HASH HOUSE A GO GO

 UNMATCHED SERVICE...BUT SHARE A PLATE, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE

When we realized this is a chain of about 10, we almost didn't go.

But we were park weary and breakfast food sounded comforting.

We were a bit surprised to also find out that a large part of the breakfast menu disappears around 5 pm (note to corporate, when your name is hash house, serve the full menu the entire time you are open -- even McDonalds has caught on that a lot of us find refuge in getting breakfast for lunch, dinner and late night).

So with these bits of trepidation, how did it earn 5 stars?

The manager, who became our server. I believe his name is Vince.

There were two huge parties being attended to by the wait staff. We went at an odd time, so the place wasn't very full but also didn't have much staff.

I'm a big eater, but when I read the stuff on the menu item -- tractor something such, one of the breakfast items available all day -- I thought I better share.

Then we thought about pesky sharing charges. We started our usual plotting.

The wife would order a biscuit or something and I'd order the big meal and we would pretend we weren't sharing, so we didn't get stuck with some stupid $6 sharing charge.

Then Vince told us you each get a giant biscuit, with all sort of jam and honey butter, on the house.

My wife said, uh, then, I guess order with a plate to share -- we'll pay the sharing charge. No charge for sharing, said Vince.

He didn't try to upsell us at all. No, well with saving money by splitting, you can afford an expensive drink...or order a cake or whatever. Just a mention that you really get four waffle square, meat, taters, eggs and those giant biscuits before the main comes out.

Even though it was not his table and we were probably making an order than brought in one 20th of the revenue the big parties were bringing in (we saw kids at those table ordering giant baskets of food they couldn't consume in a week), we got prompt service.

Vince even caught me out of the corner of his eye and brought more rich maple syrup so I could properly drown my share of those fluffy waffle chunks. We didn't have to dance or hollar to get the check -- as the country food hit us hard and demanded a rush to the hotel for a nap prior to I-Drive nighttime roaming.

He was prompt, efficient...even held the door to the parking lot so I could steer my wife's wheelchair without crooking my shoulder to catch the door.

Vince (and I sure hope you got your name right) you gave us the gold star service of a $100 per plate gourmet room -- for a bill that I'm pretty sure came in under 20 bucks even with a healthy tip. Good man.

THE ORLANDO EYE

 FIVE STARS FOR WHEELCHAIR ACCESS

The wheelchair access is great at the Orlando Eye.

It starts with free surface parking right next to the wheel (drive around behind the parking deck to get these if you have the parking placard).

As a companion to wheelchair user (my wife), I got a free ride "or flight," as they like to call it. 

Add in Florida resident discount and we were riding for less than half price.

The area where you watch the video on the wheel is super wheelchair accessible.The lobby gets high points for a family restroom, where a spouse can assist his partner in transfer from wheelchair in privacy.

The ride is smooth and the cars are big.The attendants don't make a fuss or make the wheelchair user feel awkward.

The wheel lights up at night and is quite beautiful.The only drawback is well, the view is Orlando.

No offense, but you see the tops of a bunch of mega hotels, the parking lots of I-Drive then the last of the scrub land beyond...that has let to be developed into a mall, theme park, or hotel complex.

You ride the London Eye, you see all the famous buildings in London.

No offense to Orlando, but the scenery doesn't match Big Ben and the Thames. From the Orlando Eye, even the Epcot dome looks a bit like a golf ball far off the the south.

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 11

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

IF YOU GO:

Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce: www.cedarkey.org            (352) 543.5600

Cedar Key Bed and Breakfast www.cedarkeybandb.com         (352) 543-9000

Tony’s Seafood Restaurant: www.tonyschowder.com                  (352) 543-0022

Dilly Dally Gally: www.dillydallygally.com                                        (352) 543-9146

Curmudgeonalia: www.curmudgeonalia.com                                (352) 543-6789

Cedar Key Hole: www.cedarkeyhole.com                                    (352) 543-5801

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 10

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

According to local historians, the weathered, collapsing structure was built in 1959 by local craftsman for the family that owned the Thomas Hotel -- a short day trip away in Gainesville.

The boardwalk and some of the cottage itself were destroyed by Hurricane Elena on Labor Day, 1985.

