50s / Old Themed Restaurants (Tampa, Clearwater: Valentine's day, how much, movie theater)

[wsamon]

Are there any 50s / old themed restaurants, diners, drive-ins, etc. anywhere in the vicinity of Largo, Clearwater, Pinellas Park, or mid-north Tampa (roughly airport / Lowry Zoo latitude)?

Here's the situation: my wife's never been to a drive-in movie, so I want to take her to the one in Funlan tonight, and I was thinking it would be cute to make it like a 50s / old school themed high-school date for Valentine's Day by going to a themed restaurant beforehand. I was imagining like a 50's style burger joint with milkshakes or something like that.

The problem is, I can't find any old-school themed restaurants to take her to. Even a chain like Johnny Rockets would be OK, but Citrus Park is too far away. I saw Danny's All American Diner, but since we're coming from Largo, that's a good 15 minutes past the drive in, so will easily add an extra 30 minutes of driving time to an already substantial drive. I was hoping the food portion could break up the 45 minute drive to Funlan. I suppose it may be worth it though.

[KPB]

Nicko's Fine Foods. Nicko's is not far from FunLan drive in.

[TampaPam]

Splitsville Luxury Lanes in Tampa is a cool place for a bowling date. It's newer construction, but with a nostalgic feel.

Danny's All American Diner is a classic in Tampa. Even featured on the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show. Yes, they have milkshakes!

And the Hob Nob Drive In Diner in Sarasota--totally retro! (probably too far)

Then there's always the old Putt-Putt Golf places. Smuggler's Cove is in the Largo area.

There is also a sweet Drive-In movie theater in Ruskin you may want to check out another time.

Be warned at a drive in...either keep your windows closed or douse yourself with bug spray!!!!

Have fun! You're a sweet hubby to do this :-)

[wsamon]

Originally Posted by KPB

Nicko's Fine Foods. Nicko's is not far from FunLan drive in.

Originally Posted by TampaPam

Splitsville Luxury Lanes in Tampa is a cool place for a bowling date. It's newer construction, but with a nostalgic feel.

Danny's All American Diner is a classic in Tampa. Even featured on the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show. Yes, they have milkshakes!

And the Hob Nob Drive In Diner in Sarasota--totally retro! (probably too far)

Then there's always the old Putt-Putt Golf places. Smuggler's Cove is in the Largo area.

There is also a sweet Drive-In movie theater in Ruskin you may want to check out another time.

Be warned at a drive in...either keep your windows closed or douse yourself with bug spray!!!!

Have fun! You're a sweet hubby to do this :-)

Thank you both for the suggestions!

I checked out Nicko's. Right now I'm debating between that and Danny's, or potentially even Sonic since she's never been there either and it fits the theme well. I just don't really like the idea of doing fast food for tonight's date night.

Splitsville sounds fun, but I don't think we'd have time to do that and the drive-in. Plus bowling is probably too difficult for my wife right now since she's 37 weeks pregnant. I will definitely keep it in mind for the future though!

Danny's seems like a great choice, other than the distance. She even enjoyed watching DD&D a few times and wanted to know if there were places in the area to check out. Honestly, I'm a little confused on the distance though. Google says that both Danny's and Funlan are 40 minutes from us using essentially the same route, but then Danny's is 15 minutes east of the drive-in, so that's a bit confusing. I suppose one or two more exits on the highway makes a big difference, but then why wouldn't we use the highway to get from Danny's to Funlan too if it saves that much time?

Hob Nob is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, but going to Sarasota just for dinner seems a bit much, and I think it would make it difficult to get to the movie in time.

We've already done the putt-putt a bunch of times since there's one about 12 minutes from our house. We love feeding the gators and take almost everyone there on their first trip to visit us.

I bet the Ruskin one has more of the old school drive in experience that I'd like, but the movies don't work as well for us tonight. Neither of us are really into the lego movies and I'm unsure about the Hidden Figures one, though it does sound like a good movie. John Wick 2 at Funlan works for both of us and she wants to see 50 Shades too, so I'll probably cave for V-Day and watch that.

[TampaPam]

Let us know how the date went! And congrats on the "coming attraction"! LOL!

[roadtrip75]

What about Steak 'n Shake? There is one in Largo across the street from the Target, and a few more nearby.

[wsamon]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

What about Steak 'n Shake? There is one in Largo across the street from the Target, and a few more nearby.

A little too fast foody. If I was going that route I'd definitely do Sonic which has the feel down a little better.

Originally Posted by TampaPam

Let us know how the date went! And congrats on the "coming attraction"! LOL!

The date went... interestingly lol. Ultimately, she enjoyed it and thought it was really sweet.

Unfortunately, we had a meet-and-greet with a pediatrician for the new baby earlier in the day that was supposed to take 15 minutes and ended up taking about 90. This threw off the timing of everything and caused some problems.

A really small impact was that I had hope to find a varsity jacket at a thrift store to add to the feel but only had time to go to one place and they didn't have anything. The bigger issue is that the date was meant to start at 3pm and ended up starting at 4:30. My initial plan was to head over to Tampa around 3 to get across the bridge then spend a little time hanging out at a park eating some chocolate and giving her a small present to break up all the sitting, then head over to Danny's, getting there by 5:30 or so, then the drive-in around 6:30.

With starting so late, I had to cut out the park altogether and deal with rush-hour traffic. After giving her the card with a little poem about taking her on a date from the past or some such, the drive started out as I had hoped: fun with anticipation while listening to an upbeat 50's playlist. That lasted for about the first 40-50 minutes, which is how long the drive was supposed to be if we had left at 3 or 3:30 as I wanted. Unfortunately, the drive itself turned into a grueling, nearly 2 hour trip due to the traffic. The second playlist I found wasn't nearly as enjoyable, and wife was in pain and a somewhat bad mood by the time we got to Danny's (she did a good job of holding it together though).

I hadn't done enough research on Danny's and didn't realize it was more of a roadside shack than the sit-down diner we were looking for at the end of such a drive, so that was a little disappointing initially and the mood stayed a bit low, but it did help out timing wise as we just got our food to go. As it turns out, the food itself was good, and the milkshake helped lift her spirits initially.

She loved the drive-in theater, which ultimately saved the day even though we were only able to stay for John Wick because she physically couldn't take being in the car any longer due to the pregnancy. She already started making plans to go back after our second son is born, and commented about how much better it is than a regular theater if we have to bring the kids. I don't think we're going to see too many of the early movies during weekdays though. That drive in rush hour is just killer.

[MAniacTHW]

Pops & Sons located directly across the street from Raymond James Stadium.