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Archive for the 'North Pinellas County' Category

Is this the best pizza in Pinellas County?

Monty's Pizza

There’s all kinds of different pizza. There’s thin crust, thick crust, Chicago style, New York style and Sicilian pizza, just to name a few. People are particular about their pizza, and not everyone thinks the same way when it comes to deciding what’s good, and what’s not so good.

All that being said, we like Monty’s Pizza in Clearwater. A lot.

We go there just about every Sunday night, and we always order the same thing: a medium deluxe. At Monty’s, a deluxe pizza has five toppings of your choice. For us, that means pepperoni, sausage, extra cheese, olive oil and mushrooms. (There’s one waitress there who doesn’t think olive oil should be a topping. When she waits on us, we order onions, too.)

Monty’s is owned by a family from Connecticut, according to the story on the back of the menu. They have been turning out pizzas in Pinellas County since the early 80s. The restaurant itself is a bit funky, and that adds to the charm. Also, there’s an old Ford outside in the parking lot painted up to look like a NASCAR racer sponsored by Monty’s. If you drive by, you see the Ford before you see the actual “Monty’s” sign on the building.

Monty’s is in mid-county on Nursery, just west of Belcher. If you come on a Sunday night, we’ll probably see you there.

Tags: Clearwater, pinellas, pizza, restaurant

Believe it or not, home construction applications are UP

With real estate sales and values way down from their historic highs of about three years ago, you’d think that developers would be thinking about just about anything except building more new houses.
But you would be wrong.
Developers have been submitting large numbers of proposals for new homes and new commercial developments to state approval agencies. How many? Applications have been filed for more than a half-million new homes as well as about 500 million square feet of commercial space.
What are they thinking?
State officials say it is owners or large land tracts that are behind the push for more development approvals. Whether new homes and communities are being built or not, the people who own those large tracts of land want the permits to build. It increases the land’s value, and it puts the land in a good position to host new developments if and when the market conditions improve.
Much of the land in question is now zoned agricultural, or is envirtonmentally sensitive. But if that land becomes approved for residential or commercial development, it suddenly becomes worth a lot more money.
With real estate in a full stall, you wouldn’t think that new development applications would be taken seriously. But with government and business hoping for an economic jump start, just about anything is possible.

Tags: building permits, new construction, pinellas, real estate

Al Boyd’s boot

It wasn’t so long ago that North Pinellas County was little more than orange groves and open land. Because of that, the area isn’t exactly chock full of old stories and legends. But there is a pretty good story involving Boot Ranch. Boot Ranch is now a shopping center, but it used to be a good-sized ranch that was owned by one Al Boyd.

Al Boyd's boot

Since Al called his spread Boot Ranch, he built a great big boot to mark the entrance of his driveway — a 17-foot bit of concrete footwear that bore the image of a Brahmin bull. At the time, the boot stood at what is now the intersection of Tampa Road and McMullen Booth.

The Boyd ranch was a large spread that covered a significant bit of acreage in North Pinellas County. But, like all the other large tracts in the area, it was eventually sold to make way for housing developments, apartments and a big shopping center, appropriately named the Shoppes at Boot Ranch. When the shopping center was built, the big boot was painted white, pink and light green (not exactly cowboy colors) and was moved to a place of honor in the shopping center parking lot. That is where it still stands today.

Here’s the interesting part:

If you look closely at the base near the boot’s toe, you can see the faint outline of a small window. And if you walk around to the back, you can see the faint outline of a painted-over door.
Legend has it that Al Boyd had a small room built into the boot.

According to legend, Al was unhappy that some locals used to drive by and take pot shots at the boot. He asked the sheriff about what he could do to retaliate, and the law officer said he could return the fire if he were in or near the boot — that returning fire would be tantamount to self-defense.

So, Al reportedly would hang out in his little room in the boot and wait for gun-toting ne’er-do-wells to drive by. If they opened fire on his boot, Al supposedly would stick his rifle through the window of the boot and return fire. One night he supposedly peppered the door of a passing pickup truck when the occupants took a few shots at the boot.

The boot had a colorful past, just like Al Boyd. It seems kind of sad that it is living out its final days in a shopping center parking lot.

