Eat My Florida

Anyone who wants to find both a good – and another bad — side to the ongoing economic woes of our fair country just has to look at their bottom line. Or, more accurately, the line of their bottoms.

Lately, local food and health advocates have stapled a silver lining onto the recession by claiming that higher prices of industrially-produced corn, meat and soy – caused by elevated oil prices, among a bevy of other factors – means that people will be eating more fruits and vegetables from local farms, since those prices have stayed largely stable. That’s good for the environment, public health and the local economy. The NYT had a piece about this today, featuring quotes and wishful thinking from luminaries like Michael Pollan and Alica Waters.

The problem is, prices for local and organic fruits and vegetables are only “bargains” in relation to those industrial products’ increased prices. That’s great for the environmental- and health-conscious middle and upper classes who already seek out better foods. But, mass-produced food is still less expensive and easier to obtain, especially for lower-income families, which means the unhealthiest, most inexpensive commercial foods might see as big a jump in consumption as local and organic products.

Burger King CEO John Chidsey nailed that problem in a Wall Street Journal Q & A last week: “It’s very hard for me to imagine that the economy could ever get so bad that somebody could not afford to go buy a Double Cheeseburger from McDonald’s or a Whopper Jr. from us for $1. If you go to the grocery store, I really challenge you to find something for under $1.”

When I tried the Food Stamp Challenge last year, I experienced those same issues. Making the best out of a small budget and and healthy desires takes precious time that the working poor don’t usually have in abundance. When money is tight, really tight, healthy eating falls quickly to the convenience of a cheap and filling fast food meal.

Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news? Bad news? I thought so.

Tedesco’s Grillside on Central Ave. in downtown St. Pete has shuttered it’s doors. Rumor has that there is paper covering the windows and the phones are already disconnected. I haven’t been able to reach anyone for comment, but I’d really like to know who the next owners will be and what former chef Daniel Womack is up to, if he’s out of a job. Anyone? Fill me in?

Now, the good news: The Table, one of my favorite restaurants in Sarasota (winner of CL’s Best Restaurant of the Suncoast in 2006), is finally opening it’s second location, right down the street from the defunct Tedesco’s. Chef/owners Rafael Manzano and Pedro Flores will be peddling the same incredible Carribbean/Latin/Med fusion that I’ve grown to love down south, along with a mojito-heavy lounge area. And, since there are two of them, they can split their attention and still keep the quality up.

The Table will have a soft opening tomorrow night, then regular seating beginning Thursday, or Friday at the latest. 727-823-3700, 535 Central Ave, St. Petersburg

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the James Beard Awards’ leaked ballot, which featured doth Bern’s and Jeannie Pierola on the short list for a couple awards. Well, ballots must be in because that short list has become even shorter, and guess who’s been left out of the finals?

Bern’s, which was up for Outstanding Restaurant, fell to the likes of restaurants in SF and NY (surprise), and local chef-at-large Jeannie Pierola was dropped from the Best Chef: South category in favor of a few mooks from the Miami area. The Beard Awards are often described as the Oscars for food and, like the Oscars, nobody ever votes for restaurants and chefs they know nothing about. More importantly, the judges must only vote for food they’ve actually eaten. No surprise, Tampa isn’t a prime destination for a lot of those folks.

It was just an honor to be nominated, I guess. Or pre-nominated.

Downtown St. Pete’s Cafe Alma, which opened in 2002 and quickly became a popular spot known for a kick-ass bloody mary brunch, has been sold! Original owners Dwight and Catherine Watkins have decided to pursue other ventures, with new owners Scott Vogel and Tony Harahan taking over immediately.

Dan Soronen and Sarah Potter (that’s them in the pic), who opened the Old Northeast Tavern (which I’ll be profiling in next week’s issue of CL) in 2006, will also be moving on. They built the place into a one-of a kind local joint, smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood, the kind of pub that’s more community living room than bar/restaurant. They didn’t really want to sell, but needed to help out ailing parents up North. Soronen told me that he and Potter are thinking about getting back into the business, perhaps later this year with a place on Coquina Key.

