Busy Armenia Avenue is not exactly ideal for restaurant-hopping on foot. But if you don't mind driving a bit, the two-and-a-half-block stretch from Sligh to Cypress is like a short trip around the world. If you're hungry like an international wolf, all the stopping and starting will be worth it.
Housewife Bake Shop & Deli (6821 N. Armenia Ave., 813-935-5106). Cultures collide in this small sweets shop, where there's enough sugar in the air to give you a contact high. The bakers make 95 percent of the goodies on site, including house specialties fruit cannoli and bread pudding. There are dozens of cookies, from wedding to gingerbread (iced or naked), plus éclairs, cream puffs, flan, key lime pie, cinnamon buns, fruit breads, cakes and even dietetic cookies ($10 a pound). All pastries sell for half price from 4-5 p.m. daily. The shop also caters and makes sandwiches (the "Alligator" Super Cuban — a Cuban on an alligator-shaped roll — goes for $24.99). As their sign says, "Life is so uncertain. Eat dessert first."
Ganesh Market & Chaat Café (6204 N. Armenia Ave., 813-873-8708). Open seven days a week, this Indian grocery sells Hindu knickknacks and serves a fair-priced lunch and dinner buffet of South Indian cuisine, like puri (fried bread) and vegetable tikki chaat, (deep-fried veggie cakes), which changes daily.
El Maguey (5802-A N. Armenia Ave., 813-872-7028). This Mexican grocery in a small strip mall offers more dried and fresh peppers than I've seen in any of Tampa's natural food stores, and an extensive amount of spices. The store sells tortillas and candy, as well as Mexican CDs, straw cowboy hats and leather cowboy boots, and can also help customers wire money to Central and South America.
Truc Giang (5802-C N. Armenia Ave., 813-876-4557). A Vietnamese grocery store two doors down from El Maguey, this is the only place I've found in this part of town that sells tofu and soymilk. There's also a selection of exotic produce and candy, 25-lb. bags of Thai rice, Asian spices and rice paper. Try Mr. Brown's iced coffee in a can.
La Lechonera (5601 N. Armenia Ave., 813-870-3504). Cafeteria-style Cuban fare. Everything is big at La Lechonera. The huge menu board is in Spanish and English, offering a variety of meats and stews, beans and rice, cabrito (goat stew), boliche (pot roast), oxtail, Cuban sandwiches, seafood salads, flan, malta and pina coladas. Lunch specials include a pile of rice and beans with your choice of meat or fish (like fried catfish) and fried plantains or yucca. There's usually a line during peak meal times, but it moves quickly. Desserts (long pans of flan) are made by down the street at Magy's Desserts (3101 N. Armenia Ave., 813-353-3640).
Brasilia Grill (5302 N. Armenia Ave., 813-872-7048). Its tagline is "a new experience in b-b-q," and co-owner Chris Desouza says to his knowledge he was one of the first to open a Brasilian rodizio in this country, over a decade ago in Newark, N.J. Two years ago, he and his mother opened the Tampa location. The daily lunch special is rodizio ($14.95), 16 skewers of charbroiled beef, pork, chicken and their homemade sausage. They also have a hot (seafood chowder, pumpkin and squash, roasted pork leg) and cold buffet (sal picao, shrimp salad, build your own salad).
The West Tampa Sandwich Shop (3904 N. Armenia Ave., 813-873-7104). This popular gathering spot opens at 5 a.m. seven days a week for breakfast. (The West Tampa Special features pancakes, eggs with your choice of meat, grits, toast and a café con leche for $6.95.) The menu also features soups (garbanzo and, on Fridays only, ajiaco, a traditional Columbian chicken soup with corn and potatoes), mango milkshakes — oh, and sandwiches.
This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.