A Berry Good Yelp

Tonight Diana and I carpooled it to downtown Plant City for October’s Yelp Elite event.

You can learn a little more about Yelp Elite in THIS post, also previous Elite events can be found here, here, and here.

I’ve only driven through Plant City via I-4 corridor (with the occasional pit stop at Parkesdale Market), but I can’t say I’ve ever been to their downtown area. It’s really cute, just as you would expect any small town downtown to be like and The Corner Store, where the event was hosted, was about as adorable as small downtown restaurants come. It’s locally owned by a husband and wife team who take pride in serving local, organic food, and embrace the slow food movement. They’re only open for lunch and serve sandwiches, smoothies, salads, and soups.

The event was co-hosted by Parkesdale Market, which seemed to the be the perfect pairing. One side grows the food, the other side cooks it and serves it.

We were greeted with an assorted display of pickled and fresh veggies to nibble on.

And I finally had a chance to try the famous Parkesdale strawberry cookies so many of my blogger friends were raving about at Central Florida BlogCon this year.

Whoa. Now THAT’S a strawberry cookie. I think someone hit it on the head when they said it was like eating strawberry jello. The cookies were VERY strawberry-y, but not in a bad way. They were very unique – like nothing I’ve ever tasted – and very delicious.

They were sampling wines, so I had a couple of mini “shots”

And some sangria (which was too sweet for my taste and I ended up ditching)

Our meal was served in stages.

First up: delicious butternut soup.

mmm… fall in a cup!

Second: fruit and nut salad

Remember when I said I was over salads? Yeah, I think I’m just over MY salads. This salad was full of fresh pears, pecans, blue cheese, craisins, and a light dressing that brought it all together. It was freaking amazing.

Third: hummus and pitas

Fourth: a green veggie juice that contained spinach, collards, cucumber, celery, apple, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and coconut water. I didn’t hate it, but I did think the cucumber and vinegar was a little strong. All you needed was some tomato and you had a good gazpacho going.

Fifth: fruit and cheese plate

Pear slices and bries? Do I really need to say more?

Sixth: hot italian sandwich and turkey with cranberry

Holy moly. Both were AMAZING. I was trying to stick to just a couple of bites each, but I ended up finishing both because they were too delicious not to. Both were toasted and had just the right amount of cheese and condiment to take them over the edge. I would return and order either again in a heartbeat.

Dessert!

Parkesdale milkshakes!!!!

I heard a rumor the milkshakes would be there and was just biding my time until they were served. I had one of each and don’t regret a sip. These are seriously the best milkshakes on the planet. Soooooo good!

THANK YOU to The Little Corner Store and Parkesdale Market for co-hosting tonight’s Yelp Elite event. It was fun to get out of Tampa and explore a new town. I promise I will be back!

This Yelper needs some sleep.

Good night!