A Farm to Table Distillery

So, you've all heard about farm to table.... but how about a Farm to Table Distillery?!  Right here in Florida!!  Talk about a great way to break the ice!  

The Ice Plant Bar and St Augustine Distillery are actually two entities at one historical location open just barely one year.  To begin with, the building is literally that- an old renovated ice factory.  The décor early is early twentieth century with an authentic speakeasy feel right down to the server and bartender uniforms and the somewhat nondiscript yet historical exterior..  

The Ice Plant restaurant is located on the second floor with two large bars separating two open airy rooms.  The original "Ice Plant" building dates back to 1927 and still has the original bridge crane on rails overhead the bar. The crane was used to pick up huge blocks of ice to then be broken down and sold to local customers and the shrimp boats.   Check out all of the ice holders on the wall of the bar.

The restaurant is a very comfortable space with large wood tables and you can just imagine the roar in the air during happy hour or the clinking of freshly stabbed ice for their drink concoctions.  They don't just stop at the drinks, however, their food is amazing.

  

My husband picking out some amazing food and drinks

They are focused on the art and craft of mixing exceptional local ingredients in precise measurements to create perfect and unique flavor profiles and according to their website they utilize fresh, house-pressed juices and bitters and specially developed syrups- which I can verify result in very sexy cocktails.  Attention is paid to the smallest of details with three different kinds of ice and custom cubes.  Their mission is to return to the craft of ice harvesting by freezing purified water in large blocks.  

Photo from IcePlantBar.com

The farm to table restaurant and bar is open for lunch and dinner so we enjoyed a mid-afternoon lunch and frosty beverage before touring the place.  The service was outstanding as well!  

I enjoyed a Gin's Cup made of St. Augustine Distillery New World Gin, Pimm's No. 1, cucumber, ginger, lemon, honey, bitters and amazing teeny tiny ice pebbles.

But here's another one to try sometime... DEATH IN THE MORNING - Pierde Almas Mezcal, Ancho Reyes, Luxardo Maraschino, lime, grapefruit, Hellfire bitters... wow!  

For lunch, I enjoyed a truly delicious, crispy, cheesey "Old City Melt" which had gruyére, mozzarella, cheddar, tomato, pesto, on a most fantastic fresh and crunchy multi grain bread and perfectly seasoned side pasta salad!

Oh and by the way.... it's good to know that their menu lists the following: 1/2 MEATLOAF SANDWICH - Grass-fed Georgia beef, smoked bacon and tomato jam, cuban roll.  BUT the catch here is that it is NOT a half sandwich - it's a whopping half pound of beef in each sandwich!!! :0  I also love their spin on some great foods - like "T.A.B.L.E." - Tomato, avocado, smoked bacon, lettuce, fried egg, aioli, Texas toast. Next time my husband is looking forward to going back for dinner to try their BBQ BISON BACK RIBS  - Sweet and spicy house bbq sauce, smoked potato waffle, and local green beans.  For me- it is all about coming back just for the bar snacks...... ready for this???

• WILD BOAR SALAMI with Spiced candied pecans, marinated olives, crostini

• PISTACHIO AND GOAT CHEESE "TRUFFLES"

• SOFT PRETZEL BREAD with beer cheese fondue, dijonnaise

• DEVILS ON HORSEBACK - Bacon wrapped dates, buttermilk blue cheese purée

You can also come during Saturdays this fall to take some great cocktail classes too:

No matter what though, don't miss the complimentary Distillery Tour and fantastic tasting of the handcrafted, small batch spirits distillery. Currently they offer the Florida Cane Vodka and New World Gin for purchase in addition to various bar ware, momentos and recipe books in their gift shop.

They walk you through the history of the building complete with a museum, short film and walking tour.

Then there was the educational and fun tasting room:

Both the St. Augustine Distillery Co. and Ice Plant Bar received the 2014 Award for Excellence for the Reuse/Repurpose Sector by the Urban Land Institute of North Florida - what an honor!

The Distillery craft spirits are now available at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Publix Liquor Stores, and Winn Dixie Wine & Spirits locations throughout Florida!  Don't be "bitter" if you're not a Florida resident, you can order online from Broudy's, who can ship to most states.   Be sure to make your way over to St. Augustine soon as this place is truly getting lots of "buzz"!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ice Bar & St. Augustine Distillery

110 Riberia Street

St. Augustine, FL 32084

(904) 829-6553

Monday- Friday 11:30am– 2am

Saturday & Sunday 5pm- 2am

*Location is approximately two blocks south of King Street in the historic district (down the street from the San Sebastian Winery).  Special thank you to the Peace and Plenty Bed and Breakfast for letting us know about this great new old place!!  

