Dining in Venice - Venice Boasts Variety

Venice boasts variety
A stroll through downtown will satisfy your cravings.

Wander the streets of downtown Venice for a while, and a lazy, peaceful feeling descends upon you.
The Soda Fountain349 Venice Ave. W.412-9860
Steve's Super Sub Sandwiches339 Venice Ave. W.484-7151
Truly Delicious Gourmet Food Co.305 Venice Ave. W.488-8885
Bresler's Ice cream & Yogurt249 Venice Ave. W.488-0332
T.J. Carney's Pub & Grille231 Venice Ave. W.480-9244
The Tomato Patch125 Venice Ave. W.488-0828
James Place117 Venice Ave. W.485-6742
Cafe Venice Restaurant & Wine Bar116 Venice Ave. W.484-1855
Le Petit Jardin218 Tampa Ave. W.485-4449
Geraldi's113 Tampa Ave. W.484-7072
If Teacups Could Talk239 Miami Ave. W.488-4400
CoCo's229 Miami Ave. W.480-9696
Althea's220 Miami Ave. W.484-5187
Bella Luna Cafe200 Miami Ave. W.488-3089
Luna Ristorante200 St. Augustine Ave.412-9898
Venice Wine & Coffee Co.110 Nokomis Ave. S.484-3667
Gianni's Pizza212 Tamiami Trl. S.484-4599
It is the feeling of a town, a business district, at ease with itself and its image, one not straining to be larger than it is nor struggling to squeeze into a small-town charm.
Residents and tourists stroll past shop after shop surrounding Centennial Park, the anchor for the city's core, stopping occasionally to peruse window displays, talk with friends or chat about the latest wares with shopkeepers.
It's a comfortable feeling, an inviting feeling, and one that carries over into the variety of eateries in the heart of the city.
Cozy surroundings
You won't find much cozier surroundings than those at T.J. Carney's Pub & Grille, 231 Venice Ave. W. This establishment has dished up meals and drinks since the 1940s -- though under a different nameplate -- and continues to be a drawing card for locals and visitors today.
Diners can pull up a seat at any of a handful of tables under an awning on the walkway in front of the building, and keep an eye on goings-on in the park across the street or on the passers-by. Or they can step inside and soak in the warmth of deeply stained woodwork decorating the large dining area.
The waiters happily chat about the menu items for newcomers, noting the highlights of the day, but will just as readily slip into a back-and-forth about the weather, the music, the city or anything else you'd care to talk about.
The menu features standard pub favorites, the usual assortment of cheeseburgers and Reuben sandwiches, buffalo wings and nacho plates. But it also ranges a bit, with dinner entrées (available after 5 p.m.) like chicken parmigiana and linguine, $12.99, coconut shrimp with a pineapple-mango dipping sauce, $13.99, and broiled grouper stuffed with crabmeat, $15.99.
Generally, look for American favorites with a few Irish surprises.
The baked Irish onion soup, at $4.99 a crock, is one. It comes literally overflowing with glazed onions, a hearty broth and loads of big, seasoned croutons.
And the shepherd's pie, $9.99 here and a staple of any Irish-themed restaurant, lays down a liberal helping of ground beef and vegetables, bathes that with gravy and tops it all with silky-smooth mashed potatoes.
Like any good pub, Carney's brings in live entertainment on weekends and for special events to keep the crowds tapping and tipping -- both their drinks and their servers.
Carney's is open at 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday and at noon Sunday. Dinners are served until 10 p.m.
Follow the crowd
A block to the east, James Place, 117 Venice Ave. W., also offers the indoor-outdoor seating option, with a full overhang to protect outside diners from the quick storm that brews up occasionally in Florida.
This nondescript eatery could, in another life, just as easily pass for a travel agency as a restaurant. From the sparsely decorated glass window fronting the building to the ordinary patio furniture outside, nothing about this place screams "Stop here."
Except the steady stream of patrons rushing into the small shop.
The restaurant until the New Year had eschewed the dinner crowd, only recently having added entrées like jumbo shrimp, mahi-mahi and filet mignon for the after-work crowd or on weekends.
Of course, James Place still specializes in serving up food to the breakfast and lunch set. The noontime menu featured café fare, with items like a chef's salad with turkey, ham and the works for $8.95, a bacon cheeseburger, fries and cole slaw for $7.95, fish and chips for $8.95, and a soup and/or salad and/or sandwich combo (you get two of the three) for $5.75.
