Write Around Tampa

The Blend Coffee & Cocktails

9951 W Hillsborough Avenue

Tampa

Quality and pricing of food and drink:

Pretty good. I got a breakfast sandwich for $6, add hash browns for .75. Adding a smoothie and water it came to $16. I’ve gotten a tea and pastry and water for that much at other places. The food was decent, the smoothie—a peach, ice cream, mango concoction—was banging.

Are there enough outlets?

Sort of. They have outlets, but they’re either on the wall where there is no seating or on the wall where there is no table.

How’s the wifi?

Password protected, they hand you a little card with the connection and password.

Will my muse come out?

She will, even though the loudish techno music might cause her to distractedly bop her head instead of write. Tune it out and you’re in any other coffee shop atmosphere.

How long can I park it?

6 to 6 most days, lovey, and yes, the atmosphere and big parking lot are conducive to burning it out.

Final rating: 5 out of 5 laptops

Rachel Remick’s fiction and non-fiction stories have appeared in various magazines, among them Rosebud, Bluestem and ellipsis . . . literature and art. A frequent contributor to women’s magazine Sasee, her writing has also been published in several volumes of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, the most recent of which, The Spirit of Christmas, went on sale this month. She lives in Tampa, Florida.