Whether you work at an alt-weekly or a swanky law firm, a hospital or a construction site, The Question always comes up:
What are we doing for lunch?
The question is inviting but potentially dangerous. Because when it comes to lunch, the divergence in opinion can lead to some serious (if shortlived) internal strife.
That's the way it is at CL sometimes. Some of us like to do lunch as a group on Mondays, but negotiating the destination can be as fraught with obstacles as the Middle East peace talks. There are culinary boundaries that will not be crossed, restaurant transgressions that will never be forgotten, unavoidable issues of distance and time; some days it's a wonder anyone eats at all (though the arguing, I think, is half the fun.)
So it was a pleasure to learn that our fellow Yborites, the preternaturally attractive crew that works at the PR firm Ignition Branding, also clash at lunchtime — a dilemma compounded by the number of options Ybor offers. There's one guy who will only eat veggies, another who's strictly "meat and 3," a few staffers who favor Spanish and another whose favorites are bacon and ranch dressing, preferably together. We thank the Ignition team for recreating their midday debates on our cover and above; we hope this lunch-centric edition of the CL Food Issue will help solve everyone's lunchtime conundrums.
Among our solutions: CL Restaurant Critic Brian Ries recommends low-cost lunches at high-end spots; Food Editor Katie Machol offers lunch recipes for those who bring their own; Catherine Durkin Robinson advises parents surveying the sad landscape of school lunches; Peter Meinke, Andy Huse and Hampton Dohrman sing the praises of The Chattaway, La Segunda and Mi Ranchito; readers tell Katie their favorite buffets and help me find the perfect sandwich; and folks all over Tampa Bay share their favorite spots to do lunch.
Keep the issue handy. The next time The Question comes up, you may be the one with The Answer.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.