The scene: Ratchada is located in the same block as Janis Landing, St. Petersburg's intimate, Bohemian, alternative concert venue. We were a group of six gay guys sitting among punk rockers and young urban professionals in a Thai -Japanese restaurant with everyone carrying on and watching the Green Bay Packers kick the Seattle Seahawks butt in a game that has been described as appearing to have been played in a snow globe (more info: Boston Globe 1/13/08). Another surreal experience for the Mark's List crew.

I kept looking around thinking to myself "Is this the kind of place Gay and Lesbian people would feel comfortable? Should I recommend it?" As the evening progressed several tables were seated that caused my Gaydar to go on high alert. As we were leaving, two guys were seated on the same side of a booth. It appears, at least at Ratchada, that the enlightenment found in South Florida has made its way into the Tampa Bay Area.

Naturally with six people dining we have a lot of food we could talk about. Whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant I find myself looking at the overabundance of options and simply telling the server what I want. This evening it was Steak Teriyaki with snow peas that were on my agenda. Our server replied that option 45 was closest to my request and that she'd have them add snow peas to it. That worked out great. The Phad Thai (a traditional noodle dish) was described as heavenly. We also had a Rainbow roll, a couple of salads with fantastic ginger dressing and some great crab Rangoon as well as steamed dumplings, crab rolls and chicken satay served with peanut sauce. Everything was perfectly prepared and there was nothing left on anyone's plate.

Ratchada also offered a nice selection of European and Asian beers. We were drinking everything from Sapporo to Heineken and Stella Artois.

We arrived about 7 PM and were seated quickly. The service was attentive and very professional, absolutely nothing to complain about. All said, this was a great experience in downtown St Petersburg.