New owners Mark Brindle and Bob Wareham (he used to own Sea Critters on St. Pete Beach) promise no serious changes when they take over April 1st.

“We bought it because it’s working,” Wareham says. “We’ve got a good thing going here.” I think the neighbors will be happy to hear that.

I pass it whenever I take Park Boulevard east back to my home in West St. Pete, and if I keep my eyes peeled, I sometimes notice the small sign: “Mariscos el Pulpo.” It’s a Mexican restaurant, just west of the Albertson’s at the corner of 49th and Park. Housed in a small building set way back from the road, I’ve often wondered if Mariscos is a diamond in the rough known only to a small coterie of locals, or if it languishes in anonymity for a reason.

A quick Google search revealed nothing except for the address (4651 Park Blvd.); I was unable to find any reviews, though. If anyone has 411 on this place, let me know.

While I’m working up the chutzpah for a new blog segment where I interview restaurateurs after my review of their establishment hits the paper, for good or ill, I thought I’d throw down some letters about a couple of recent reviews in Sarasota.

(more…)

This flew under the radar last week, but Dave at Eating Tampa snagged it.

The James Beard Foundation sent out ballots for its annual chef and restaurant awards to the judging committee, and New York Magazine leaked the list. Here’s the shocker: Tampa has a couple of names on the list. And they’re related. Guess who?

Jeannie Pierola is up for Best Chef in the South Region, with a lot of stiff competition from the Miami area and someone, egads!, from Punta Gorda. Bern’s is up for the national Outstanding Restaurant award, a category filled with restaurants just as staid and tired as our local favorite. I wonder if Jeannie’s departure from the old brothel will help or hurt either of their chances? It’s probably bad news for Bern’s, and good news for Jeannie.

Let’s place bets: I’ll give Bern’s 2000 to 1 against and Jeannie 70 to 1 against victory.
Here are my predictions: Michael Schwartz of Michael’s Genuine takes the South chef award and Magnolia Grill in NC takes Outstanding Restaurant. New Yorkers love that Southern food.

Winners will be announced in June.

I’ve been pounding on this muscle-bound mook ever since he announced the name of his “future” restaurant in St. Petersburg. Something about his unrelenting tight-assed demeanor, pseudo-military appearance, pointy head, bad teeth and, well, let’s face it, the fact that he works for the Food Network really rubs me the wrong way. Or it might be the name of the restaurants. Ooze and Schmooze? For fuck’s sake.

I blasted the name (here and here), I questioned whether the restaurant would ever be built, I did everything but launch a full-fledged investigation into Robert Irvine’s character as a businessman. That’s why we have the St. Pete Times.

According to an article in the Times on Sunday, Irvine owes a bunch of people money, lied or exaggerated repeatedly in person, on his Food Network resume and in his book Mission: Cook!, and is sort of little and sad when cornered. And he impersonated a knight, which means the queen will be sending some beefeaters after Irvine’s hide when she gets around to it.

Maybe I should feel bad for him, but why waste the glorious schadenfreude! And with Ooze and Schmooze still in the works, we might have Robert Irvine to kick around for months or years to come.

Gordon Davis — one of the “creators” of SoHo and a pioneer of Tampa’s restaurant scene– is out at Ceviche. According to Andrew Wilkins (one of Ceviche’s manager/partners) the Canadian investment group that Davis brought in last year to help fund Ceviche’s big expansion into Orlando and Sarasota bought Davis out three weeks ago.

“That was always the plan,” said Davis from his second home in Colorado. “We’ve been working on that for a long time, I just didn’t know how soon it would happen.” According to Davis, he’ll be involved with Ceviche as a consultant for the next three years.

Davis is not leaving the Bay area restaurant scene entirely, however. Separate from the Ceviche sale is a barbecue joint on Platt Street he’s been trying to open for the past two years, long-delayed by permitting and change of use problems. “It looks like we’re probably four weeks away from opening,” he said. He’ll return to Tampa this week to gear up for Platt Street Smokehouse’s debut.