Subsequent storms created the further battered condition that makes the isolated Honeymoon Cottage a rustic, faded charmer.

Taking meandering walks and rolls in the slow lane, fueled by plenty of fresh seafood, is what Cedar Key is all about.

Check out the Honeymoon Cottage. 

Bring a book.

Pack a snack. 

Take a nap. 

Old Florida still exists and it is wheelchair-accessible.

Wright is an award-winning journalist and photographer who has published thousands of travel stories and contributed to New Mobility for nearly two decades. He lives with his ADA-expert wife in the heart of bustling Miami, but appreciates a good Old Florida respite.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 11

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 9

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

Better news is that several of the bridges also feature turn off points for public parks along the watery bayous, inlets and other bodies of water that support commercial clam farms and other seafood harvesting. 

The park at No. 4 Bridge features an accessible fishing pier, van-width parking and clean, barrier-free restroom.

Right in town, the Cemetery Point Park features a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk that weaves over wetlands and returns to the accessible parking spaces. 

It indeed is next to the historic town Cemetery, which is a bit too hilly to wheel through, but can be enjoyed by a slow car ride past its aged headstones and mature trees.

Back in town, one of the best waterfront sites is a pile of rotting wood ruins. 

The Honeymoon Cottage is the nickname for a house on stilts out in the Gulf, but close to the shore.

Perhaps the most photographed image in all of Cedar Key, the cottage used to be connected to the mainland by a 300-foot boardwalk.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 10

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 8

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

Cedar Keyhole Artist Co-Op and Gallery, located in the 2nd Street Historic District in a lovingly restored 19th century building, boasts of its accessibility on-line. 

Dozens of artists have their wares on display in the barrier-free first floor gallery beneath the big open porch above.

My wife, Heidi, found a beautiful Old Florida-style sea glass necklace at a very reasonable price.

In a city filled with quaint wooden docks, piers and buildings, Cedar Key's fishing pier is not pretty.

But the massive concrete structure is 100 percent accessible with a large, wide turn ramp leading up to several sections of pier that jut out into the blue, seafood-filled waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The pier is free of charge and has barrier-free restroom facilities. 

Even if you're not an angler, the pier provides magnificent views of the Dock Street restaurants, pubs, shops and barrier islands in the Gulf.

Travelers cross several bodies of water and bridges on the way to Cedar Key's isolated spit of seaside land. 

A word of caution: visitors tend to soar over these bridges on their way into town and the slow-land locals don't appreciate big city speeders.

Maintain the limit or risk paying a hefty speeding fine.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 9

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 7

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

We found good ramped access to Dilly Dally Gally, a typical seaside tourist gift shop with a corny name that makes us grimace when we repeat it. 

But the tidy shop offers everything from cheesy souvenirs to some top quality items worthy of impressing picky friends and relatives.

Our favorite place to shop is inland, at the corner of Second and D streets on a corridor that features artists and local shops in a series of historic buildings.

Curmudgeonalia is the last of the great, little independent book stores.

They also sell a few sundries for the locals and souvenirs for the vacationers.

But the emphasis is on literature.

There may be a few beach reads, but this little shop packs an impressive inventory of first-rate fiction and non-fiction from current to classics.

The owner, a retired physician from up north, is indeed a Curmudgeon who is all too happy to share his pointed political views directing you to the shelf with local books – such as (put in the name of the Cedar Key historical book that I bought).

What the proprietor lacks in appreciating opposite political views, he gains in helping wheelers to bump over the single step into his book store and by having wide, maneuverable aisles.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 8

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 6

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

You truly can take a long peaceful nap, enjoying your privacy. 

The area is so safe and tranquil that we basically checked ourselves in.

We knew the name of our room, opened the door, found the key on the night stand, dragged the luggage inside and took up residence for three days.

The only drawback when we stayed is that the place was a little too tranquil.

At least one made from scratch breakfast was replaced with microwave fare and we never got to chit chat with the innkeepers to get their suggestions on local legends, dining and more. 

In all fairness, one of the owners was gravely ill and a friend of theirs was called in to pinch hit. 

Though her breakfasts were less than memorable, she did go on a pizza run for us when the local delivery joint’s driver never showed.

Dock Street is the big waterside attraction in Cedar Key. Roughly a dozen bars, restaurants, and shops rest on stilts out over the warm waters of the Gulf. 

