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Pinellas County’s brunch of brunches

Don Cesar Hotel

There’s brunch, with a nice variety of food and a decent price tag, maybe put out by a good local eatery. And then there is brunch put on by the Don CeSar Hotel, one of the premier hotels in the Tampa Bay region. This brunch is a few steps, or many steps, above the average, with smoked salmon and mounds of the best fresh fruit and carving stations for prime rib, lamb, ham and pork, as well as a dizzying array of fancy homemade desserts.

The Don CeSar is where we had brunch this morning. It was truly memorable and worth describing to anyone thinking about moving to Pinellas County.

First, a little bit about the hotel. The Don CeSar overlooks the Gulf of Mexico in the south part of the county, just south of St. Pete Beach and just

Don CeSar Hotel entrance

north of Pass-A-Grille Beach. It is pretty old but beautifully kept in bright pink paint with white trim.  It was built in the 1920s. Then, just as now, it is a place for the well-known and the well-to-do.

It became a convelescent center for the U.S. Air Force during World War II and then fell into such disrepair that it was abandoned and almost torn down in the 1970s. But local people put up a ruckus to save the Don, and someone bought it and renovated it to its present glory. It has been an icon of the Tampa Bay region ever since.

But back to the brunch; it features more than 200 separate items as well as pasta and omelette stations . There’s a dessert staion for crepes and a sundae bar. If you like bubbles with your brunch, there’s even complementary champagne.

We’ve lived in Pinellas County since 1993, and this was our first brunch trip to the Don CeSar. At around $100 for two, we won’t be going back every weekend, but it’s a nice treat or special occasion.

Tags: Don CeSar, pinellas, real estate

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm and is filed under St. Petersburg, things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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