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Write Around Tampa
* Your weekly guide to the best places to park (it) and write in the Bay Area *
Starbucks
12998 Race Track Road
Tampa
Find out what's happening in Carrollwood-Northdalefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
As a writer—and coffee and tea and cider and hot chocolate and sweet fruity beverage drinker and snack eater—yes, I love me a Starbucks. Almost any Starbucks will do. The smells, the sounds, the people; everything just screams Write Here! But all Starbucks are not created equal and some are better than others. This Tampa location happens to be one of my favorites.
Quality and pricing of food and drink:
Find out what's happening in Carrollwood-Northdalefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Come on, it’s Starbucks. They made the $5 coffee seem reasonable. Today for me it was a $5 caramel apple spice. Worth every penny. Plus I had a gift card, so basically free. And they made it twice by mistake, so I got a second one for free. Who can complain about that? It should be said they have sandwiches and sweets, all reasonably priced and quite delicious. They know you have to afford the coffee, so they cut you a break on the food.
Are there enough outlets?
Surprisingly, no. This Starbucks used to have outlets in the floor and even set into one of the tables. They’ve since remodeled so there are only a few wall outlets, one not even by any tables. So come fully charged, just in case.
How’s the wifi?
Open to the public, but you have to give up your full name, email address and zip code to access. Luckily I’m a writer so I have pseudonyms and they all have their own emails. Let them deal with the spam.
Will my muse come out?
Pretentiously, with a jangly ankle bracelet and knotty unwashed hair. But she will be brilliant, screaming—not whispering—in your ear, try to make your fingers keep up with her.
How long can I park it?
Until closing. Starbucks staff are used to lingering writers. Just be polite and order something every once in a while. Along with my cider, I got a bottle of Ethos before starting this post.
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. She lives in Tampa, Florida.