The good news is that the sidewalks are plenty wide for wheelers and there are lots of curbcuts. 

The bad news is that a few of the places can be reached only by steps, so Dock Street is not 100 percent accessible to wheelchair-using visitors.

ORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 7

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 5

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

Stuffed with seafood, we made our way to the Cedar Key Bed and Breakfast. 

Cedar Key has lots of small lodgings, but no chain hotels. 

Several promise some degree of wheelchair access, but after much research via email and phone calls, we selected the Cedar Key B&B.

Miss Verona’s room has a roll-in shower and easy ramped access from a parking space right in front of the inn. 

The room comes standard with one king bed, but can be converted to two twin beds to accommodate a disabled guest plus attendant. 

For about $130 per night, a room comes with a cooked to order breakfast, free parking and an endless, free supply of the inn’s famous chocolate chip cookies.

The inn is a combination of big, historic house and additions. 

The common areas, including the kitchen and area where breakfast is served, feature barrier-free access. 

The huge porch, also accessible, is the perfect place to crack open a book and gaze at the 400-year-old Live Oak in the spacious back yard.

If you crane your neck a bit, you can see the waterfront just down the street.

The B&B is located in a very quiet part of town with no commercial business for several blocks.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 6

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 4

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

The long drive, fresh air and rustic setting lends itself to a powerful hunger.

Tony’s Seafood Restaurant, in a restored brick building at the entrance to town in the Second Street Historic District, sates all appetites with lunch specials.

The grouper sandwich is huge, fresh and nicely blackened and on the dinner menu, a low country boil of shellfish, finfish, potatoes and corn on the cob make for an impressive Gulfside version of a classic New England lobster boil.

Speaking of New England, neither of us care for creamy, colorless New England Style clam chowder. Tony’s is famous for New England chowder, and we were skeptical.

Thankfully, Tony’s award-winning version is a symphony of flavor.

They won’t reveal the secret recipe, but there’s something in it that gives the bowl a pinkish hue and can convert an anti-chowder person into a fan in about three spoonfuls.

Tony's is in an old, historic building. But it has two accessible entrances and the wait staff is outstanding about subtly clearing a path of maneuverability to a prime table.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 5

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 3

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

Cedar Key’s population is just under 1,000. Its boom period was in the 1800s, when the town’s activity was out on what now is an unpopulated barrier island in deep water just off the mainland. Steamships plied the waters between New Orleans, Havana, and Cedar Key. 

The Suwannee, the famed wild blackwater river that begins in southern Georgia and rambles through the Okefenokee Swamp and hundreds of miles of Florida, empties into the Gulf just to the north of Cedar Key.

The town, based in the mainland for more than a century, gets its name from the cedar trees that used to cover it.

Starting in the 1860s, the trees were harvested and processed into cedar slats for shipment to pencil factories in the north.

A railroad line was built out to the tiny key to accommodate such commerce.

Even in the modern 21^st century, there is only one way into Cedar Key: across narrow bridges that glide on top of bayous and backwaters where farm-raised clams are grown.

The long drive ends and the little town presents itself with an inland row of stagecoach stop-looking wood buildings – some vacant, others with artists’ shops on the ground floor – and a cropping of taverns, restaurants and shops built on docks over top of the warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL4

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 2

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

Old Florida is where you can settle down long enough to sit on a porch swing, gaze out at large trees swathed in Spanish moss, and read a book cover to cover.

Old Florida is devoid of chain hotels, where visitors can choose from quirky cottages and small inns that don’t charge an arm and a leg for a night’s lodging.

Cedar Key is 100% Old Florida, quietly plotted a good two hours north of Tampa and an hour-plus southwest of Gainesville.

Though it is one of the oldest unspoiled towns in Florida, a high percentage of its best attractions are wheelchair-accessible.

And a wheelchair user can safely cross its narrow streets populated by light traffic.

Safe streets, shady sidewalks, portable ramps to traverse thresholds into shops and a super ADA-compliant turn ramp leading up to the free public fishing pier make Cedar Key the perfect calm, accessible oasis for my wife, a wheelchair user of three-plus decades.

If you don’t like seafood, Cedar Key may not be for you. The town’s best and most famous restaurant revolves around the bounty of the sea – including the locally-harvested clams.

