At 18th Annual NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem, Coast Packing’s ProCharger Pro Mod Camaro to Blaze Through Bradenton -- and Light Up Lard & Tallow Hot Spots in Sarasota, Tampa-St. Pete
Kicking off the racing season at the 18th Annual NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem, Coast Packing Company CEO Eric R. “Goose” Gustafson will take his ’69 ProCharger Pro Mod Camaro to the Gulf Coast — and give roaring shout-outs to leading restaurant kitchens in the process.
The first event of the year, the NMCA Muscle Car Nationals Series rolls through Bradenton Motorsports Park in Floridawith the NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem presented by Holbrook Racing Engines. The event will feature one of the season’s largest turnouts, with racers showing up to compete in each of the NMCA’s eleven classes, plus a large contingent of True Street, Modern Hemi, LS/LT, and bracket racers. Last month, Gustafson unleashed the centrifugal supercharged Pro Charger-equipped Camaro’s 3,500 horses at the Bradenton Motorsports Park during the first tune-up event for Pro Boost class racers.
Coast, the leading supplier of animal fat shortenings in the Western U.S and the second largest in the nation, brings to Bradenton online gastronomic #FatMap941, trumpeting 26 stellar spots in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota area ().
View #TastetheDifference – Bradenton Edition in a full screen map
In Sarasota, check out Boca’s fried green tomatoes topped with pimento cheese and bacon jam. Ophelia’s on the Bay, also in Sarasota, pairs various seafood dishes with bacon jam, while The Fountain Kitchen & Wine Bar serves up brunch potatoes made with bacon fat. When in Sarasota, don’t miss The Overton’s thin cut, beef tallow fries.
Over in St. Petersburg, Burger Monger’s beef tallow fries and onion rings are a Tampa Bay staple. In that same vein (or vat), The Frog Pond in St. Pete serves up home fries cooked in bacon fat. Tampa’s Datz offers bacon-infused breakfast potatoes and bacon-infused brussel sprouts. Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café in Tampa plates its wino burger with bacon jam, and pork chops with apple bacon jam. Also in town, check out, Faedo Family Bakery, home to traditional Cuban bread made with lard, and Goody Goody Burgers, where the fries are made with lard. La La’s Sangria Bar features a “Pup-Menu” where your four-legged friend can enjoy Bronx Peanut Butter Flatbread topped with bacon fat and a special bacon ice cream for canines.
Tampa’s Portillo’s Hot Dogs sells fries made with beef tallow and vegetable oil, while The Boozy Pig opts for beef tallow fries. In Ybor City, La Segunda Bakery is known as “the Home of Cuban Bread,” made, of course, with lard. In Bradenton, you’ll find Mojos Cuban rice cooked in bacon fat, while in Siesta Key, Summer House Steak & Seafood is known for its beef fat fries.
“Florida’s Hillsborough County is home to some of the Gulf Coast’s most memorable cooking, and we’re looking forward to the season opening welcome from an energetic crowd of hungry race fans,” Gustafson said. “In terms of freshness, flavor and texture, foods prepared with lard and beef tallow are natural standouts, which is why we’re so delighted when consumers can taste for themselves, as they can in and around Tampa-St. Pete. As we will at each stop during the 2020 racing season, we’re showing that consumers don’t need to go far to find places that pay tribute to authentic, traditional cuisine.”