Write Around Tampa

Taco Bell
16020 Mapledale Blvd
Tampa

Fast food restaurants are optimal places to sit and write because most of them do more drive thru orders than dining room. It’s almost always empty inside, so you can sit practically anywhere you like. I chose Taco Bell as my first fast food destination, on a Tuesday morning ten minutes shy of 11:00.

Quality and pricing of food and drink:
Even though the days of a .99 burrito and .69 tacos are long gone (as is giving your order to a live person; screens here, just like Wawa), Taco Bell is still pretty affordable if you order off the under $3 menu. I didn’t and still came in under $10 with a burrito supreme and large drink, which I wouldn’t have gotten if I wasn’t battling a vicious cold and pounding myself with juice. The burrito was fresh, beans weren’t crusty, just the right amount of sour cream. I always find the quality of food is better if you eat in, as is the accuracy of your order, considering the likelihood of you complaining or sending it back if it’s not up to standards as opposed to cursing them out at your own kitchen table.

Are there enough outlets?
No, but I found one and considering the place only had two other parties, it was all mine.

How’s the wifi?
General wifi, unsecured.

Will my muse come out?
Probably. The music is loud, a mix of dance spanning the 70’s (Sister Sledge!) all the way through the 2000’s (Katy Perry) so she might want to dance rather than write. Of course there may be different stations playing at any given moment, so if you can flow with or eve drown out the mood music, you can definitely harness that muse.

How long can I park it?
Until your butt gets numb. They open at 9 and close at midnight (the drive thru stays open until 3am) and honey, no one’s chasing you away. Go ahead and write the next Great American Novel.

Final rating: 4 out of 5 laptops (just because they have no books or fancy coffee drinks)

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 latest of which, 101 Ways to Think Positive, hit bookstores January 7. She lives in Tampa, Florida.