Meanwhile, Ceviche is continuing to grow. Last week, the restaurant moved it’s Tampa restaurant into Davis’ old St. Bart’s spot on South Howard, after getting into a conflict with the condominium that housed the former location. The mammoth, 29,000 square foot Orlando Ceviche that opened last September in the venerable Church Street Station entertainment complex has been hampered by nearby construction that closed roads leading to the restaurant. A brand new Ceviche outpost will open in the next two weeks in an historic building in Sarasota.

I think Davis is glad to be out of the fray. “I love the Ceviche project,” he said, “but [my wife and I] are still healthy and we’d like to retire while we can still do some high adventure.” He plans to spend a lot more time in Colorado.

I was outed this week at a restaurant, thanks to a server that I worked with down in Sarasota way back in the day. She pegged me from the get go and I decided to stick out the meal and feed the restaurant some rope. You can read about the results a week from Wednesday.

I do go to some minor extremes to maintain anonymity when reviewing places: I usually use an alias credit card, I call on other people’s phones when making reservations and, of course, I don’t make the ressies in my name. There have been a few times when I thought the restaurant might suspect, usually because of questions I ask, but it’s usually after the fact. I did run into some trouble last week, however.

I paid with a new alias card which, apparently, I had forgotten to sign. Who checks that, anyway? This server did and asked for ID. Mind whirring, I decided to go ballsy and said “I don’t have it with me,” although my wallet sitting on the tabletop gave lie to that statement. When he asked me for something, anything that might confirm my identity, I just stared him down and said “Nope, nothing.”

Thankfully, he was unwilling to force the issue and just shrugged and handed the card and receipt over. Phew.

The federal WIC (Women, Infant and Children) Program has provided food assistance targeted at “low income pregnant, breastfeeding, non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants and children up to five years of age who are at nutritional risk” since the 1970s. Recently, WIC has been criticized for the lack of fresh food options that it allows participants to purchase, relying on milk, eggs, cheese and breakfast cereal to feed America’s youth. Until last month, the only fruits and veggies permitted were carrots for breastfeeding mothers. I wonder what Michael Pollan would think of WIC’s reliance on “scientific nutrition rationale.”

In December, the USDA changed its mind. Next month, states will implement an addition to the program that provides a whopping $8 to each WIC recipient for the purchase of fruits and vegetables. Not much, to be sure, but most WIC participants also get benefits from other programs, like Food Stamps.

Around these parts, that $8 will have to spent at the supermarket.

You see, there is already a WIC program in place — the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program — that provides money to moms and kids to be used at farmers’ markets for the purchase of locally grown fruits and vegetables, but Florida isn’t pushing participation. In 2007 we received less federal money for the program than 22 other states and districts, including places like Washington, D.C. and Iowa. The FMNP coupons Florida does distribute are only authorized for use in 17 out of 67 Florida counties. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Manatee are not on the list.

All of this comes on the heels of a UCLA study that followed two groups of WIC participants — one given an extra $10 in coupons for local farmers’ markets and one given $10 for fruits and vegetables at the supermarket. After 6 months, the farmers markets group consumed almost twice as many extra daily servings of fruits and vegetables than the supermarket group.

Now that’s an efficient way to promote nutrition.

Not sure what we’re going to call it this year (maybe the BRGR, maybe the NCDoubleMeat) but I’m ramping up for this year’s March Madness Tournament of Champions, where we’ll be biting into 64 of the Bay area’s best burgers and pitting them head-to-head. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out last year’s month long PZZA competition here, here, here and here.

Let me do the math: if I eat one burger every work day until the piece debuts on March 12, I’ll still be about two dozen burgers behind schedule. And you thought the life of a food critic was easy!

We’re finalizing the final list of competitors soon, so don’t forget to throw your suggestions into the ring before it’s too late. Ive already nailed down the favorites, I just need the neighborhood joints and local dives that somehow squeeze out a stupendous meat patty under the radar. Who has your favorite burger?

