Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Tampa Bay Airport, Tampa Bay, FL USA

Don’t even think about leaving on time if your flight departs in the late afternoon from Tampa on a hot and humid summer day.

Although on the contrary, my 7am flight down to Tampa was delayed 5.5 hours, so perhaps Tampa just isn’t the best destination to fly in/out of in July.

But…it was worth it.

To be at Destinations International, the most critical event in tourism for our company every year, is worth the delays, cancellations, and tiredness associated with said travel (I was not alone in this experience, both for domestic and international flights!).

Sitting at the airport, I was originally booked on JetBlue flight at 7 PM, which was delayed until 1 AM. They don’t cancel a flight and still have arriving at 3:30 AM? Not for this guy – rebook on Delta

(Side note: the next day the CrowdStrike failure hit Delta so hard, even though my flights were all messed up, I was lucky to have made it home!)

Nevertheless, I hung out in the Delta lounge until 8 PM when they kicked us out. I was still hungry, very tired, overly thirsty, and pretty much craving everything that I didn’t have in the moment. I really need relaxation. I really need escapism more than anything. I really needed something that would just allow me to break free from the stressful moment

With the Delta lounge closed, my choice was a Cuban restaurant (which oddly enough played classic Jewish music, including Hava Nagila) or Potbelly Sandwich Shop, a destination I had not tried in many years, but one I knew delivered a solid club sandwich.. at least I hoped.

I stood in line at Potbelly, at the mercy of Daniello making my club sandwich, who told me I should opt for multi grain bread – but everything else was at his discretion. Took my nicely toasted club and sat down by the window, taking the sunset in and just praying I made it home before 2am tonight.

Bacon was thick cut and smoky and salty and savory and way better than expected. Bread was soft and moist with a great crust surrounding it. Well toasted, loved Daniello’s choice of carb.

The chicken had both cold and warm elements to it, which was pretty darn disappointing, but alas, Daniello was working with what he could with the tools that he was given.

Honestly this was a solid meal in a moment of shittiness. Much saltier than I was hoping for, but then again, I felt lucky to have something so satisfying in this moment.

I enjoyed this solid moment – it might have only been 5 minutes but it felt like an hour – and then slowly walked to my gate to stand near it, awaiting any sign of the door opening for boarding…