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Cheap thrill: Pints & Pastimes
By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 16, 2001
[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
If fish and chips aren’t for you, Pints & Pastimes also offers a taste of Indian cuisine, such as this chicken Indian curry dish, foreground, and crisp pappadums for an appetizer.
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One quaint pleasure of the south Pinellas beaches is their Britishness. Locals know it is best enjoyed out of the noonday sun in the dark cool of one of the pubs our English visitors have set up.
One such is Pints & Pastimes, which boasts crispy fish and chips, a sturdy shepherd's pie (they invented potato turbate, you know) plus a small line of British beers on tap, including Caffrey's and Boddington's if you fancy a cream.
Pints also offers two rarities hereabouts. One is a taste for Indian food, at least as it is served in pubs. That means crisp fried pappadums and mint yogurt for munchies, and a thick gravy form of curry, hot and full of spice, good for chicken or beef, or just on fries (a distinct improvement on ketchup).
Another eccentricity is the penchant of the owner, Londoner David Sailes, for games played on boards, not video screens. Most nights around 10, he sets out Scrabble, chess and draughts (checkers to us Yanks) for ex-pats and others who appreciate that a pint goes down well with all kinds of pastimes.
Pints & Pastimes, 5905 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach; (727) 363-7468.
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