I have been following Carly Heitlinger’s The College Prepster for years. She is from the Tampa area and I have seen many pics from her trips down there, including some posts about a spot in Tampa, The Oxford Exchange. My parents live in that area of Florida so when I went to visit this past week, we checked it out! According to my parents, it’s in an older part of Tampa, far from the big shopping malls and airport which are the parts I am most familiar with. It actually is only open til 5:30 which I thought was interesting! Not sure if maybe that area just doesn’t have a nightlife or what?

The exterior of the place is crisp white brick with black accents. The store front really pops among all the others. I love the Spanish terra cotta style roof styles.

When you walk in, there are sunglasses/glasses displayed for sale to the right, and books for sale to the left. This part sort of reminded me of an upscale Urban Outfitters without clothing. They don’t have every book, but its a good collection of books. I loved the white and black floor in this part too!

Continue walking and you will come to a cafe counter with great lounge/work area with chairs and places to sit. There are stairs with fabulous portraits but I didn’t venture upstairs. Continue on and there is a very cool gift shop….think Anthropologie meets Williams & Sonoma? There’s also Aesop skincare in that area too which I believe is a newer addition.

From there to the right is the hostess area for the restaurant. There is a dining room that is nice, but I was pretty excited that we were seated in the other room which has the white brick walls, a fountain, palm trees, and feels a bit more like a courtyard or atrium.

The food is amazing, all made from scratch. I wanted the club but with grilled chicken instead of turkey- done. My dad did the burger, and my mother did the chopped salad. We also got the maple bacon brussel sprouts side, which is amazing. We loved everything! They have an extensive list of teas and coffee drinks as well as fresh squeezed juices and wine. The sandwich I got might be the best sandwich I have ever had- thin sandwich appropriate grilled chicken, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato, garlic aioli all on buttered toasted white bread…just thinking about it, I want another one!

It was a great spot, definitely one that we will continue to visit over the years! Next time I want to go for brunch…. 🙂

Here is the main post from Carly on Oxford Exchange, although really most of her Tampa posts involve pics from trips to the OE!

Oxford Exchange (a must see in Tampa)