You can order pizza or chicken wings at a dockside bar, but grouper, chowders, seafood boils and the like are the dishes that soothe the soul in Cedar Key.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 3

CEDAR KEY TRANQUILITY -- PART 1

FIND OLD FLORIDA IN CEDAR KEY

They don’t make places like Cedar Key anymore.

Especially in Florida, where suburban sprawl and overdevelopment have sucked the life out of more coastlines, fish shacks, seaside bungalows and starry nights that anyone can count.

We live in cosmopolitan Miami and love its dizzying architecture, diversity, cuisine and spirit. 

But to get away from it all, we have to drive hundreds of miles.

The southern Gulf Coast has built itself into oblivion and the Keys, though still magical, usher in a bigger slice of corporate America (while snuffing out bits of Old Florida) every day.

Old Florida is a place where the kitchen closes down at 10 p.m. – maybe even as early as 9 on a weeknight.

You don’t have to ask where the locals eat, because the handful of restaurants are dependent on locals – not jet setters from Manhattan to Madrid (bless their South Beach-loving hearts.)

Old Florida is where the seafood you eat was actually caught nearby in the Gulf of Mexico, where the town shuts down before midnight and you can truly see the stars at night. 

We're not talking about the kind in the nightclubs, but those in the sky, and they're not drowned out by sky glow from big city billboards.

STORY CONTINUES TOMORROW -- APRIL 2

WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE MUST SEES & MUST EATS IN BARCELONA

La Boqueria Mercat de Sant Josep

WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE MUST SEES & MUST EATS IN BARCELONA

• Gaudi’s Casa Batllo. It has a tiny elevator, but the staff has a loaner wheelchair small enough to fit in it so disabled visitors can enjoy all the floors in the highly ornamented masterpiece of the master architect.

• People watching on the Ramblas. The wide, pedestrian-only walkways are a wheelchair user’s dream. Enjoy the architecture, news stands and artisanal chocolate shops, but avoid the tourist trap cafes and beware of the pickpockets in the Sant Josep section of the lower Rambla.

• Barcelona Bus Turistic. These tourist buses have guides who describe the surroundings in many languages. But the real bonus is the buses are completely barrier-free via ramps and they stop at virtually every major attraction – from colorful Parc Guell on Mont Pelat to the Joan Miro museum on Montjuic.

• La Boqueria Mercat de Sant Josep. Barcelona is filled with fabulous fresh markets and the Boqueria -- with stall after stall of meat, cheese, produce, seafood, wine and more – is the granddaddy of them all.

• Lunch at Garduna. The downstairs bar area is accessible and dishes are prepared from ingredients selected from the adjacent Boqueria. Dinner at Quo Vadis, The classic Catalan restaurant serves sumptuous dishes such as quail and suckling pig in a grand, formal and barrier-free setting.

• Tapas at Lonja de Tapas. The barrier-free cafe offers small plates inside or out on picturesque Pla del Palau. Dessert at Xocoa. Everything is decadent and delicious at this totally accessible gourmet chocolate shop in La Ribera.

• Placa de Sant Jaume. This Roman-era plaza is mostly cobblestone, but there are smooth-paved walkways that allow wheelchair users to watch the parade of people past the Ajuntament, the 1300s Neo Classical and Gothic city hall.

• Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat. The city history museum, features the largest underground excavation of any ancient city in Europe. A recent renovation created outstanding wheelchair access via an elevator down to accessible boardwalks that meander among the ruins of Roman laundry and dyeing workshops as well as wine and fish sauce fermentation vats.

• Walking and rolling wheelchair accessible routes through neighborhoods such as Eixample, with early 20th century modern architecture; El Ravel, with dark and exotic cafes and bars in a rebounding but still rough around the edges district; and Gracia, with the narrow streets and small village charm of an eclectic place that was a stand alone town until annexed to Barcelona in the late 1900s.

• Sagrada Familia. Antoni Gaudi’s sacred masterpiece and surely the most famous unfinished building site in the world. Architect Gaudi started this church -- noted for its gothic towers, parabolic arches and high ornamentation – in 1882 and work will go on for decades before it is completed. Many areas are wheelchair-accessible.

--Steve Wright

Casa Batllo