Local restaurants serve up sides of classes, paddleboarding, yoga
Author: Laura ReileyLaura Reiley, Times Food Critic
Tuesday, July 15, 2014 5:50pm
…
Yoga at Love’s Artifacts Bar and Grille, 4914 S MacDill Ave., Tampa; (813) 831-3273

“What goes with fried chicken? Yes, cheese grits and collards are solid answers. But the correct answer in this case is yoga. Leryda Vazquez gets out on the back patio of Love’s Artifacts Bar and Grille at 6 p.m. Tuesdays, unrolls her mat and starts sun-salutatin’. The first hour long class she taught in the lovely tree-canopied space in April drew only four practitioners; recent classes have had nearly 20.

By day she owns an office management company, overseeing the payroll and scheduling for Love’s and other Tampa businesses. She has practiced yoga for the past 14 years, but after being laid off from an office job she had what she calls her “Eat, Pray, Love moment.” She underwent yoga training at Yoga Loft in Ybor City and convinced Love’s Artifacts’ owners that the patio, not used on weeknights, would be perfect for an alfresco class. She provides the mats, blocks, straps and water.

Participants can preorder their happy hour drinks (happy hour ends at 7 p.m.), then rev up the vinyasas, before finishing the evening with trivia night and seriously good barbecued ribs or the oddity that is peanut butter-stuffed japalenos. Vazquez makes the class beginner-friendly, with lots of sun salutations, hip openers and shoulder work, finishing the hour with a guided meditation during savasana (corpse pose). The suggested donation is $5, and the best part is that if you break a sweat you get to go heavy on the buttery mashed potatoes.”

 Reiley, L. (2014, July 16). Local restaurants serve up sides of classes, paddleboarding, yoga.
Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/food/dining/local-restaurants-serve-up-sides-of-classes-paddleboarding-yoga/2188622