tallahassee
nickname: "The Other Florida"
selling point: "Where else in the Sunshine State can you pretend to be the governor, peruse pirates' plunder, and peer breathlessly at a daring young man on a flying trapeze - all in the same day?" ~ Southern Living magazine
I haven't seen the pirates' plunder or the daring young men, but Tallahassee is my favorite place in Florida even without them. Before it became the state capitol, it was an old town... the Apalachee Indians cultivated the area; "Tallahassee" is a Muskogean word that translates to "old fields" or "old town" (got to love Wikipedia)... yes, but it's got that deep Old South feel, the decay mingling just perfectly with the green, everything lush and green and rich.
Coffee: I liked the All Saints' Cafe (903 Railroad Ave, wireless) pretty well for a college-crowd kinda place; good samosas-- but there's other coffee around; try the Black Dog (229 Lake Ella) as well.
Food: The Krishna buffet / restaurant is at 411 St. Francis, just up the street from All Saint's. For groceries & organic cafe-food, the New Leaf Co-op is in a strip mall (1235 Apalachee Parkway) right next to the occult bookshop. And if you wander into the art park, there's the Renaissance Coffee & Tea place in a caboose there with a lovely garden to sit in.
Nature: The beaches are 75 miles south of here; there's the Apalachicola National Forest 10 miles south, too.
Other Things to Do: Climb live oaks, walk around the art park (see notes below)... Try this calendar for dance classes, art openings, and the like. Here's a directory of locally-owned and independent businesses, if you're interested in Looking at Stuff.
Nearby: If you're in Tally, you're in the most interesting place in the area. Congratulations; your search has ended! You can sit back and enjoy where you are.
field notes: tally / 21 april 2005
...it becomes an ART PARK full of cool stuff. brightly painted buildings, artists running around, a bike repair shop, sculptures, et cetera.
i can't think of any better use for an industrial park...
they have a website, www.railroadsquare.com -- but it's not as artistic as you might hope,
here are some articles about it.
What other vacant spaces are waiting to be filled with color?
The interesting thing about this place was that a cultural crossover was taking place there. They had a caboose restaurant & so I took my tea and toast on a granite table in the garden-- & the rest of the clientele were the kind of women who wear blazers with brooches on them. This space had crossed over from the funky people who make art to the well-off people who consume art. Is this a good thing? should there be a gap between these cultures? I think it is a good thing for the artists, if they want to survive. It is also a good thing for the people, since some of the color and joy must rub off on them. Is there a compromise to be made when you know you have a certain audience-- do you begin directing your work to this audience? I don't know.
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