Eat My Florida

Rand Packer — formerly of our local Roy’s and Taylor Eason’s pick for hottest Bay area chef — will be opening his own Mariposa Mexican Grill on July 1, wayyyyy up N Dale Mabry. I haven’t seen the menu yet, but the chef promises “Pacific fresh Mexican”, with homemade fresh tortillas, fresh fruit featured in popsicles and juice blends, and a whole lot Mexi-cuisine loaded with fresh herbs and dried chiles. Did I say fresh?

Mariposa Mexican Grill – 17623 N Dale Mabry Hwy., 813-264-1212

Alas, poor restaurants, I knew them, Bay area -

Wild Fish – Clearwater
Sunshine City Grill – St. Petersburg

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Alas, poor restaurants, I knew them, Sarasota -

Lido Grille – St. Armands
Margarita Mateo’s – St. Armands
Carmine Goldberg’s – Lakewood Ranch

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

For about a year, Sarasota was blessed by a brief affair with Ethiopian home-cooking, thanks to Betel Tafesse’s short lived Fly bar and restaurant, which she lost to a divorce last year.

Well, now she’s back (at least once a week) piling killer veggies and spiced meats on tart injera bread every Thursday night at Metro in downtown SRQ. Maybe this will start a trend — chef as DJ, with restaurants featuring a varied menu of culinary stylings every night of the week. Sweet.

Press release after the jump. (more…)

Start with $2 Million and buy a coffee shop! Hah, a classic no matter the topic.

But seriously folks, SIP — the hip coffee shop/art gallery/hangout on Davis Islands — is for sale. Good luck to Angela.

Anyone interested in buying the place? Info after the jump… (Thanks to Leilani, again, for the tip.) (more…)

This just in – The Wine Exchange will not be closing permanently.

Apparently, the restaurant will be maintaining their current location until they can move into the “Heart Of The Village” space that is currently under construction. Official re-opening should be the beginning of next week. Official – and confusing – press release after the jump.

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It’s time to prepare your stomach for a hot stack of steam-grilled “slyders”. White Castles are comin’, baby! Pirates Cove — “a 1930’s pirate pin-up themed bar slash convenience store,” according to owner Shawn Kaplan – is slated to open this week in Channelside. Kaplan plans on dishing out those gloriously gooey hamburgers through a special arrangement with White Castle HQ. Except for the frozen stuff (which doesn’t count, so don’t fool yourself), Pirates Cove will be the only authentic, steam-grilled White Castles south of Tennessee.

Pirate’s Cove will also be open for breakfast to take care of the cruise ship crowd, feature live acoustic music in the evenings and stay open as late as 3:30 a.m. on the weekends. According to Kaplan, “this is a bodega, so you can get medicine, condoms, candy as well as enjoy a huge selection of high-end beers and wine in the bar.”

Wayne Garcia (the PoHo himself) laid out a rumor yesterday that the Wine Exchange in South Tampa is closing. Confirmed it today — the final day is Mother’s Day. Nothing new scheduled to go into the space and, as yet, no info as to the reason. Thanks Wayne.

Think this hotel will be decorated in bordello chic?

Pincho (or maybe Pincho Y Pincho, still unclear) will be opening doors next to Ceviche’s St. Pete spot in about two weeks, according to Ceviche co-owner and frontman Gordon Davis. This tiny spot — only 400 square feet, used to be the ice cream store — will serve northern Spanish “pincho” tapas, which has essentially come to mean tapas served on bread. Walk up, toss back a glass of wine and a few choice bites of food, then proceed on down the street.

Ceviche’s long-rumored expansion to downtown Sarasota has also become a reality, although the opening won’t be until well past the summer months. I’ll be touring the site next week, so more gossip then.

This new Brazilian Steakhouse is almost too slick to fit into the Bohemian Gulfport scene. It’s also a budding chain, and Gulfport doesn’t feel like the ideal place to attract the mass chain consumer, but we’ll see. Cool bar, though.

Check it out and tell us what you think, before my review hits next Wednesday.

Anyone who’s paying attention will know that I reviewed St. Petersburg’s Chateau France last year and loved it. But that was before chef/owner Antoine Louro (above, with some sort of tower) got the expansion bug and opened up a brand new Chateau location in, of all places, a strip mall in Carrolwood. You’ll have to wait until next Wednesday for my take on the newish place, so start weighing in with your own experiences at this Gallic icon.

By the way, RESTAURANT OPENING ALERT: a new Chateau France will be opening on South Howard, at the site of the former 42nd Street Bistro, in just a few short weeks. Plans are for 7 days a week, lunch, dinner and bar menu until 3 a.m. The menu will be largely the same as that of the Carrollwood Chateau. The more French restaurants, the better.

Servers and bartenders, it’s time to start giving back. To make this blog truly outstanding, we need more than just my precocious wordsmithery, we need cold, hard facts and raw, undiluted rumormongering Let’s face it, no one in the Bay area is more tuned in to the food and drink scene than you guys. You work it. You live it. Clue us in.

Openings, closings, staff changes, menu changes, which chef is in bed with which GM, brawls, catfights and name calling, new partnerships beginning, old partnerships dissolving, I want to know it all. More importantly, all of Tampa wants to know every last bit of wild gossip and harsh truth about our delicious restaurant scene. You tell me, I’ll tell the world. Give me a good Tip, folks.