{"id":2022,"date":"2010-10-16T07:31:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T11:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=2022"},"modified":"2010-12-19T20:30:21","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T00:30:21","slug":"athens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=2022","title":{"rendered":"Athens"},"content":{"rendered":"

We visited Athens at 226 Main Street<\/a> on 9 October 2010. This was our first visit to Athens and our second review in a row in Safety Harbor. We’re practically locals on that side of the bay. Marek’s been such a good boy lately. He’s been picking up his toys, feeding the dog, voting Libertarian, and all around being a model citizen. <\/p>\n

So I let him drive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Marek heard we were going to Athens, he thought we were going to Greece. He packed a bag. No kidding. He has his piggy bank in there, because he figured he could help out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, Ivo came along for the ride. I say that like somehow he conveyed to us in writing, or perhaps song, that he really enjoyed our breakfast project, but the reality is, he’s two months old and he doesn’t say a thing. It’s all cry, cry, eat, eat, puke, poop, sleep, cry with Ivo. <\/p>\n

Pictured here: Ivo crying.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While we were parking we saw this hot little number<\/a> go by. Look at those curves! I love the way she moves. Exotic, a little bit older but very sexy in a European way. That red coat really looks great on her, too. Mmmmm, if I wasn’t already married to a Celica I might ask for her VIN number.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Athens is a nice little diner on Main Street. There’s a bowl of water out front, that equally services dogs and three year olds who frequently channel their inner dog-spirit<\/a>. That water sure is delicious. Marek would know.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside is warm and cozy, and includes little feet in the picture. Not to be confused with Little Feat<\/a>, whom we did not see today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Menu. It has all the right stuff in it. And, if the cover may be judged, it was written by Nikos<\/a> himself. Also, did you ever get the feeling that Lightning McQueen shares some styling points with the Opel GT?<\/p>\n

Did you ever think that you’d find a reference to breakfast, Kazantzakis, Lightning McQueen, and the Opel GT in the same thought? Neither did I. Tampa Bay Breakfasts is like a summer-school humanities class if it were taught by your shop instructor so he could pick up some extra cash to buy a pallet of Papst when it goes on sale at the Food Ranch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All three of us had coffee. This was good, diner dank black brew, just the way we like it. Obviously, Ivo’s coffee-to-leche mixture is weighted towards the leche end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is how we do it.<\/a> (And you thought TBB was all about heavy metal and arthouse music!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here comes breakfast! We had some pancakes and some bacon. No eggs, though, as they weren’t part of the special and, frankly, we all started out a little gassy anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The pancakes were really top-notch, as we were told by some of our fellow patrons as we first sat down. The bacon was nicely done and met with Marek’s approval. And, of course, everything is better with syrup.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sitting under this mural felt perilous. As in, I was perilously close to jumping up to dance the Hasapiko<\/a>! If I’d had just one more ouzo it would have been dancing time!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The bill came and we were very pleased. Mr. Hamilton, finally, got to see some action. It’s been all Jackons lately for us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marek stood up to the challenge. One day, perhaps next week, he’s going to pocket the cash and run right out the door. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And he got lost and ran around like crazy and caused a generally high level of chaos. I’m always surprised he doesn’t just start schlepping coffee around to the customers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our pleasant hosts reigned him in and brought him back down to earth. With change, no less.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marek took this picture while I was strapping Ivo into the ejection seat. Err, car seat. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This dog doesn’t talk. I wonder where this was? If Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom reads this review before her birthday, it might ruin the surprise on what her present is. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a great time at Athens. The chow was just right, the people were friendly, and the price was center-target. We’re pleased to award Athens a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four pancake rating.<\/p>\n

\"one-pancake\"\"one-pancake\"\"one-pancake\"\"one-pancake\"<\/p>\n

\"Athens's<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We visited Athens at 226 Main Street on 9 October 2010. This was our first visit to Athens and our second review in a row in Safety Harbor. We’re practically locals on that side of the bay. Marek’s been such a good boy lately. He’s been picking up his toys, feeding the dog, voting Libertarian, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3,14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breakfasts","category-greek","category-hillsborough"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s30Aox-athens","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2022"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}