It’s time, Bay area restaurants, to start thinking about ways to raise your game in 2008. Let’s face it, 2007 wasn’t exactly a banner year for the independent restaurateur in our area, thanks to a tough economy and our love of the prefabricated chain-dining experience. Although new chains aplenty popped up on almost every street corner, only a few non-corporate joints made an impact.

But let’s not dwell in the past. 2008 can be a new start, a chance to show what you’ve got, a chance to not only improve yourself but to elevate the dining scene all over the region. Here are a few suggestions to help you on your way:

1. Don’t underestimate your customers. I know that every time you see the lines outside a Bonefish or Sam Seltzer you start thinking about ways to coax those folks into your place, but lowering your cuisine to those standards is a fool’s game. Instead, go for broke, make waves and introduce eaters to the types of cuisine that chefs like to eat. Borrow trends from outside the area, or create your own. You don’t have to have seared tuna, a filet and creme brulee on every menu.
   It may take a little customer education before the Bay area catches on, but at least you’ll be separating your food from the rest of the pack and creating an identity that’s all your own.
2. Don’t forget the details: staff. Finding capable staff is even tougher than devising a menu these days, but it’s important. These people are the face of the restaurant and can ruin or save a diner’s experience regardless of the food.
   For years, the quality and professionalism of service staff in both casual and fine dining restaurants has been going downhill. How do you fight the slide? Picking people is important, but training is key. Set standards, quiz on the menu and provide both regular constructive criticism when things go wrong and unabashed praise when things go right. Treat them like professionals and they’ll act like professionals.
3. Don’t forget the details: environment. I’m not talking about the cleanliness and design of public spaces, that should go without saying. Instead of fulfilling expectations, give diners more than they ever imagined. Tiny flourishes — like a plate of aromatics to go into after-dinner coffee or gooey cheese gougeres instead of tired bread and butter — set you apart and give people the impression that they are getting something for nothing. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to be creative in these little ways, but it makes the meal more of an experience. People will talk.
4. Don’t ignore desserts. I can usually name the majority of the items on a dessert list before I see the menu. If your restaurant is the type of place that doesn’t expect or manage to sell a lot of desserts, take a look at yourself and wonder why. Do you spend as much time and effort on the bread pudding/molten chocolate cake/creme brulee/key lime pie/flourless chocolate cake as you do on your appetizers? Maybe you need a pastry chef to help push this course to the next level.
   Giving people an entire extra course at the end of the meal that’s just as interesting and tasty as the rest of the menu will put more money in your pocket from coffee and alcohol sales than any appetizer selection.
   
5. Strive for perfection. Like in football, there are players who go strong on every down and players who take plays off. Which are you?
   Let’s be honest here, most restaurants usually just settle on getting through the night. When was the last time that you actively tried to make every dish as good as it could possibly be? When was the last time that you had some independent people (I’m not talking friends and family) perform a little surreptitious quality control on your dining experience? Test yourself and your restaurant every day and be a constructive self-critic with everything you do, from dressing greens to searing a steak. And, for God’s sake, taste your own food, every damn time.

Good luck. I look forward to eating the results.

Jeannie’s been replaced and it looks like it’s all going to be promotions from within the organization.

Duties at Bern’s Steak House will be shared by long-time kitchen guys Andy Minney and Habteab Hamde (both labeled Chef De Cuisine). Youngster Chad Johnson will be jumped from sous to the new SideBern’s Exec and Courtney Orwig will be moving up to Chef De Cuisine.

Full Bern’s press release after the jump.

(more…)

In the past two years, Fly has shown that not only can restaurants succeed in downtown Tampa, they can thrive. The lively restaurant and bar has made a name by drawing crowds in for the bar scene, rooftop deck, late hours and upscale small plate dining. Now, owners Leslie Shirah and Matthew Sturm want to up the ante.

They’ve imported a chef from Brick – one of their three San Francisco restaurants – to update the menu and elevate the food. Rene Caceres is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and has worked at several restaurants in California. “He had to leave a city known for food, with a very supportive environment for restaurants,” says Fly GM David Bromberg. “But out there, he wasn’t the executive chef.”

