U*Le*Le

I loved the restaurant we went to and it had such a beautiful story behind it. It was such a labor of love for the family that opened it. So much thought went into every bit of planning and trying to make it 'green'.

It seems in Tampa history, some 70 years or so before John Smith and Pocahontas, Ulele (the Tocabaga Chief's daughter) felt pity for some Spaniards and threw herself onto one of them so that her father would spare his life. The restaurant is named after the princess (and so are the nearby springs) and outside the building is this bronze statue that tells the story of how she saved the Spanish explorer from her people.

After an eight million dollar renovation the 1906 Water Works Building was transformed into the oldest restaurant in Tampa that we got the pleasure of eating at. The thought behind Ulele seems to be keeping all the ingredients organic and fresh from local family owned and independent companies. I really love when a modern convenience (like eating out) aims to keep the families in business and cares about you as a patron as much as the money (at least in illusion).
The menu is native-inspired using ingredients when they are available just like their ancestors did.  It kind of blew my mind how some of the ingredients are so casually listed: frog legs, alligator, quail, boar, venison, duck. Before doing my research I though it was like lox in New York and just what they eat here but it was more about using what is available. I have to say they make some delicious food. I enjoyed alligator hush puppies, charbroiled oysters, and duck bacon ice cream. I didn't know duck bacon was a thing either but it was tasty.

The coolest part of dinner was finding Cliff's wine namesake. We flew all the way across the country to discover that just a few hours south of us in our home state is a winery with his name. We would have had a glass but they were out so we'll have to obtain some when we get back home.