Photo from localsguidesa.com

“She had never known that ice could take on so many shades of blue"  - Malinda Lo, Huntress

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thanks!
-Cathy

Secret Dining with Illumineati

Can you imagine getting an exclusive invitation to join a secret dining society whose only goal is to bring people, chefs, wines and an evening of surprises together.  Well, in Tampa, Florida that is happening now (Shhhhhh!).  If you can keep a secret I can tell you more....

I read a great article recently by Meaghan Habuda about this awesome group of three friends who are entreprenuers in the restaurant and marketing fields who came up with the idea for..... wait for it.......

Illumineati logo by Jimmy Breen

Illumineati is the brain child off Jimmy Breem, Johnny Ciani and Reuben Pressman.  Together they wanted to further enlighten the Tampa area to a fast-becoming-trend in the foodie world of underground supper clubs and pop-up restaurant dining.

Founders Johnny, Jimmy, Reuben and myself (and a photobomber) all smiles after the inaugural dinner

We have seen several pop-ups in Tampa such as Jeannie Pierola's KitchenBar a couple of years ago who now owns Edison Food Drink Lab.  Then there was the launch of the Epicurean Hotel's main restaurant Elevage at a pop-up that was done at Side Berns last year (check out my earlier blog post all about it here).  We have seen fantastic pop-up farm to fork dinners at the King Family Ranch by AJ Latteri of Loft 5 (check out my previous blog post about it here.)  There have been a couple of groups that have come and gone with ideas of bringing people together to dine and drink and expose chefs and breweries to new groups of foodie friends.  Datz owners Suzanne and Roger Perry have long been participating in louring us happy foodies into their restaurants and home for tasting events that we lavishly enjoyed the last few years as one of many examples.

Illumineati feels different than these previously wonderful dinners and in a very cool way!   Illumineati is invitation only and even then you might not get into the next dinner depending on space and date.  You won't know where it will be until two days before, you won't know the chef or the menu, and you won't even know who else will be dining with you that night.  The vibe in the room is very relaxed and made conversation easy and interesting.  There was much laughter, applause for the chef and his team and as many smiles going around the room as there was wine being poured.  

We delighted in the gorgeous view of the water from the front porch of our very gracious hosts.  We were greeted by bartender Chris Marsicano of Red Dwarf Hospitality who was enjoying making our cocktail hour memorable.  We were treated to champagne or even better by the signature starter drink "One For Tucker" which was named by Illumineati co-founder Ciani in memory of a dear friend who had passed away.  Ingredients included Angel's Envy Bourbon, orange blossom honey water, lemon juice, lavender and bitters. It was divine!!!  

We mingled with other guests (sorry I cannot reveal my fellow club members, but safe to say they were amazing locals who enjoy great food, wine, restaurants, art, culture and were lucky enough to be welcomed by the club founders early on).

We sat at a long communal table for twenty and then came the introductions.  Our chef turned out to be David Benstock of Il Ritorno restaurant which was an incredibly good sign!   The Chef and his team along with our wine expert for the night introduced us to the nine course meal and pairings we were about to indulge in.  

The menu looked incredible.... the food was even more so.... check out the beautiful job that co-founder Jimmy Breen did on designing this menu that the Chef created!  

The wines poured with each course were superbly paired and they were provided by Pernod Picard.

I hope you are hungry.....

Amuse Bouche of Oysters and Pancetta

After the oyster amuse bouche appetizer, we began with a tuna tartare, bone marrow, watermelon relish, toasted ciabatta and meyer lemon

Charred octopus, smoked potato crema, kalamata olives, confit tomatoes and capers.

Pan seared foie gras with pear jam, pickled beech mushrooms, onion caramel, and mustard greens.

 Ricotta gnocchi with rabbit bolognese, roasted shishito peppers, and faithful farms herbs.

Tagliatelle pasta, smoked venison and pear ragu, and calabrese chilis.

Seared scallop,crispy guanciale, smoked corn and pickled ramps.

A Chetta duo: lamb bell, pork belly, and spiced quince puree.

And finally a pistachio semifredo with champagne peach compote, caramel pistachios and a 10 year aged balsalmic.

Creative Loafing's Meaghan Bahuda who wrote the original article that piqued my interest also recently posted her follow-up article on her take on our amazing evening.  You can check out her work and great details on our inaugural dinner here.  

