On a balmy, May night about four years ago, I found myself back in my old Tampa neighborhood of Hyde Park. I had lived maybe four blocks from the Tiny Tap Tavern when I was in my early twenties in the late 1990’s while I attended the University of South Florida, finishing my degree after a year-long hiatus. I had spent many nights and many quarters at the Tiny Tap, loading up the jukebox and learning to shoot pool when I wasn’t attending class, studying, tearing it up at night in the historic Ybor City district, or working my early morning job as a greenskeeper at a local golf course.
La Teresita Restaurant. Monday, July 19, 2010.
Detractors of social media will tell you that participation in Facebook or other similar sites is a perfectly useless way to waste time with mere acquaintances and sometimes strangers, but for me, it has been mostly a really positive experience. It has facilitated many in-person gatherings, much like the one on the evening I spotted and clicked a few frames of our featured MG.
I’m a Michigander through-and-through, but I thoroughly enjoyed living in Tampa, spending almost seven years there. It was in this beautiful, multicultural, magical city that I began to find my way and my own voice as an adult. It was on this night in May of 2013 that I had gathered a group of about ten close friends for a meal at my favorite, local restaurant – La Teresita Restaurant, pictured above and below – and for beers at the Tiny Tap in Hyde Park, afterward.
La Teresita Restaurant. Monday, July 19, 2010.
My exposure to Tampa’s Cuban-American population, influence and legacy was one of my favorite things about living in the Bay area. I discovered some of the best Latin American restaurants and delicious meals I have ever experienced soon after arriving there. To this day, just looking at a picture of my favorite feast – pollo salteado con arroz amarillo y papas fritas – can make my mouth water (as it is right now). La Teresita, open since 1973 in a beautiful, Spanish architecture-style building, was already legendary among my fellow students, with its cafeteria being open twenty-four-seven and serving delicious Cuban and other Latin American cuisine in hearty portions for really inexpensive prices. I liked that our featured car was the color of yellow rice.
Getting back to our yellow convertible spotted outside the Tiny Tap that night, 1974 was the last year for the Midget before the rubber baby buggy bumpers were applied (which were actually made of hard plastic, not rubber). Granted, the ’74 had rubber “cow-catchers” front and rear to augment its chrome bumpers, but I feel they didn’t completely compromise the perky, cute overall look of this diminutive roadster. In my opinion, the larger MGB wore its soft, black snout that arrived with the ’75s much more gracefully than the Midget – or shall I say, less awkwardly. I also find the full, rear wheel arches of the 1972 – ’74 Midgets decidedly more attractive than the squared-off ones on the models that came before and after.
The ’74 Midgets were powered by a 65 hp (net) 1275 cc engine making 72 lb.-ft. of torque at 5,000 rpm. That may not sound like a lot, but one must also consider our featured car weighed in the neighborhood of only around 1,600 pounds at the curb. With its standard four-speed, zero-to-sixty miles per hour came in about 13.5 seconds, which was okay for the performance-strangled Seventies. It probably felt a lot faster than that at speed, as tiny and low as it was. A little car like this was all about fun, not out-and-out speed, and I can imagine its original owner taking it for joyrides around the Tampa Bay area, including on scenic, mansion-lined Bayshore Drive between Ballast Point and downtown.
Inside the Tiny Tap, the site of many fun nights of my 20’s.
This example was for sale, and while I don’t remember the exact asking price, I seem to remember a figure of (or close to) $4,000 on the sign behind the windshield. It distressed me to see its bodywork fraying around the edges with rust that could become a serious problem if not attended to right away. This little, classic drop-top seemed to be yet another example of a once-garaged beauty that had only recently been regularly exposed to the elements. It seemed a shame.
As for this particular night when I saw this tiny, yellow car in front of my old, little, yellow bar, it reminded me of how many of my dreams for the future still seemed to remain there in Tampa’s tropical, urban paradise. I had always hoped I would find a post-college job that would enable me to live there in moneyed Hyde Park in a place of my own, without roommates, that wasn’t a dump. (The old house I shared with four other housemates back then was torn down about eight years ago.) This area has changed drastically over the past twenty years since I lived there, with huge, “lifestyle” residential and retail complexes having been constructed since I left, seemingly catering to young professionals.
Just for this one night, though, four years ago, I almost felt the spirit of my twenty-two year old self sitting next to me at the Tiny Tap, at a crooked table with a bent coaster propping up one of its legs to keep it from wobbling on the broken linoleum. Ray Charles’ “One Mint Julep” blared from jukebox as the strangely comforting aroma of stale, spilled beer, dish disinfectant and baked-in cigarette smoke wafted through the air.
