Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers October Meet-up at PDQ St. Petersburg
Yesterday after my fun Chevy Fit4Life Tour – Moms2Be Edition adventure I went home and relaxed for a few minutes, changed clothes, then headed out for Sunday fun day, part two. It was time for the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers’ October Meet-up.
I’ve been hanging out with my friends at PDQ Fresh Tenders quite a bit lately, like when they treated me to lunch at their South Tampa PDQ location, and when the St. Pete PDQ location recently had their grand opening training days.
When they offered to host the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers meet up this month I was psyched…a chance to try another PDQ milkshake flavor! I’m definitely a regular at PDQ now.
Five of my blogger buddies joined me and we sat outside in the beautiful Florida fall weather. I love the patio at PDQ.
(Left to right: Tori from In Love and Peanut Butter, Debbie from Discovering Debbie, Beka from Rebecca Roams, me, Jackie from Pardon Our Sawdust, and Kat from Sneakers & Fingerpaints)
PDQ treated us to a meal, but I just opted for a small Heath milkshake since I had already eaten lunch with the GM crew.
It was fantastic. Good thing they have fat straws for their milkshakes, because there were plenty of Heath bar chunks in there. I’m not one of those girls who thoughtfully stops at half way through an indulgence. Yay for them and their lack of muffin tops, but…
The PDQ crew also brought several of one of their fall specialties out for us to try…sliced apples with a delicious dip.
The apples are kept in pineapple juice to keep them from browning…so much better than lemon juice! I also had to grab a raspberry caffeine free diet Coke from the super cool touch-screen Coke machine that dispenses over 100 soda combinations.
The girls and I sat and ate and chatted about all things blog and Tampa Bay. We laughed a bunch. I always have the best time hanging out with this group. Check out their blogs!
After we were finished eating Dan Schefer, the Operating Partner for PDQ St. Petersburg, took us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the restaurant.
This is the “hospitality room” as they call it, otherwise known as the drive-thru window.
PDQ does not use staticky microphones and speakers to take orders. It’s all done through person to person direct communication.
When a line develops at the drive-thru a PDQ crew member goes outside with a computer tablet and takes the order right at each driver’s window to help speed things up. PDQ is all about providing the best customer experience possible.
Next Dan showed us the huge walk-in cooler.
Everything is prepared from scratch on site, including the hand-cut French fries.
Nothing at PDQ is ever frozen. They don’t even have a freezer there.
Next we got to see the food prep area. This guy was portioning out the delicious blueberry cole slaw:
We were introduced to Josey who gave us a demonstration on French fry cutting.
Then we each got to demolish a potato.
It was fun and I owned that potato.
All of the crew was so friendly and everyone seemed like they were in a great mood.
It was really cool how they had iPads mounted all over the place and they used them for everything. All of their top-secret recipes are right here at Dan’s fingertips…
Jeff, the PR and Marketing Director for PDQ, and Dan answered all of our bloggy questions and were so welcoming to our little group. They can cater events and have awesome party platters. I’m definitely going to keep that in mind.
Thanks for having us PDQ St. Pete! And thanks to my Tampa Bay Lady Blogger friends for coming and hanging out. Love you guys!
Wonder what fun adventure we’ll have at our next meet-up?
I am so sad I didn’t make it! Life is crazy this week with meetings, doctors, and NY so close! Hopefully I will make it to a November meet up! Again, another crazy month! I need it to be summer again!
Sorry you couldn’t make it! PDQ said they would be happy to have us back any time, so maybe we’ll do another meet up there sometime. Good luck in NY! I’m so excited for you!
So sad I missed this meet up! Looks like you kids had a great time!
Sorry you couldn’t make it Charlotte! I hope you can come to some of our other events. The group is a ton of fun.
Wish I could have gone! Looked like a blast!
Sorry you couldn’t make it, but looks like you had a great weekend for camping! What awesome weather.
Such a fun time thanks for organizing it!
You’re welcome! It was great to get to hang out with you again.
Looks like I missed a good one (again)! I feel badly that I missed this one – I promise someday I’ll get up there for a meetup.
Aw man, I wish you could have come! Next time! Happy belated birthday!
This was a really good lunch! Thank you for setting it up. I always have the best time with you and the TBLB’rs!
Me too! Great to hang out with you again!
I always find inspiration or a chuckle in your posts, Caroline. And thus, I am awarding you the Liebster Award for favorite bloggers with less than 200 followers. Check it out on my site: http://scrappermomsworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/liebster-award.html Hugs!
Thank you so much Nicole! You are so sweet. I am LAME and never follow through with the rules of these awards, but I really appreciate it. Wish we could get together for some scrapping. I haven’t touched paper and glue in a LONG time, but I still have all my stash and I miss it.
That was cool the restrauant contributed to the ladies blogging madness. I have never been there. I don’t know if I have one in my area. I will have to check it out.
Right now they have three locations in Tampa and just one in St. Pete, but they are expanding!
I’m so sad I missed this meet-up! looks like it was a blast. I swear, I WILL make it to another one. It’s the weekends – they kill me. We had family come in unexpectedly from Colorado that I hadn’t seen in a few years, which is why I wasn’t there. Sniff.
We missed you! Hope we can get together soon