 Co-Founder Jimmy Breen said, "People will be able to attend the dinners through a referral system.  During each dinner, current members will fill out a card with contact information for those they think might be interested in the next one."  Locals without an "in" must email Illumineati via their website and they basically undergo a one-question interview.  "It's what you bring to the table," says co-founder Pressman.  "You can answer it in any way you can think of."  If the trio of founders like your answer, you become a member.  You may not initially make it in, but there may be a wait list that you can snag tickets last minute like I was fortunate enough to.  Now... which of my foodie friends wants to be referred at a future amazing and top-secret dinner?

Traveling on a dime!

“Travel provides us with the distance required to see what it is we are habitually doing and the anonymity to risk new ways of being in the world.” - Robert Fuller

My husband and I travel a great deal for our company and thus I have become quite the self-appointed expert at finding the most incredible deals while planning.  Today, I am sharing with you my favorite top 10 ways to hit the road and save a wallet full of money.  Even if you only learn 1-2 new things it should help you stay somewhere amazing for a steal.

1. Plan ahead and save a ton
This may seem pretty straightforward and logical but if you can play around with your trip and consider ADDING on an extra overnight stay (at the front or back end) you may end up actually saving yourself more in the long run; this is the best time to use that 'flexible dates' option they give you for flight costs too!  Many hotels offer a discounted 3rd night or even buy-two-nights-get-one-free.  You can also save many times by booking 3 weeks or more in advance- just be sure to double check that you are getting a cancellable/ fully refundable reservation.  Almost all hotels now offer cancellation by 4pm the day before or day of arrival option even when booking from kayak or hotels.com.  I was surprised recently to find The Marriott Beachplace in Ft. Lauderdale had a fantastic option of $125 per night with a water view with balcony.  Compared to staying further inland at comparable hotels at upwards of $200 per night - simply because I booked from the Marriott website and chose the Marriott rewards package price instead of AAA or "best price" option. Did you know that you should also separate out your trip when researching and sometimes a weeknight or weekday is less than the other nights - many times I book a couple of weeknights as needed and book a separate reservation for my weekend part of the trip for a lower cose that won't be offered to you if you book it all as one reservation.   This happens particularly with disney hotels and big chains!

2.  Compare, compare, compare......  (ok and location, location, location too)
Before I ever book something using one of the social media or discounted sale sights, I always go to the hotel or airlines direct page and compare.  Recently I saved significantly by doing this in searching for a hotel in south Florida for a business trip.  I was intrigued by an email from the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Fl for deluxe kings starting at $125 plus a $50 food/drink credit and free valet.  Not knowing our meeting dates yet and knowing the deal was only good for 3 days - I booked two separate stays a week apart from each other knowing that I could cancel one of them anytime.  A couple weeks later, I cancelled one of the reservations and we are set now with an upcoming stay ultimately only costing my company $75 per night plus tax to stay at a gorgeous hotel with a ton of amenities very centrally located - for a steal!  It is great to note that for this particular hotel -had I chosen two queens/doubles instead of a king the price would have gone up higher so keep that in mind too when playing around with your selections.

3. Utilize groupon, living social, travel zoo, kayak, etc.
In addition to these popular discounted travel sites, consider that there are even more of these sites that you may not know about, such  as cldeals.com (creative loafing/ new times, those free paper magazines that come out every week in many communities).  Amazon local also has some unique deals not found on the other sites.  Crowd savings and half off depot offer an extensive list of deals that change daily.  I found that jetsetter had some fantastic deals and when I referred a family member (even if booking under my husband) I received $25 off my next booking. 

Vista Verde All Inclusive Ski Resort Colorado Springs, CO

4.  Do yourself an extra favor
On sites like crowdsavings.com or halfoffdepot.com if you sign up for the email list and wait a couple days  look for just the right daily discount code and save another 20%-50% off.  Also if you look at some travel options and then go to close the site you will sometimes get a pop up window or an email shortly thereafter saying "Wait! Don't go - we'll give you another $25 off if you come back and book now!")  Great example:  The Sirata Beach Resort in St. Petersburg, Fl was being offered at a very cheap $66 per night on halfoffdepot.com, a few days into the offer they ran a plus 20% off and with tax we stayed on the ocean, with a cabana and welcome drink for $52.  I was very leery of booking any hotel at this kind of rate so, as always I checked reviews out on tripadvisor.com and yelp, etc to see what we were getting into first.  I was very pleasantly surprised and cannot wait to see if this hotel advertises more deals again - they used a company called aniomod.com for the bookings.  Here are some views of the property and I can tell you that the service there was fantastic!  I went back online while we were there and booked 3 more nights at this steal of a rate (The only caveat here was it had to be used before 12/31/13 and they said mostly weeknight stays were bookable).  I didn't have any issue booking any of the dates we needed and it was an excellent way to not worry about driving an hour home after a Rays baseball game, a day of work meetings in the area, and a place to meetup with family and friends by the beach.