Visiting and laughing with my old friends, I took comfort in the realization that despite the acquisition of a few of life’s battle scars that many of us had by that point, none of us had really changed all that much. Dreaming of a moonlit cruise up Bayshore Drive, I envisioned handing the keys to my designated driver to what was now my MG sitting outside, as we planned the longest, top-down driving route in the balmy bay breeze to get a late-night Cuban sandwich at La Teresita.
Hyde Park, Tampa, Florida.
Friday, May 17, 2013, unless otherwise indicated.
Related reading from:
- Paul Niedermeyer: Curbside Classic: 1972 MG Midget MkIII – Small Pleasures; and
- Roger Carr: Curbside Classic: 1976 MG Midget: Always Simple, And Surprisingly Durable.
A great story to go with an interesting car. I had never noticed that the full rear wheel openings were such a temporary thing. My first experience with a stick shift was in one of these, my cousins 69 model, also yellow.
The CC effect is strong. I saw one of these for sale on my street last weekend., one of the later ones with the ungainly bumpers. I had forgotten how much smaller one of these is than a Miata.
JP
If it had an ugly bumper , it was prob an mgb. There is nothing ugly about the mg midget, mine is a mark lV ’73. (The shortest made so far)Currently being painted to come a near perfect recovery, albeit cosmetic so far, happy there is NO bondo. Mechanically, so far so good.
Joseph never seems to run out of great cars and great writing! BTW, Tiny Tap looks like an awesome dive bar.
Thanks, Scott… and the Tiny Tap is about an awesome as dive bars get. With as much new construction that’s happening in that area these days, I’d like to think The Tap will just stand its ground on its increasingly more valuable real estate. I believe it was originally an service station!
Unbelievable. We were both orbiting the Tiny Tap in the late-nineties, seeking our voice and way. Well said, small world. Thank you.
Incidentally, there was a regular patron (circa 2001) who drove an Infiniti M30 convertible. Another curbside droptop in the Tiny Tap lot I’d forgotten about until now.
Awesome. I’ll bet we were probably also at Jim Strickland’s Olde Meeting House for food afterward, at the same time. I’m sad that place is gone, but I love that The Tap is mostly unchanged from back then. Such a small world.
That Infiniti M30 convertible would have been the fanciest thing within a 500′ radius of The Tap!
I live just 45 minutes south in Sarasota, and yes, Tampa/Ybor City is a really cool place to spend time and experience Latin Culture. For my wife and I, one of our favorite places is Restaurante Chifa-Gino. It’s one of the only authentic Peruvian chifas I’ve found. Best Peruvian-Chinese food this side of the equator.
The area it’s located in is also one of the best places I’ve found for car-seeing. CC’s abound since there’s a lot of mom and pop used car lots, stores, and ethnic neighborhoods within the vicinity. The last time I was there, I was looking at a Pontiac T1000 (remember those?!) for sale in an empty lot across the street. Heaven.
Volvoguy, thanks for the recommendation! The next time I’m back in the Bay area, I need to check out that restaurant. I’m always up for new-to-me cuisines.
As far as Sarasota, I was at the Ringling Museum about three years ago, and went to Anna Maria Island… some of the nicest sand around ever. That part of Florida really has a lot to offer.
As for the Pontiac T1000 (almost mythical!), I spotted one at the end of summer 2015 that I wrote up here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/front-lawn-classic-1983-pontiac-t1000-no-need-to-shove-it/ . It was the first one I had seen in a long while.
Nice write up on the T1000 and a good story. I’ve learned to appreciate those little econoboxes for what they were, especially now that there’s no modern equivalent. Had I been in the market for an interesting project I might have considered the one I saw as it was in nice shape, but I thought the guy wanted too much for it–I think around $4k. That’s Z3 money.
Looks like I missed you by about a day at the Ringling museum–Mondays are always free so I sometimes take the kids.
I’ve lived here for 35 years and am always finding new places. Anna Maria is great and we’ve found some good fishing spots around there. Our next spot to check out is Egmont Key, just north of Anna Maria (only accessible by boat). Supposedly some of the most pristine beaches around and there’s an old abandoned fort and “ghost town” there that I hear is very cool.
…or you can go northwest of Tampa a bit to Tarpon Springs for some pretty awesome Greek culture and food.
