re: Game 4 - Florida - 9/26 - 2:30pm ABC

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Just want something local.

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Thanks for being patient with me getting back to you. I had to give it some thought because I wanted to give a few options, but not too many, and try to give a variety of types of places.

I'm going to go into some detail, so if you just want a tl;dr,
my 3 main recommendations are:

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a. Embers
b. Satchel's
c. Public & General

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I'm going to recommend a few popular places/local staples that I think are fine/ok but would be remiss to omit (which I'll put in BOLD), and a few that I personally like that I think are good/better but may not be as popular (which I'll underline.

Leonardo's Pizza of Millhopper is the last remaining location of a local Gainesville Pizza chain, and has been a Gainesville institution for 50 years. It is Chicago/Deep-dish style, which I find to be okay but I prefer thin crust pizza instead.

https://leonardosmillhopper.com/

I prefer Satchels. It has thin slice and personal pan pizza. It is also considered a local institution by many, something unique in Gainesville. It's open later too if you are a late dinner eater (I think Leonardo's closes at around 8pm so that would have to be an early dinner). They have beer/wine if you like to have a few drinks and is a fun place overall.

https://satchelspizza.com/

Dragonfly is a really popular sushi place in town. It is good, great atmosphere and good food, but pricey.

https://www.dragonflyrestaurants.com/gainesville-florida/

I personally prefer Arashi Yama Food is great, less pricey.
https://arashiyamagainesville.com/

It's also easier to find free parking as Dragofly is in downtown Gainesville, where parking can be a bitch especially on a Friday night. But its a cute downtown (some riff raff does hang out at some of the parks, but overall safe and quaint) and that might be worth checking out if you haven't been before. And if you're looking for a "night out", Dragonfly would probably be more conducive for that.

Another downtown Gainesville staple, is The TOP. It's a modern american style restaurant.
https://www.thetophub.com/

It was great when I last went, but haven't been in a really long time. Some people who have been there recetntly claim it's lost its fastball a bit. That does happen a lot to popular restaurants over time, but people also like to be contrarians and hate on popular places sometimes. So take that FWIW, it still is likely pretty good and as I said was great years ago, but I did want to mention that.

For Steakhouses, I have two recommendations.

The main one, the most popular one that I also prefer, is Embers.
https://embersofflorida.com/

It's a good steakhouse, local. That's all that really needs to be said. The only bad thing I have to say about it was that Hal Lewis, one of the cringiest Disney Gators of all time literally slobbed on Billy Gaypier's nob there.



Thankfully Hal quit his involvement with Gator football after people on Twitter were mean to him. But Embers is a popular place for good reason.

With that said, Embers is very popular. And with you being there on a Friday night, during football season before a top 25 showdown with a top 5 opponent coming into town, and you have a hard time getting a table at Embers, Mark's is another solid option for steakhouses.
https://marksprimesteakhouse.com/

It's a solid steakhouse too. Not as "local" as Embers, they have a sister location in Ocala, but a respectable backup option if Embers is a tough table to get. It’s also in downtown Gainesville if you want to check out that area.

For sports bars/tavern food, there are two really popular places.

I've only gone to Spurriers once, for a late lunch after a basketball game, and had the burger there. It was fine. I haven't had the steaks or entrees, so I can't say what they are like, but the burger was decent.
https://spurriers.com/

I get the sense that the food there is ok but overpriced. It does have a nice environment, and a lot of Spurrier memorabilia and a mini-museum of sort. That might be cool to see as you are a college football fan. And the Ol Ball Coach is there frequently, so you might get a chance to meet him or see him there. But overall, my impression is it's okay food but prices are too high for the quality.

Public & General has similar fare but is better food and less expensive.
https://publicandgeneralgvfl.com/

For example a cheese burger at Public & General is $13, while Spurriers charges $21 for their burger. I think spurriers does offer more variety of high end items like steaks and such, but if you really want something like that just go to embers or marks instead.

Spurriers might also be a shitshow the night before the game as I imagine a lot of people will be going there.

So those are my layout of places I'm personally familiar with, here's two places I haven't been to yet but have heard a lot about:

The Dunbar is getting A LOT of hype. It's an old hotel that reopened as a restaurant early this year. Seems like fine dining mostly, but a lot of people swear it's good. Apparently hard to get a table on weekend nights though.
https://www.thedunbargnv.com/

Kushi & Co is a new Japanese yakatori/skewer restaurant. It sounds interesting and has a rep for being good.
https://www.eatkushico.com/

Both Dunbar and Kushi are in downtown (Dunbar is more close to it really, but close enough ) so if you want to check that part of town out, there's that. If you check either out, would love to hear your thoughts.

Anyway, that should give you more than enough of a look at some local spots where you can get good, or at worst, a decent meal.

And again, Embers, Satchels, Public & General would be my main recommendations.

I'd love to hear where you end up and how it goes.

Enjoy Hogtown and the Game!

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theCAW

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Appreciate the info!

I bumped into Dex in the hotel lobby the night after the ‘09 Cotton Bowl and ended up buying him a pizza. Don’t tell the NCAA or they’ll vacate the season.

Lube up brother for some exemplary cooperation

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Alright wtf does Vegas know? Rebs +3.5

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What is Lacy’s status? I haven’t heard much since he left the game last week.

Lacy is listed as questionable for game. We have 6 players that are listed as out and 4 that are questionable.

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our run defense is bad

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I'm not sure about that. We can stack the box and limit Baugh and force them to pass. The only thing that has given us trouble on the ground has been mobile quarterbacks scrambling on passing downs. And Philo is not much of a threat to do that.

If Florida beats us it will be on play action passes down the field.

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Alright wtf does Vegas know? Rebs +3.5

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Vegas is just in it for the money. I wish people wouldn't put so much weight on the game lines. But these are the reasons why they set the line where it is:

- National folks still discount Pete as HC
- Betting on a hangover performance from Ole Miss
- Home field advantage for Florida
- Lacy injured

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Wasn’t the line initially -1.5 but quickly jumped to -3.5?

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that is what happened