35+ On The Town

This spot has been regularly requested by our members. So, you asked for it, you got it! (Toyota, lol.)

https://www.bosphorousrestaurant.com/
'“Bosphorous” originates from the strait that lies in the center of Istanbul and connects Europe to Asia. Fragrant aromas, fresh ingredients, and family-like hospitality will have you wondering when you arrived in Turkey!

The Turkish food you will come to love is carefully hand crafted by our experienced Chefs and their culinary teams. Today many of our staff actually have Turkish backgrounds – but that’s not what defines our food. At Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine, we labor each and every day using only Halal meats which are fresh, never frozen. The freshest vegetables, and most authentic Mediterranean ingredients, many of which we import directly from Turkey, are used in our dips, salads, and side plates.'

As usual, RSVPs close the day before the event, so please make any changes before then. No-shows will be removed from the group. This includes people who drop after RSVPs close, the day of the event. See you soon!

Please join us for a 3-tiered afternoon tea service at a chocolate shop for my birthday weekend and inaugural event as an Organizer with this Meetup!

William Dean Chocolates is first and foremost one of the world's best chocolate shops (per my extensive taste tasting, LOL). Their chocolate bonbons are some of the most delicious and prettiest works of art you will ever eat, so I am excited to taste what else they create for afternoon tea!

SAMPLE MENU:
Their afternoon tea is a fixed menu that changes every week, but they said it usually includes some flavor variation of the following types of items:

Savory:

• Cucumber, lemon, dill, and cream cheese sandwich
• Tarragon chicken salad sandwich on tomato bread
• Bacon & leek OR spinach & artichoke quiche
• Ratatouille tart with mascarpone cream topping

Scones:

• Plain vanilla with vanilla glaze
• Cheddar & scallion
• Mock Devonshire cream
• Seasonal jam

Sweets:

• Petit four
• Pistachio cake (which may not be pistachio that week)
• Bouchon brownie
• Earl grey & raspberry financier cake
• 1 chocolate bonbon
• 1 macaron
• 1 pate de fruit

They said it is enough food that most people go home with boxes. In addition to this tea service, they sell a huge selection of chocolate bonbons, barks, and Valrhona hot drinking chocolate (the best brand).

COST:
The cost is $35 per person, to be paid to them on site. We can only reserve up to 7 seats without having to pay a 50% deposit in advance. But if a lot of people are on the Waiting List and willing to pay the deposit in advance, they can accommodate a lot more people.

ATTIRE:
We encourage dressing up in "English garden party" or "Kentucky Derby" attire. Think: floral pattern, pastels, sundress, linen, fancy hat, fascinator, lace gloves, etc. But you can wear whatever you want.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. They do NOT offer gluten free or other dietary restrictions, except they said they usually can accommodate "no nuts" with advance notice, as long as you are okay with potential cross contamination. This will be asked when you RSVP here.
2. They have 2 locations, and this is at their Midtown Tampa location, in the Whole Foods shopping area.
3. As usual, RSVPs close the day before the event, so please make any changes before then. No-shows will be removed from the group. This includes people who cancel on the day of the event, after RSVPs close.

As usual, I'm scheduling our next Read 'n' Watch way ahead of time, so people have time to both read and watch this one. This is more than a book club discussion. These are focused on books that have also been made into movies or TV shows, so we can discuss the differences, which we prefer, how they each handled the material, etc.

For our next one, we'll discuss Kindred by Octavia Butler. The TV show can be found on Hulu.

Octavia E. Butler's 1979 bestseller Kindred is a time-traveling dystopian science fiction novel that explores the legacy of slavery and its impact on the present. The story follows Dana, a Black woman in 1970s California who's inexplicably transported back in time to a Maryland plantation circa 1815. There, she's enslaved and must save the life of Rufus, a young white ancestor, to preserve her own.

We'll have lunch at Cuenellis (Peruvian rotisserie chicken), by Airport Cargo road, while we chat. Let's have some intellectual fun!

As usual, RSVPs close the day before the event. Please make any changes before then. No-shows will be removed from the group. (This includes people who drop after RSVPs close.)