In the month that Caceres has been in charge of Fly’s kitchen, he’s already exerted a hefty influence on the menu, steering it towards the seasonal California cuisine he’s familiar with, along with a dash of French influence. Wild salmon comes poached, with dill infused pomme puree, while pork loin is accented by kumquat confit.

Caceres hasn’t shed all of the other Bay area’s influence. He still doesn’t own a car and he lives in downtown, right next to the restaurant.

New Year’s Eve will be Caceres’ coming out party, with a seven course tasting menu entirely devised by the new executive chef.

Amidst an in-depth profile of Republican contender Mike Huckabee in the New York Times is a tiny tidbit that makes me question his presidential fitness. When offered a free meal by Times’ reporter Zev Chafets, his first choices were T.G.I. Friday’s and the Olive Garden. Regardless of his politics, that poor decision-making has cost him my vote.

In spite of his penchant for low-end chain dining, Huckabee managed to drop over 100 pounds over the last few years thanks to diet, exercise and God. His big loss spawned a book, a conspiracy theory and a push to reduce the obesity rate in his home state of Arkansas, which is one of the top ten fattest places in the country. Perhaps the most well-received plan proposed by this “small government” Republican are 15 minute exercise breaks for government employees. Sadly, since Arkansas’ smoking rate – 26 percent of adults — exceeds the obesity rate, I suspect that a lot of people will be using that extra time to spark another cancer stick.

Gourmet Magazine has an article by Barry Estabrook in the latest issue that discusses the realities of how the world-reknowned Kobe beef is raised. I’ve described in glowing terms how these cows lead better lives than you and I. It turns out, not so much.

Yeah, they’re fed beer, probably to re-start the appetites of depressed cows forced to live in solitary, tightly confining pens. That massage? Likely to relive arthritis because of their lack of exercise and grossly overburdened joints.

That does not mean that all Wagyu (that’s the breed of cow that’s raised in Kobe) is treated this way; some ranches in the US and Australia have much better standards. The problem? Better standards means beef that, although tasty, may not be as tender. I think I’ll take the cruelty-free Wagyu nonetheless, thanks.

According to the fine folks at Where The Locals Eat, Tampa/St. Petersburg qualifies as one of the Top 50 cities in the US!

WTLE’s new book tries to nail the best 100 restaurants in each of their top 50 cities and, as vague survey lists go, it does a fairly good job. The big guys are on there — like Bern’s, The Columbia and Ceviche — but there are also some actual local joints like Mel’s Hot Dogs, El Cap, Skyway Jack’s, Thai Sweet Basil and Atwaters. And, perhaps as a nod to our love of the prefabricated dinner experience, there are a half dozen chains included in the list.

If you’re traveling to the Bay area and don’t want to bother doing a little web research, this book might be for you. But anyone who actually uses the web won’t need to pick up the print version of Where The Locals Eat; you can find all the Tampa/St. Petersburg listings for free on the WTLE website.

Yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle had a fantastic story about the economics of paying restaurant personnel. That Bay area’s independent restaurateurs have it really tough, with server wages tagged to the city’s minimum of $9.14/hour and extensive benefits mandated by the city. Good for servers, but not so good for cooks, according to the article. Line jockeys end up with very low pay in one of the most expensive cities in the US.

Part of the problem has to do with the expectations of culinary school graduates, which I wrote about a few months ago. Even without massive school loans, though, making it in the shadow of the Golden Gate on $15 an hour is almost impossible. Around these parts, the pay is about the same, but benefits are meager at best. Working in a kitchen is a tough life all over.

Chef Jeanie Pierola left Bern’s this past weekend after ongoing disagreements with Bern’s scion David Laxer came to a head. All I can say is that it looks like good news for the rest of us. C’mon, who out there wasn’t getting a little tired of the relentlessly eclectic menu and overweening bar crowd at SideBerns?

Now, likely, we’ll get a brand new place with the accomplished Pierola behind the menu. And it’s not likely the ever-static Bern’s itself will change for the worse now that she’s gone.