Tallahassee Part I
Last weekend I decided to take a little road trip up to visit my friend Kelsey in Santa Rosa Beach. She's moving home to Tampa this weekend (YAY!) and I wanted to take a few days to visit one last time before she moved. The drive from Tampa to Santa Rosa is just over six hours long. To break up the trip, I always stop in Tallahassee to visit with my friend Aaren before continuing the rest of the drive the next day. It turns out Aaren is moving this weekend as well, to Atlanta, so it worked out perfectly that I got to spend some extra time with her before leaving.
As soon as I arrived into town, we headed to have sushi followed by ice cream for dinner from Lofty Pursuits. I tried a scoop of the elephant ears ice cream, huge chunks of peanut butter and chocolate with vanilla ice cream, and I added the banana. Aaren had the English toffee with hot chocolate ganache on top. One of my favorite things about Aaren is that she has also been my go-to foodie when we were in college. We used to live together and we probably embraced our love for sweets a little too often. Like there really is such a thing ;)
The next morning Aaren headed off to work and I went to make a quick round about some of my favorite places in Tallahassee before leaving town. I had breakfast and coffee at Craig's Killer Coffee, a new to me coffee shop. My favorite coffee shop recently closed so I figured it could be good to try a new place. I had an Americano and a blueberry muffin that was probably the size of a football (the picture certainly does not do it justice.)
After breakfast, I wanted to shop around a few of the local vintage and antique stores to see if they would have anything that caught my eye. I found several items that I loved; including, a jewelry case, handkerchief, a dress, a scarf for my mom, a pair of replica staffordshire dogs, and a Girl Scout's sash from the '50's that had the coolest patches on it. Some of the best vintage and antique stores I've found have been Avant Garb, Curio, The Other Side Vintage, Good Finds, and Killearn Antiques. If you're in the area and into those types of places, check them out to see what you can find. I love a good treasure hunt and each place specializes in carrying different items from home decor to clothing and jewelry.
It had been a while since i had been over into Railroad Square, so I decided to drive down through the loop to check out any new stores. Not only did I find Curio, they had the best vintage clothing, I stumbled upon this letterpress studio and couldn't believe my eyes. The owner, Mika, was extremely generous and allowed me to take a look around his studio. We started chatting about odds and ends and he used to live in Tampa where he had a photography studio above the Italian club on 7th Avenue in Ybor City. Coincidentally, he also lived in St. Augustine for a substantial period of time and agrees with me on saying it's such a special place. Mika had been working with letterpresses in various capacities since the early 70's. He owned several presses in his studio, all which had their own unique and exciting stories to tell...one used to print parking tickets in New Port Richie, while another came from up north. I purchased a few of his products and he gave me a free print to send over to Ryan. He was excited I was familiar with the letterpress process and couldn't believe I knew someone in St. Augustine that had a letterpress business. I passed one of Ryan's business cards along to him and he loved the card and punny M.C. Pressure name so much he put Ryan's business card up on his inspiration board.
By that time, I had worked up an appetite and knew only one place would satisfy my lunch cravings, Mr. Roboto. The smell upon walking into the restaurant made me nostalgic for freshman year where my roommate Laura and I would eat here at least once...maybe twice a week. I ordered the vegetable hibachi and fried rice and naturally picked up extra, extra, extra miso sauce. I don't understand why they don't sell it by the bottle yet! I was in such a food coma by the time I left, it was pure bliss. Mr. Roboto, I have missed you so!
Because dessert is always a requirement after any meal, Lucy and Leo's was a must. This was another place I absolutely loved to go to when I was in college. I think I've tried all of their flavors and my favorite being the kitchen sink cupcake, hummingbird, or the classic red velvet. I picked up a pack of four cupcakes to take to Kelsey's. Key lime, lemon blueberry, peanut butter chocolate, and cookies and cream were the four I picked. It was hard not to dive into them before I arrived at the beach!