Great story, and completely agree about those rear wheel arches!
Thanks, Ed! I’ve been to Tarpon Springs (one of my college buddies was from there) for live music. It was awesome. Of course, our group didn’t eat out because nothing could compare to his (Greek American) mom’s cooking. 🙂
Tarpon Springs really is a neat little place, well worth checking out.
Well, this hits a personal note. During my college years I actually owned 2 Midgets. One was a ’75, in white over tan, with the rubber bumpers, squared off wheel openings and the single carb 1500 engine from the Spitfire. It was indeed a perky little car and was a lot of fun, but not nearly as much fun as it sister, the ’74 model. That one I had restored in its original bright chartreuse color over a black interior. The ’74’s had the dual carbed 1275 engine, and were a lot more fun to drive,with great pickup. Of course due to the “legendary” British Leyland build quality and reliability it was actually necessary to have a spare, as on any given day only one of these little darlings might be running 100%. I had some fantastic times in those cars, and actually held onto the ’74 into may late 20’s, when a lack of storage forced me to sell it.
As a thematic side note, do to the timing of my ownership my Midgets spent a good deal of time traveling to and from, and parked in front of many dive bars just like the Tiny Tap. When it came time to pick up package goods for the inevitable after event, a standard case of bottled beer had to be broken down into 4 individual six packs, as the spare tire bolted to the middle of the trunk floor in the Midget prevented the lid from closing if a whole case was left intact in the trunk. We’d have to discard the outer package box and tuck a six pack into each corner of the trunk in order to adhere to laws preventing alcoholic beverages in the passenger compartment.
I’ve got to admit that when I saw the model year on the placard on the dashboard showing “1974”, I did a double take… I had always just assumed that the black, plastic bumpers (which I had assumed were rubber) arrived *for* ’74, not afterward.
(I loved reading about the packaging required to stock your car for parties.)
” I had always just assumed that the black, plastic bumpers (which I had assumed were rubber) arrived *for* ’74, not afterward.”
I had assumed the same thing.
the midgets are great handling cars. it’s a car you can drive slow and feel like you’re going fast. it’s caveat is tiny cockpit. if you’re over 6.1 it’s cramped.
I drove one once, a ’72. My brother and I had driven from Cleveland to Elmira to pick it up (it was a gift for his at-the-time GF). Driving it was… interesting. At a leggy 6’3″ I basically wore it as opposed to sat in it…
There could be a plus to the car feeling faster than it is… it might help avoid the temptation to speed! Perhaps?
(Roger, that ride would have been fun. In your shoes, I probably would have tried to avoid being around semis on the expressway if at all possible, to avoid getting blown around.)
I’d put it the other way around: you drive the car fast but you’re still going slow.
Nice write-up. My first car was a 1970 MG Midget. British Racing Green trimmed in Iowa rust. Not fast, but it felt like it could take any corner in town at about 50 (obviously not, but again it sure felt like it). Great fun. It was cheap and easy on gas, but ultimately just too small so it was traded for a Ford Torino. A lot of good times and good memories with that MG though.
MEngineer, you hit the nail on the head for why one of these would appeal to me… almost like a street-legal go-kart with almost the same cornering ability.
Due to the lack of cargo and passenger carrying ability, this would have been the type of car I wouldn’t have been able to consider until after college – by which time my financial priorities would have changed where I didn’t want fun, weekend car so much as a mortgage payment. In a perfect world, I could have had both. 🙂
Ah, Tampa, the epicenter of my life from my early 20s onward. South Tampa is it’s own world, and SOHO, while great, is not the same as it was in the 80s, or 90s. Grit and charm seem to be replaced with yuppie monuments to their own grandiosity. However, the Tiny Tap lived on, and over in west Tampa, La Teresita still serves food and fun to all. And as stated by others, cars seem to live on forever here, too. I see classics being driven by their proud owners, beat down former beauties being driven by what are presumed to be “Meth”odists or Pill Billies, and anything in between. I looked at a similar, albeit rubbernosed version, of this car a few years back. I was surprised that my 6″2” frame fit in the car, as there is a lot of unexpected leg room. However, the price was too much for the car, and I ended up with a Miata instead. It is amazing how a car often brings us back to a time and a place, and it is a beautiful thing that it does. Great write up, thanks!
Awesome – thanks, JFrank. I’m 6’0″ tall (how did you do it??), and the thing that struck me about this MG Midget was just how *tiny* it was.
