She found the place on one of Yahoo!’s map related websites that gives you information about places around you.  The reviews of it were very high, so what could go wrong?

It was about 12:30 and we headed out the back door of the building.  The address was on the street behind us and the number was 104.  Since our building was 100, we had to be nearly on top of it.  Now, if you’ve ever been to downtown Tampa there will be something obvious about all the buildings – THEY DON’T LIKE TO PUT NUMBERS ON THEM!  Okay, that wasn’t a problem.  We headed up one way and found lots of little businesses – copy places, museum, banks, etc. etc. but no restaurant.  We jumped across the street, figuring it was there and headed back towards the building – still nothing.  Made me wonder where the heck this place was.  We must’ve passed it somewhere.  So, we crossed the street again and began our second lap.  There wasn’t any restaurant in the area.  I suggested that she get her phone out and call them to ask where they were.  There were two problems with this.  First off, she didn’t have the number, but we could call information for it.  Secondly, she didn’t have the phone, so the first problem didn’t even matter.  There was a hotel there, so, if anyone would know, they would inside.  She asked them where it was and they had no idea.  Now I wanted to know where the hell this place was!  So, we did what any normal person would do – we began our third lap around the street!

Now, we were looking for this restaurant…. in Florida…. in the summer, where the temps are in the 80s and the humidity was in the 90s, and we were wearing dress shoes.  So, the comfort level was non existant and the deordorant was starting to wear thin. 

About half way through this lap we decided to head back to work and call them up to see where they are.  I was almost certain that we walked by the place and didn’t even notice it.  By this time, my stomach was making some strange noises that the only thing I could think about was lunch!  NOW WHERE THE F*** IS THIS DAMN PLACE?  THEY BETTER HAS SOME GREAT FOOD THERE!

We got back in the office – nearly an hour after we left for lunch, with moisture in places I dare not discuss.  My friend has to log back into her computer and try to find the website to get the number.  Great, let’s add more time until we get to eat!  She pulled up the page, grabbed the phone and dialed the number.

“The number you have dialed has been disconnected.  If you need assistance please dial the operator.”

WHAT?  You have to be kidding me, we were looking for a place the doesn’t exist!!!

So, now the big question is where should we go to eat?  We were both disgusted with the outcome of the first choice so we decided to walk around downtown and see if anything catches out fancy.  We wanted something different and not go to any of the “old standbys.”  After another 10 minutes of walking nothing jumped out to us then I remembered a place called “The Office” that sound some great hamburgers.  She thought it was a great idea so we headed over there.  There was only one problem with this suggestion – they had gone out of business. 

Looks like we were even – she picked a non-existant place and I picked one that was out of business.

So we headed back to work and kept our eye out for something interesting.  Heck, by this time, we would have been happy with a day-old donut from Krispy Kreme.  So, as we got close to our building we decided to go to the one place we didn’t want to go to in the first place – the hotel restaurant located RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE BUILDING!

So, we spent over AN HOUR of walking aimlessly through downtown Tampa just to go to a place that’s less than 2 minutes from our building!

Since work was paying for this – when we sat down and started looking at our menus I said, “I’m having dessert dammit! Not wasting that much time to go and eat lunch and not having desert!”

So after over an hour of trying to get to lunch, a $30+ bill, and some medicocre food – I was content.

The lesson of this story was that she was not allowed to pick a place to go to eat at!