The Gathering Place - Lake Seminole Square
8333 Seminole Blvd, Seminole, Florida

This is a rather unusual food blog. It is about a place you probably can’t go. You have to be a resident or their guest. Lake Seminole Square is a retirement community with a lot of amenities. That is where my wife’s Aunt and Uncle live. It has the usual things like a gymnasium, a pool, and arts and crafts. A few of the amenities include a mini branch bank, a restaurant and a small coffee shop, called The Gathering Place. We met Aunt Effie and Uncle Gilbert at The Gathering Place for lunch.
While the restaurant up on the fifth floor, featuring linen, silver, crystal and a full menu, is open for a more formal lunch and dinner, The Gathering Place is open for a more casual breakfast and lunch. Closed Sunday, it is open Monday through Friday from 8:00Am until 2:00PM. Saturday hours are from 8:30AM to 11:00AM. The menu has prices listed but you never see any cash. The Gathering Place doesn’t deal in money. The lunch tab is added to the resident’s monthly rent.
It is a small menu featuring cold deli sandwiches as well as griddle favorites such as burgers, patty melts, hot dogs, Ruebens and grilled cheese sandwiches. Desserts include milk shakes, root beer floats and pie (add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for only a quarter). Someday I will have to wangle another invitation and sample the breakfast fare which includes the obligatory, eggs, breakfast meats, toast, pancakes, waffles, omelets and juice. In all, more than enough to get set for the rigors of a busy day.
Everyone, except me of course, ordered their sandwich with a side of the soup of the day, clam chowder. It can be a bit salty with crackers crumbled in but it has a nice flavor and would be welcomed again. My wife and Aunt Effie ordered sliced turkey sandwiches. Janis had a pedestrian version and Effie’s included lettuce and tomato. Uncle Gilbert ordered a cheeseburger. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries, my benchmark test meal for the small café setting. After all - if you can’t do my hamburger right, then I have serious doubts any further visits.
It is low key casual, not a lot of garnish. The turkey sandwich come on a plate, cut in two diagonally, just like your mom would have served it. As advertised, it was a turkey sandwich and had good flavor. The hamburger was griddle cooked and had the taste and texture of the roadside diner burger. That’s not bad, just a bit different from the grilled hamburger. The meat was cooked through as requested (when eating ground beef from an unknown source, I always go with medium well). The bun was toasted on the griddle. The lettuce was fresh and crisp. There were two slices of nice looking tomato. The cheese was melted over the top of the patty which is my preference. The French fries were fresh and hot, golden brown and crispy. If I had made this hamburger and fries at home I would have been well satisfied.
The Gathering Place is a nice little out of the way place with a casual atmosphere to have lunch. It’s just too bad you probably can’t go there to try it out. Thanks again Gilbert and Effie for treating us to lunch.