To JPCavanaugh’s point above, it is much smaller than a Miata.
I do miss the old Hyde Park, but it’s cool that certain parts still remain. I will never get tired of driving (or walking) on Bayshore Drive.
The MG has a deep footwell, as the engine is so small and narrow that there is room for your legs forward of the steering wheel. You do end up wearing the car, but that is how most small roadsters work. I do miss living in South Tampa. I am down in Ellenton now, an hour south, but still north of Sarasota, and I spend most of my weekends up in Tampa. All the old haunts end up changing, as is expected, and people come and go, but some old favorites remain. I will say that if you like La Teresita, go up Boliche boulevard by a couple of blocks and try the Arco Iris next time you visit. Muy excellente, but no counter service.
My uncle would look at cars like the Midget and ask, “Do you get in it or on it?” Nice story.
Wow. Small world and a great writup! I’m from the St. Pete-Clearwater side of the bay and also went to USF at the Tampa Campus. One of my best friends there was of Cuban descent, but I’ve never heard of La Teresita. I will be back there in 2 weeks to visit my parents and grandparents so I will make a point go check it out!
My dad used to drive me across the Howard Franklyn Bridge in his 1979 MGB almost weekly when I was a toddler. For some reason that darn passenger door kept flying open on the bridge when I would play with the door handle. At least I was buckled in. That car developed a crack in the cylinder head in 1989. He parked it in my grandparents garage until 2014 when he shipped it to me. I rebuilt the engine and now drive it all over my current city of Las Vegas.
Brett, you really should check out La Teresita – on Columbus near S. Dale Mabry, not far from the Raymond James stadium. (I’m eating my lunch right now and wishing it was a pressed, toasted Cuban sandwich with extra pickles!…)
Regarding your dad’s car crossing the bridge, that’s terrifying! LOL People *do not play* when driving on that bridge. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to see a picture of your car… 🙂
Small correction, it is off North Dale Mabry, not south. Kennedy Blvd is the divider for north and south. It is closer to Mac Dill Ave than to Dale Mabry. Also try the Devil Crab. They are local specialties and go really well with the Cuban sandwich, pressed. Extra hot sauce on my Devil Crab, please!
Right you are! It’s been a minute.
The Devil Crab sounds delicious! I’ve always loved spicy food, and moving to the southwest has only increased my heat tolerance. Thank you both for the suggestions.
My MG is definitely a work in progress, but here it is. The hard top is not original. I found it on Craig’s List.
Very nice car, Brett! Great color combo, and I like the blacked-out wheels. I can totally imagine driving this car down The Strip, or out to the dam. Thanks for sharing this.
An old housemate of mine had an earlier B in that colour, or at least it was originally, it was a bit rough. He had a big cam, extractor and loud exhaust – made for a good alarm clock when he left for work at 6am.
Great story. I had an odd adolescent crush on the Midget back when most of my classmates wanted Firebirds or Corvettes. Never got to own or even drive one, which might’ve been a good thing from a dream-meets-reality standpoint, but maybe one of these days….
…and I should also say that I loved the food picture. Now I’m starving!
I have fond memories of learning to drive in the snow in a Midget (my cousin Fred’s car) while in Utah December of ’68. Good times!
The introduction in the U.S. of the Fiat X1/9 in 1974 made the Midget seem prehistoric in comparison.
Holy smokes, the Tiny Tap, one of my brother’s favorite Tampa haunts. He told me how the proprietress once sought to raise the price of a game of 8-ball from 25 to 50 cents; the clientele went on strike and refused to play pool until the fee was reduced to its previous 25 cent rate. And it was. The linoleum around the tables was worn through to the concrete. And the jukebox offerings were sublime, to include his own Tampa punk band.
Patrick, this is awesome. The proprietess at the time I lived there, K, was awesome. She did not play. You had to get your own cold pitcher out of the cooler and bring it up to the bar. And that jukebox. It led to an expansion of my own, personal CD collection, for sure. On any given night, such a range of stuff… and it all blended together seamlessly as if from a great soundtrack. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks, everyone, for reading my musings. Writing this one brought back a flood of memories. I may be listening to some 90’s alternative and classic rock & roll for part of the weekend.
As for the pictured pollo salteado meal at La Teresita, I’d pay four times the price on the menu just to have that for lunch today. I’ve found some great Cuban food here in Chicago, but this is still my all-time favorite.
Enjoy your weekend and be safe!
Now I’m hungry!