Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Plantain Beer, Hooters Margaritas And Bloody Gazpacho [Table Conversations with Zane Lamprey]

Posted Nov 9, 2011 by Jeff Houck

Updated Nov 9, 2011 at 02:24 PM

Zane Lamprey, host of the HDNet series “Drinking Made Easy,” was surprised by the Tampa Bay area’s drinking scene when he visited this year.

“I knew there would be a lot of options there, but I was surprised at how diverse it was,” Lamprey said. “Who knew that the largest collection of wine is there at Bern’s Steak House?”

The episode Lamprey shot in Tampa airs at 8 p.m. tonight and spotlights Bern’s and several notable locations, including the original Hooters restaurant in Clearwater, where Lamprey samples an “Orange Shorts Margarita,” and the Columbia Restaurant Ybor City, where he drinks a “Bloody Gazpacho.” The “Blue Blazer” cocktail at Mandarin Hide in St. Petersburg also gets a tasting.

New Port Richey’s Empire Winery and Distillery, makers of V6 luxury vodka, are also included in the episode.

Cigar City Brewery in Tampa, which is gaining national notoriety for its Tampa-themed beers, also got a visit.

“I was very happy with their beer,” Lamprey said.

I sat down to record a Table Conversations podcastwith Lamprey. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:

What was your overall impression of the drinking culture here?

I don’t remember. That’s sort of what happens when you have the job I have.

That’s the honest answer.

I was surprised by it. I knew there would be a lot of options there, but I was surprised by how diverse it was. Who knew that, like, the largest collection of wine is there?

We also went to the Columbia room… Hooters, which everyone around the world knows about. And then places like Mandarin Hide. It was a really diverse, fun trip. And it was a fun trip because of that.

You went to Cigar City Brewery to see the stuff they’re doing. Obviously we’ve had local brewers and Tampa has a long brewing history, but they’ve made Tampa a destination for that sort of thing. What did you think of their beers?

I was very happy with their beers. You know… beer is great. When you make good beer, you make good beer. I argue that there really isn’t such a thing as great beer. As in, it’s difficult for one beer to shine above. When you make it right, you make it right. Obviously you can easily make it wrong. But they make a lot of great beers and they make them right.

They were nice enough to open their doors to us and let me and my mascot Steve McKenna invent a plantain beer when we were there. Of course it took a while for it to ferment, so they shipped it to me and then I was able to taste it when I finally got back to L.A.

It was good. It was good. It was a really nice beer.

Was it a creamy sweetness?

It was just a hint of plantain. You could really tell the difference between plantain and banana, where I think the banana would have had a bit of sweetness to it and the plantain has a bit of earthiness to it. I’m not really big on super, sweety anything. This had a nice subtleness to it. It was really good.

They do a guava beer that a lot of people like. I’m not a fan of fruit-flavored beer, but everything else I really enjoy.

I met with them at the Great American Beer Fest a few weeks ago in Denver and it was fun to reconnect with them. When you’re at a location that offers a big selection of beers and shooting TV, you need to have your wits about you and make sure you’re not going too crazy. Because of that, I only got to taste a few beers. I was able to taste a few more when I was at the Great American Beer Festival. When I go back, I’ll taste a few more. They didn’t have the guava one available, and I heard they had an event with 20 or 30 fruit-flavored beers, which I thought sounded really cool.

They’ve kind of trained the area about seasonal beers. Everyone knows Sam Adams does it, but to have a local beer maker making seasonal beers is interesting. Doing events for new releases is a new thing for Tampa as well.

It’s funny, because Tampa doesn’t necessarily have seasons, per se. It’s hot and then it’s very hot. Then it’s hot and wet. Those are the seasons. In Germany, there are hot summers and cold winters, so the seasons make more sense.

Going to Cigar City and trying their stuff again and again, that’s the experience. I’m sure you can get their beer throughout the Tampa Bay area, but you get the real experience when you go there and you talk to people who are passionate about what they’re making. Especially if they’re willing to push the boundaries and come up with all these crazy beers. I think it’s really fun.

To hear the rest of the podcast, click here.