Breakfast dishes include meals packing enough food to fully bust any fast.
Three-egg omelets come fluffy and steaming, filled with three fillings from a list that includes ham, bacon, Swiss cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms. A side of home fries and toast complete the $7.25 plate.
The Royal Britannica breakfast, $9.50, might better be named the Royal Family breakfast, since it has enough food on a plate to feed the extended clan. Take a breath: two eggs, Canadian bacon (though a little thin and tough), sausage links, baked beans, sautéed tomatoes and mushrooms, home fries and toast. Just for the fun of it -- and the challenge -- add a side of corned beef hash, $4.75.
A stack of apple-cinnamon pancakes, $5.25, came with large slices of apples and a none-too-thrifty dose of cinnamon. And they were stacked sky-high (OK, maybe only 6 inches or so).
James Place is open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Sunday. Dinner hours are 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The restaurant is closed Tuesday.
Pizza plus
Turn off Venice Avenue and head a block south, and you'll find Gianni's Pizza, 212 Tamiami Trail S. It would be hard to miss.
A vast brick building with plenty of signage, this restaurant has a nifty little feature tucked inside: a fountain. Right there, smack in the middle of the tiled floors and between banks of patio furniture-style tables and chrome-and-vinyl booths. Just steps away from the open-view kitchen.
It's a nice touch, one that keeps the little ones occupied -- and you'll find lots of little ones in here -- while they wait for Mom and Dad to order at the counter, find a table and sit patiently while the cooks whip up the food.
No surprises on the menu here. A place named Gianni's better serve up plenty of Italian-based dishes. And it does, from veal Parmesan, $7.94, to vegetable lasagna, also $7.94, to spaghetti with meat sauce, $7.01. The menu also rolls out a roster of hoagies -- $4.44 for a 6-inch sub and $7.94 for a footlong -- stuffed with combinations of ingredients like salami, turkey, ham, hamburger, veal, chicken and more.
But pizzas rule at Gianni's, with the menu boasting that the slabs were rated best in Venice in 2002 and 2003. The pies come in sizes from 6 inches across to an 18-inch monster, and with regular crust or pan-style.
Toppings are pretty standard, with pepperoni, sausage anchovies and the like, but the thrill-seekers can check out a "turf" pie, with steak and mushrooms; a Greek pie, with gyro meat, black olives and feta cheese; or a surf slab, made with crab legs and spinach. The surf option deftly mixes the sweet crab with the bite of the spinach on top of a crisply cooked dough. The specialty pies cost $10.70 for a small (12-inch) or $13.78 for large (16-inch).
Gianni's is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and closed Sunday.
Leave diet at the door
Ask many a wanderer in Venice where they plan to stop for a bite, and the answer will be Althea's. Another in the indoor-outdoor mix, Althea's, 220 Miami Ave. W., fills up quickly, whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
This is an "I'm-off-my-diet-but-just-for-today" kind of place, with welcoming meals served up in a tight, though not congested, dining room.
Three separate menus throughout the day sport an amazing range of dishes, from eggs Benedict ($6.59) in the morning to a baked stuffed avocado ($7.59) at lunch to Black & Bleu Chicken ($11.95) for dinner.
A recent dinner sampling started with a bowl of chicken vegetable soup ($3.95), a nice, light broth with plenty of big chunks of chicken. Two dinners followed, with a thick slab of tender salmon ($12.95), seared on the grill and served with a side of vegetables and a choice of potato, rice or other staple. The other offering was the Black & Bleu Chicken, with two breasts of chicken seasoned and quickly blackened, topped with caramelized onions and a chunk of slowly melting blue cheese on each.
Follow that with a wide wedge of tart key lime pie ($3.99) and a smooth dish of tiramisu ($4.99), and the booths at Althea's seem just a little bit cozier -- OK, smaller -- on leaving than entering.

Courtesy of the Herald Tribune
By KEVIN O'HORAN
Published Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 at 4:30 a.m.