Brian and Taylor chat with Gui Alinat — local chef and recent CL food contributor. We also run down Brian’s obsession with Domenica Macchia of Diner 437, the closing of Ybor’s The Nest, the re-opening of Wild Shrimp Company, and Taylor’s love for white wines from Bordeaux.
CL received a brilliant and absurd gift basket today from St. Pete’s Wild Shrimp Company (including 4 cans of Colt .45, a cigarette-smoking monkey figure, Trojan Magnums and more – see after the break for a list of the goodies), but with the swag came some terrible news: Wild Shrimp Company is closing up this Saturday. Just after making CL’s list of Tampa Bay’s Top 50 Restaurants.
According to manager and minor partner James Walton, the decision was made just two days ago. Wild Shrimp is largely owned by a local, family-owned equipment company, “and if things were going well over there we’d have no trouble,” according to Walton.
“Its really bad, after Easter sales dropped in half for us and every other business I’ve talked to,” he told me. The restaurant’s losses are not excessive, and Wild Shrimp would have been able to survive the downturn if the original business plan was followed, but hasn’t had the $100k operating capital it was supposed to.
Walton spun a classic restaurant failure tale: Read the rest of this entry »
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