Out and About – Page 18

Florida Artist’s Gallery “Arts for All” Event

April 17, 2015April 14, 2015 by KTgreen

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

Our second stop on Saturday was at the Florida Artists Gallery in Floral City for the family event “Arts for All”.

Anyone that is from this area knows that the drive from Crystal River (where we stopped first and I posted about yesterday) to Floral City is about 45 minutes.

But, anytime that the Florida Artists Gallery is having an event, it is worth the trip.

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

I received an email from the Florida Gallery on the 8th (Wednesday). Here’s an excerpt from that email:

“Please join us on Saturday (April 11th) for our first major outdoor family event “Arts for all“. At least 14 of our artists will be demonstrating their art forms, be it wood carving, painting eggs, making jewelry or painting paintings in various mediums. Food will be available, and there will be flow arts – family yoga and hula hoops, wine tasting and live music throughout the day, culminating with the Citrus County Drum Circle starting at 4.30pm. From 1-2pm Vanessa Fuller-Brown will hold a free painting workshop for children.”

Floral City is a small town in Citrus County with big ideas. I love visiting there.

Florida Artist's Gallery "Arts for All" Event

Artisans were located throughout the grounds demonstrating their craft. Kids were discovering the arts through hands on demos.

The gallery was wonderful as usual.

And there were a lot of people there.

An auto-harp demonstration was scheduled for later in the afternoon but we weren’t able to stick around for that. And we didn’t have enough time to check out the other shops in Floral City or the heritage museum.

There’s just so much going on in this little town. Such a difference from our visit to Heritage Village in Crystal River.

Market Day with Arts and Treasures at Heritage Village

April 17, 2015April 13, 2015 by KTgreen

Terry and I along with friends Tim and Connie did some traveling in Citrus County on Saturday–from the west to the east.

We started out in Crystal River at Heritage Village for Market Day with Arts and Treasures. I’ve been to many of these market days over the past few years and expected to find sidewalk vendors with produce, crafts and art.

Not so. A few tents. No produce. Just like a regular Saturday on Citrus Avenue.

The only reason I knew that it was Market Day was my musician friend, Paula Bateman, gave me a flyer at our last acoustic meetup. She was performing at the gazebo with a friend of her son.

Paula Bateman Market Day with Arts and Treasures at Heritage Village

And it’s a really cute gazebo.

gazebo

As you can see from the above snap, there weren’t many in attendance. There wasn’t even a place to sit. A couple of benches and a few rocking chairs would have been a welcome addition.

Crystal River has a lot going for it with the influx of tourists coming to see the manatees in the winter, scalloping in the summer, and fishing all year round. So why aren’t these visitors shopping at Heritage Village with all of its little shops, art gallery, and cafes?

Even our local newspaper reported that there was an exodus from Heritage Village to downtown Inverness. An article that was a coup for Inverness but very discouraging for Citrus Avenue.

I can only believe that it’s a marketing issue. While Heritage Village does have an updated website, I see little advertising elsewhere.

This is a really nice area and I love shopping here. I bring our guests here plus I’ve bought many unique gifts over the years (sometimes for myself). Now I’m concerned that more of these stores will be closing down.

We did a little shopping, listened to Paula, and then headed on to our next destination.

Which I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

Out and About: Recent Restaurant Visits

April 9, 2015 by KTgreen

Let’s talk about food!

I’ve had a few requests for more restaurant reviews! Unbelievable. People actually want to know my opinion! About food!

So I’m back to being the undercover occasional restaurant critic writing haphazardly about local and distant restaurants.

So here’s the places we’ve been over the past 31 days!

We went to Crystal River for the St. Patty’s Day Festivities and stopped into Burkes of Ireland. It was crazy busy so we didn’t stay but this dog was in the bar and I’m thinking it looks like a fun place to go so we’ll try it on a less busy day. (Really, why would I even try to get into an Irish bar on St. Patty’s Day!)

So instead of having Irish food, we went a little south to the 19th Hole Bar and Grill. It’s at the Plantation Golf Course and it’s just a little hole in the wall. Nice view of the golf course. Food was good and service was fine. Nothing wrong with it but it’s just golf course food. We probably won’t be back unless we have just finished up 18 holes.

Last week I went to two restaurants. Big time for me!

I went to Papa Joe’s on the east side of Brooksville to meet a cousin, my sister and my niece for lunch. It was centrally located for all of us since we were coming from different directions. It’s about five miles west of I-75 just off of Cortez Blvd. This has always been one of my favorite restaurants and I’ve been going there since the 80s. Joe and his son even catered our daughter’s wedding a couple years ago.

Tragically the restaurant burnt down back in January 2014 but, unlike our local Margueritagrill, was rebuilt and opened up a few weeks ago. I was really looking forward to seeing the new place.

And it didn’t disappoint.

Papa Joe's — Here’s the beautiful new bar that is right at the entrance

My sandwich was excellent. Well, actually it was my sister’s sandwich. She ordered a steak hoagie while I ordered the Vegetable sub. But our orders were switched and I ate half of the steak one before I realized it. “Hey, that’s not eggplant! That’s pink!”

I don’t eat meat very often, but that was one yummy sandwich!

And the last restaurant to report on is the Seagrass Pub. We went there back in the beginning of March with some friends. We hadn’t been there in quite some time because on our only two visits we were very disappointed and hadn’t been back. On this occasion we only went there because it was convenient. We weren’t expecting much but were pleasantly surprised with really delicious dinners and very good service.

Just to make sure it wasn’t an anomaly, we went to the Tiki Bar last week on a beautiful day.