always start with a cup of their Spanish Bean Soup. This soup has a ham/chicken broth base and is loaded with Garbanzo beans, diced potatoes, ham, and Chorizo sausage.Inside our out, I always have their signature "1905 Salad". This is an absolute must as a starter if ordering an entree, or a refreshing, very satisfying main dish salad. On a hot day, there is nothing better than to sit out on their patio and watch the world go by. While the Columbia are very generous to post some of their recipes on their website and have a cookbook (James - hint, hint) - nothing can duplicate the experience of actually dining at one of the Columbia's seven restaurants.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Okay, seriously my blogroll is NOT updating!! I have some catching up to do with you, Amy! Looks like you're on vacation? Well heck it just looks like you're on some nice tropical Island. I'm going to take a look around to see what I missed. Amazing that guy with the cigars too. Talk about multi-tasking. LOL! Hope you're having a great time! :)

Hugs,

Michelle

Amy J said...

Your blog count is probably ok, but I've just not been posting very often and when I do it's a lot at once. :-)
Not on vacation, just been obsessed with all of the beachy places close to where I live that we usually only go to when we have company. Sarasota is really tropical on the coast and has beautiful barrier islands. We did have company in May, which made us start to visit all of these places, but we've vowed to keep up with enjoying them. It's such a shame to live here and only go when we have company, so we're trying to make the most of it. We'll see how long this lasts (LOL), but it's the reason I've not been posting much.

Yeah, the cigar guy was really multitasking, would have been funny if he had been smoking a cigar too :-)