Sirata Beach Resort Clearwater, FL

Sirata Beach Resort Clearwater, Fl

5.  A no-brainer- get AAA.  
Seriously - on top of getting roadside service we easily make up for the low cost membership with hotel discounts.  Whenever I login to Marriott's website I select the AAA rate option and always see a significant savings (although sometimes the marriott rewards or package deals are better at times).  Also you can book and peruse many AAA rated hotels and cruises right on their website when comparison shopping.

Trevi Fountain Rome, Italy 

6.  Subscribe to your favorite hotel and airlines rewards clubs and e-newsletters
Trust me, you can always unsubscribe or use unrollme.com to stop being hassled.  They will send out last minute deals to entice you.  One great place we've stayed a few times is the Bayfront Marin House in St. Augustine - and by liking their facebook page and or being on their email list you can get amazing water front rooms (including drinks, appetizers, 3 course breakfast and more) for $159 on a weeknight!

Balcony of our Royal Caribbean Cruise leaving Tampa, FL

7.  Change your groupon home town
When I know ahead of time that I am traveling out of state especially I spend a few minutes on groupon logged into their area and sometimes find a deal for a local attraction that I had wanted to see anyways for half the price.  Just because a restaurant uses these deal sites to market themselves doesn't mean they are low quality -sometimes they are brand new places looking for business and sometimes they want the exposure.

Hell, Cayman Islands

8.  Earn free gift cards and dining checks
Use opentable.com to make reservations even if it is last minute and you can quickly earn a $20 gift card.  They offer 1000 point tables in most cities which means if you reserve a table during certain hours or certain days of the week you are halfway to a $20 dining certificate - book one of these twice and you made $20!   You can also use open table right from the yelp website or app now too which is fantastic!  Whenever I am booking at a bed and breakfast I check www.bedandbreakfast.com for their current gift card or online booking deals.  I almost always book with someone who takes their gift cards, because I save at least $20 for every $100 spent on a b&b gift card.  *Important- you must buy your B&B.com gift cards 8 days before you want to redeem them on a trip so no last minute planning here.

Secrets Maroma Beach Resort, Cancun, Mexico

9.  Call the hotel last minute 
Ask if they can top the lowest rated deal or go to www.lasminutedeals.com.  By the way a package deal may not be the best value so do the math - you don't necessarily need all the frills if you just want to add on a bottle of wine or a spa massage to your trip - but sometimes there is a lot of value in those packages too.  I just booked the Marriott County Hall in London England for a trip for next year and I am keeping my eye on the current exchange rate.  To begin with I can book an upgraded room there on hotels.com for $50 less than on the marriott website (and cancel anytime) but even better I can pre-purchase it at a locked in US Dollar amount whenever the dollar is a little stronger than the pound.  Also they had a package for 40pounds more that included dinner, champagne, chocolates and breakfast...... what a steal!!!!

The Collesium, Rome, Italy

10.  Utilize your connections
Sounds easy enough- but I was surprised to learn during a recent trip to Boca that alumni of my University get a discount by calling and just saying they went to the school.  Imagine if you utilized this tactic every time you had to book a hotel in Gainesville or Tallahassee.... not suggesting that you should be dishonest here, but if you have an alma mater then say so when visiting a college town- it cannot hurt.   Ask the hotel concierge or desk clerk for ideas and always look at the coupon racks in the hotel lobby- if you already know where you want to go for a drink or dinner and if it is nearby I can tell you at least a quarter of the time they have a coupon in one of those magazines for a free glass of wine or dessert, etc.

Vista Verde Resort Colorado Springs, CO

Above all - have fun!  IF you have the time to research you can save a LOT of money.... if you have good credit consider getting a couple of travelers credit cards like American Express Blue Sky (I made a $1200 profit off of them last year).  Delta Amex is sending me to Paris next spring..... 

Sirata Beach Resort, Clearwater, Fl

What are your best travel tips to save money and get to see the world??