Tags: history, North Pinellas County, real estate

Caposey’s Restaurant

 It’s been a while since I posted a restaurant review, but this is a good time because I had breakfast this morning in a place I really like.

Caposey’s is up in New Port Richey, a little north of us, in Pasco County. It’s a Mom & Pop operation that puts out really good food at really good prices. If your idea of a good restaurant is a small, family-run place with great but simple fare and a lot of down-home charm, this might be the place for you.

John and Nancy Caposey were working in a restaurant in Palm Harbor about five years ago when they decided to go out on their own. John cooked at that other place, and Nancy waited on tables.
We remember them from those years at the other place, which later gave way to a fancier place and then went out of business.
Anyway, the Caposeys moved further up US19 and found a good site. They’ve been working hard at it ever since.

“We’re going to have our fifth anniversary on March 5,” Nancy told us this morning. “They say that if you can make it for five years in the restaurant business, you’re going to be all right, so we’re pretty excited about this birthday.”

This morning we had pancakes, which are about the best around here. I’m really fussy about pancakes and I won’t order them out most of the time, but these were really good.

So give it a try. Caposey’s is a little hard to spot when you go up US19 because the restaurant is actually located at 5250 Green Key Rd., a little east of US19. But you can spot it from US19 if you look hard, and the big sign helps. If you see a sign that says “Pioneer Title” on the east side of US19, it’s time to slow down and turn.

Call them at 727-842-4307 if you need directions.

Tags: Pasco County, restaurant

Ugly bathroom contest

Now, this is an ugly bathroom

Do you have an ugly bathroom?

Now, we’re not talking about a bathroom with some rust stains in the sink, or a tear or two in the flooring, or even a few rips in the shower curtain up by the curtain rod rings. No, we’re talking about a seriously nasty bathroom, one that you don’t like to go into even when you really, really have to go.

Luxury Bath Systems of Tampa Bay, which has a place of business at 33851 US19N in Palm Harbor, is looking for a really, really ugly bathroom. It has to be in Pasco, Pinellas or Hillsborough counties, but otherwise its an open field.

Here’s the good part; if your ugly bathroom is chosen as the worst of the worst, you might win a full bath remodel – a re-do that will include KraftMaid vanities from Grand Kitchen & Bath of St. Petersburg; vanity tops from Granite Plus Inc. in St. Petersburg; as well as new plumbing fixtures, toilets, lighting and doors. In other words, the works, something valued at $8,500.

Here’s what you do: submit a photo of your nasty bath at http://www.uglybathroomcontest.net/. You must submit your entry by March 31, and five finalists will be chosen and posted on the Luxury Bath Systems website between April 3 and 26.

"After" bathroom picture

Once the finalists are posted, people can visit the website and vote for their favorite. On May 1, the winner will be announced.

FULL DISCLOSURE DEPARTMENT: The really ugly bathroom in the picture at the top was an entry in the ugly bathroom contest from an earlier year (we didn’t want to influence the outcome of this year’s contest). The really pretty bathroom picture shows a bathroom done by Luxury Bath Systems, but it is NOT a makeover of the ugly bathroom above. There; we feel better!

Tags: Tampa Bay, ugly bathroom

Mortgage rates down, but bank profits up

Here’s a fact you may not have realized – interest rates on home mortgages have been coming down, but the profit margins for lenders on those mortgages have been going up.

What that means is that mortgages could come down even further, and lenders could still make a nice profit on them.

In January, the average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages fell below five percent. It was the first time that rates had dipped so low since Freddie Mac started keeping track of rates in 1971, 38 years ago.

In spite of that, bank profits on 30-year fixed mortgages have been going up. The gap between mortgage rates and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields (2.5 percent) hasn’t been so great in the past 27 years.

Enlightened home buyers aren’t very happy about that. Some officials in the federal government aren’t pleased, either. California Congresswoman Maxine Waters serves on the House Banking Committee. She believes lenders should drop their rates to benefit homebuyers.

“If the government is making sure that cost is dropping for the banks, it should be dropping just as much for consumers,” she said. “But they’re not. Banks could make loans at 4.5 percent, or even lower, and it would still be profitable.”

Some experts believe banks are reluctant to drop rates for consumers any further because of the losses they have experienced through foreclosures and a more than sluggish real estate market.

It will be interesting to see what the Obama Administration will do about home lending rates as a condition of the bailout.

