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Revolving Restaurants Hold their OwnTampa’s has New Menus And Fabulous Gulf Sunsets!By Marty Martindale
View it all from Tampa Bay’s revolving rooftop. Catch the CK Express, an elevator off the shopping level of Tampa International Airport, and it will sweep you up to the tenth floor of Tampa Marriott’s Airport, CK’s, a destination dinner restaurant. Peaceful sunsets, a sophisticated bar, soft piano jazz by Derrick Williams provides soft, mood-setting jazz and imaginative cuisine await. Executive Chef Henry Nagel expands, “CK’s is a place where guests come for exceptional cuisine, relaxing ambience with an incredible view.” Few are disappointed. Chef Nagel earned multiple awards for his work at Walt Disney World restaurants and the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square. He concentrates on natural flavor with little disguise. Sous Chef Gabe Duffy assists while rapidly gaining recognition for his tantalizing Amuses, pre-starter teasers. Visit CK'S website for a look at their menu, wine list and sunset times. Recent recognition went to the room for being the best romantic restaurant in Tampa Bay as guests sipped on orange cosmopolitans and melon martinis, later savoring Pan Roasted Range Chicken and Chipotle Maple-Glazed T-Bone Port Chops. CK’s revolves at n barely detectable half-mile an hour giving guests spectacular vistas of the bay, downtown Tampa, and the departure and landing strips, which are illuminated in blue at night. As the restaurant revolves, it passes the lighted open kitchen where chefs carefully prepare selections The room was established and named in 1974 with decor inspired by the World War I aviator flying ace, Duerson C. Knight, who with his later fame became known as “CK’s, and for him the rooftop restaurant is named. Revolving roof-top restaurants began as an architectural novelty at the 1962 World's Fair. The concept caught with Seattle’s Space Needle and others which became symbols of optimism and progress in post-World War II America. In the last few years their number has dwindled in the United States. Some have simply stopped rotating; others have been refurbished into conference centers. The Stratosphere in Las Vegas is one of the few new ones. In the rest of the world, the revolving restaurant is considered as a sign of progress and an emblem of prosperity from Jakarta to Cairo.
CK'S © Marty Martindale, 2005, Largo FL |
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TM
In
recent years, Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Florida have become known as
“Tampa Bay.” Tampa, itself, is the historic, urban hub of Tampa Bay, where Teddy
Roosevelt and his Rough Riders launched themselves to fight the Spanish American
War. Three long bridges head west to Pinellas county, St. Petersburg, Clearwater
and the Gulf of Mexico. Tampa’s recent growth experiences have been the new
Trump Towers Tampa, hockey’s Stanley Cup, the New York Yankees’ winter training
activity and a busy cruise port with newer ships plying her channels. She’s a
happenin’ place!