Daily Loaf

WineBurgers
3 stars
1110 Pinellas Bayway, Tierra Verde, 727-865-0633 or wineburgers.com

If you want to eat out on Tierra Verde, there’s just one place to go. Smack dab in the middle of the island, right on the Pinellas Bayway, is downtown Verde, a strip mall and a half of restaurants that run the gamut from Chinese take-out to German schnitzel. And tucked into a hidden corner on the second floor of one of the buildings, next to a realtor and a spa, is WineBurgers.

It used to be Crazy Conch, a typical island-fine-dining spot most well-known (to me, anyway) for crab cakes good enough to win a Best of the Bay Award back in ‘08. Earlier this year, owners Michael Peel and Sally Herb closed down their seven-year old restaurant, rebranded, refocused and re-opened as WineBurgers.

It’s a simple concept — take hamburger standards, mix with great ingredients, execute well and serve with a wide variety of adult beverages. The formula has worked well over in Tampa at Square One, and has been all the rage in big cities for well over a decade. And WineBurgers has the basics of the concept down pat. Read the rest of this entry »

SoHo Sushi
2.5 stars
3218 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, 813-873-7646 or sohosushi.com

I was taking CL contributor and local food blogger Jenna Weber to lunch and needed a place close to the office. Easy enough, but it also had to be healthy. That’s Jenna’s thing and, despite my devotion to bacon peanut brittle and beef in all its forms, I tend to eat healthy meals as well. Have to justify the occasional binge, after all. Sushi is a safe choice, especially with frequent Best of the Bay winner SoHo Sushi just a mile or two away.

Despite the awards, its popularity and its location in the heart of one of my stomping grounds, I’d never been to SoHo Sushi. I’d tried, on occasion, to visit after the restaurant moved from SoHo proper to Franklin Blvd. after a dispute with its landlords. Problem is, every time I stopped by I’d either find the small parking lot full, or the tables full, or both. Popular place.

Thankfully, this time we quickly found a seat in the restaurant’s pleasant dining room loaded with wood furnishings and the usual Asian decor accents. At lunch, SoHo has the usual array of bento boxes and cooked meat rice bowls which, it turns out, are the way to go despite SoHo Sushi’s name. Read the rest of this entry »

The lady making the tortillas

Excited by Chef Rene Valenzuela’s expansion of his empire, and because I ‘ve been a taco zealot since CL’s Tournament of Tacos in March, I ran right to Taqueria Monterrey on the first day open.

Taqueria Monterrey Day 1:  An artist is still painting signs on the walls.  He asks me to verify his spelling of the word ’Also’ and says the design is inspired by old world Spain.

In keeping with CL’s Beef Week, I ordered Read the rest of this entry »

Saigon Deli
4 stars
3962 W. Waters Ave., Tampa, 813-932-0300

I have a friend who is, to say the least, an adventurous eater. He’s my go-to guy for pickled meat and brown Scandinavian cheese tastings. But when it comes to actually sitting down for an extended meal from some of the more mundane ethnic cuisines, he balks. Especially when it comes to Southeast Asia. Why? He misses the bread.

Thankfully, there is one Pacific Rim culinary hotspot that can treat him right. One remnant of years of French colonial influence in Vietnam is a tradition of bread-making that is completely out of character to the bean- and rice-flour culinary cultures that surround the country (and, to be certain, dominate inside Vietnam, as well.) Baguettes are still a rare side in most spots — besides the occasional hunk of crusty bread with soup or stew — but there is one bready, largely-Western treat that the Vietnamese enjoy with relish: banh mi.

Banh mi are the same kinds of street food sandwiches that you see on every street corner in Paris, just a simple combination of meat and accompaniments that’s perfect for a light meal on the go. In France, these portable snacks are astounding thanks to great bread and good cheese. In Vietnam, the accompaniments are what elevate the banh mi to world-class standard.

And Saigon Deli is a mecca for some of the best banh mi in the Bay area. Read the rest of this entry »

Just for the record, I do not dress in drag, wear wigs, or try role-playing characters when I review restaurants. Although a couple of local chefs have claimed to me that they have my picture posted in the kitchen — some even offering bounties — I have no idea where they got the pic, or even if it’s actually me. Google search as much as you’d like; you won’t find any graven digital images of this critic.

But Ruth Reichl — former NY Times restaurant critic and current Gourmet editor — was famous for engaging in all sorts of costuming and characterization during her reviewing stint in the 1990s. And it worked admirably, causing her to experience the tiered treatment doled out by some of NY’s finest restaurants based on their perception of her worth as a customer, as detailed in her book Garlic and Sapphires.

In a stagey, but undeniably cute, video put out by Gourmet, Reichl revisited those years and characters. Video after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

Bowled Restaurant
3 Stars
3451 4th St. N, St. Petersburg, 727-895-2695

Serving everything in a bowl – or as many menu items as possible – is more than just a restaurant gimmick or an excuse for an endless series of pot-smoking jokes. It’s a clear declaration of what St. Pete restaurant Bowled is all about.

You can put anything on a plate, except soup, but a bowl evokes a profound sense of comfort. Hands cupped around an offering. Birds’ nests. That Campbell’s commercial with the thawing snowman kid. A packed pipe. And although Bowled makes some fine grub, the overall effect is more about good, hearty food at a good price than fine dining from a bowl.

You might not get that feel, though, just from looking at the menu. Read the rest of this entry »

• Laura Reiley gives props to the dining destinations found at Wesley Chapel’s new Wiregrass shopping mall: Cosi and Cantina Laredo, as well as beer hall Brass Tap.
• Collete and John Bancroft offer up value-conscious Thanksgiving wine suggestions.
• Janet Keeler inspires us create something different with Thanksgiving leftovers: Turkey and Potato Casserole.
• Panicked in the kitchen? Get holiday meal help over the phone.
• Laura Reiley says mash more than just potatoes this Thanksgiving.