Tags: interest rates

Golfer’s paradise

If you like to ski or run around on snowmobiles, Pinellas County is obviously not for you. But if you love to play golf, then Pinellas County is close to paradise.

According to golfable.com, a website that keeps track of golf courses, Pinellas County has no fewer than 53 courses. And there’s even more than that available to golfers who don’t mind short drives north to Pasco County, east to Hillsborough County, or south over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to Manatee County.

If you click on the golfable.com link above, it will take you to the websites of many of the golf courses that it lists.

Tags: golf, pinellas county

The light rail saga continued

Since I got all fired up recently about the new light rail system in Phoenix, and how nice such a system would be in Tampa Bay, I thought I’d share our recent experience with light rail transportation in Baltimore.

Light rail in Baltimore

This past week, we spent a few days with family in Connecticut, and then went on to Baltimore for two more days. If you’ve ever flow into Baltimore, you know that the Baltimore-Washington Airport is not very close to the downtown area – it’s located at a central point between Baltimore and Washington, DC.

When I was making arrangements for the trip, I found a shuttle service that could take us from the airport to downtown Baltimore. I don’t remember the cost exactly, but it was around $15 per person each way, or around $60 for the two of us round-trip.

A little later, we discovered that Baltimore has a light rail system that runs from Hunt Valley, north of the city, then right through downtown Baltimore and then on to Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County. One leg of the rail line down near the Glen Burnie end shoots off and goes directly to the airport.

So that’s what we did.

There was a little bit of a walk through the airport terminal to get to the train boarding area, but once through the terminal doors the train was sitting right there waiting for us. The fare was a measly $1.60 per person (and it could have been just $.55 if I had read down a little further and found the special 55-plus fare). Once on board, the train made about 10 stops before delivering us to the Baltimore Convention Center right downtown.

We had decided to stay in the colorful Fells Point area, and that was still a fair distance away, so we flagged down a cab for the last leg of the trip.

Here are the best parts of the light rail train ride; it was really cheap as well as hugely convenient, and it only took 30 minutes to get from the airport to the heart of downtown Baltimore. It also made us feel like we were doing the right thing, environmentally speaking.

Here was the worst part: On the return trip from downtown to the airport, we just missed the Airport train and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was cold. No, actually, it was worse than just cold. It was REALLY cold, around 24 degrees, and we had to stand outside for a half-hour. For thin-blooded Floridians, it was torture.

Still, we loved it. One of the light rail stops is Camden Yards, and we’re thinking about flying up there next summer for a Tampa Bay Rays – Baltimore Orioles game. I’m still dreaming about a Pinellas County light rail system, something that could serve Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Clearwater and other North Pinellas communities as well as St. Petersburg and Tampa.

If you want to learn more about Baltimore’s light rail system, go to www.mtamaryland.com/

Tags: baltimore, light rail, pinellas

More results from the NAR survey

 Here are a few more findings from the big National Association of Realtors survey that I mentioned a few posts back:

• Commuter costs were really important. Of all those surveyed, 41 percent said commuter costs were very important; another 39 percent said they were somewhat important.
• Buyers spent an average of 10 weeks looking for new homes. They also viewed an average of 10 homes before buying.
• Almost nine out of 10 buyers said their purchase was a good investment. Almost 50 per cent said they thought the investment was better than buying stocks. Remember that the survey was taken BEFORE the current stock market meltdown.
• The typical repeat homebuyer was 47. The typical first-time homebuyer was 30.

Tags: NAR, Palm Harbor, real estate, realtors, survey

No lawn re-sodding until summer

Speaking of green, here’s some news about local lawns. This is either good news or bad news, depending on your point of view.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, known around these parts as SWIFTMUD, says homeowners won’t be able to re-sod their sick-looking lawns until next summer. The ban includes Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough Counties.

The reason: new lawns require lots and lots of water. And we don’t have lots and lots of water right now, and probably won’t have until the summer rainy season.

This order is bad news if: you love green, green lawns, or if you are a homeowner’s association and you require your members to have green, green lawns. But it is good news if: you really, really hate spending a lot of money on lawn-watering, or if your lawn is already brown and you were waiting for a nasty letter from the president of your local homeowners association.

Tags: North Pinellas County