Stacy Vieux's View on Life and Whatever- Pizza Hut Pizza Mia

Last night as an incentive to get back some urgent surveys from my residents I promised them all that if they turned in a survey they would get a slice of pizza. I'm such a great resident assistant.Anyway,so I ordered about, no I ordered exactly 36 pizzas from Pizza Hut using their pizza Mia special. There were about 6 other floors using this same incentive. To my surprise my residents didn't really fall for it. I guess pizza wasn't a big enough reward.There were some who were exited but most of them really did not care. By the end of the night after begging people o eat more slices I still ended up with a full box of cheese pizza.Usually I would be fine with this but last night that was a problem for me to have so much left over because it was gross.Pizza Hut was stingy with everything. Only half the pizza was properly covered with cheese and the other half was missing tomato sauce. It did not even look edible. I see why my residents weren't jumping at the opportunity for free pizza. For such a low price, I guess I got what I paid for.

Stacy Vieux's View on Life and Whatever- Nola Cafe

Last year me and some friends went to Louisiana to help Katrina victims by building houses with Rebuilding Together. Honestly it was one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I learned a lot by just talking to a lot of the Katrina victims. Another thing that I learned was Louisiana knows how to eat. There were restaurants on every corner with tradition Louisiana dishes. One of those dishes was alligator. They say it taste like chicken and since I don't eat chicken I decided to pass on the alligator too.What I didn't pass on was plenty of beignets. Beignet is french for doughnut and it is a common food served in Louisiana. It is basically fried dough with powdered sugar on it. I ate so many of these things that by the end of the trip my all my clothes had traces of powdered sugar on them. When we came back to Tampa I really missed the eating style of Louisiana and lately I have even more. So Monday I called my friend up who had also gone on the trip and I invited her to a place called Nola Cafe. I've heard a few people suggest the place so I figured I would give it a try.I ordered some coffee and beignets to start me off and I was so excited to be reunited with my beignets. Unfortunately I ended up not liking the beignets. They didn't taste like how I had remembered them. The powdered sugar didn't make a mess on me like the ones in Louisiana had. I was so disappointed. I left some cash on the table, got my friend and left.I guess if I want Louisiana food I'll have to go there.

Stacy Vieux's View on Life and Whatever- Bahama Breeze

My last blog was about my first time going to Grill Smith. Grill Smith was the restaurant that bought the old building of Hops. Well I know I bashed the place quite a bit so I have good news.This weekend was my friends birthday so we celebrated by going to her favorite restaurant which is Bahama Breeze.The atmosphere of the place was so nice. We were by water and it was just a pleasant place to be. I ordered a light meal consisting of a nice-sized bowl full of blue crab claws fully drenched in butter and special seasoning.The dish was called Crab Claws St. Thomas and it was absolutely delicious! In fact the entire menu looked delicious. The birthday girl ordered some coconut shrimp that were big, crispy and most of all tasty. I was so happy to actually enjoy my food after having such a bad experience. I might just have a new favorite restaurant!

Stacy Vieux's View on Life and Whatever- GrillSmith

In my last blog I talked about my upsetting experience of finding out my favorite restaurant had been closed down for good. Well, this Sunday as I was driving down Dale Mabry Highway I took a second to look in the plaza where Hops use to be located. I noticed that there was a new restaurant in its place. This place was called GrillSmith. I had to stop by and see what restaurant replaced Hops. So me and my friend Maude decided to stop and eat. The restaurant started off good serving us some very tasty bread.The bread had a special Italian seasoning and was drenched with olive oil. Unfortunately, the bread is where the tastiness ended.I ordered a well done cheeseburger and my friend ordered a margarita pizza.We tried eachother's food and very quickly we decided that niether of our dishes were good at all. We forced our food down with some non-appetizing pink lemonde.I have had better burgers in the cafeteria. And her margarita pizza was badly seasoned and slightly burnt.Needless to say we will not be going back there again.The food just wasn't good. Going there just made me miss Hops all over again.

Stacy Vieux's View on Life and Whatever-Hops Grill and Brewery

Anyone who knows me knows that I like to eat. They would also tell you that I hate driving. So you can imagine how upset I still am after finding out that my favorite restaurant had been shut down all over Florida. I was one of those frequent customers at Hops Grill and Brewery,you know the kind of customer who doesn't need a menu and has a preferred waitress.Yup, that was me!Hops had this one of a kind bread that just melted in your mouth. It was fresh out of the oven with a nice sweet taste but it wasn't too overwhelming. It had just the right amount of everything.Well one day I pulled into the Hops parking lot noticing that the lights were a little dimmer than usual.Still in denial I got out my car only to read a sign that read sorry we're closed! And they didn't mean closed as in you have passed our hours of operation. They were simply out of operation. That was one of the saddest days of my life.I'm still not over Hops being closed. As a matter of fact, I just mapquested all the Hops in Florida and dialed every number in my area in hopes that maybe one of the Hops had been reopened.I stopped about a third of the way down the list because I got tired of hearing nope their not here anymore.I guess every restaurant doesn't last forever. I just wish it wasn't my favorite restaurant that had to be closed down leaving me to choose from their less worthy competitors.