TampaBayEats.com

In the span of three months, two national publications have named Bern’s steakhouse in Tampa the number one steakhouse in the country. This month’s issue of Saveur, aptly named “The Steak Issue,” is packed full of talk about steak, ranging from steak knives to steak sauces and even a photo laden tutorial on the various cuts of meat. But the most important to me is a list called the “Magnificent Seven,” naming the nations top steak houses. Of course, the number one steakhouse is Bern’s, right here in our own backyard. We may not be well known in the culinary world, but when it comes to steak, we can hold our own with the likes of New York and San Francisco. But it doesn’t end with a quick mention in a food magazine. If you are one of the rare few that buys Playboy magazine for the pictures, you may have missed the list of America’s Top Ten Steakhouses on page 30 of the May issue. Yes, it’s the issue with Anna Nicole on the front and the lovely pictorial of the Girls of Conference USA, (featuring several from UCF), but I just subscribe for the articles anyway. Bern’s, according to Playboy:

“The dry-aged beef is impeccable, and exacting waiters have been known to apply the vermouth to your martini with an eyedropper.”

I’ll agree about the dry aged beef, but applying vermouth with an eyedropper to me just sounds ridiculous. I’m just here for the beef. This is a serious list and is no page filler; also appearing in the top ten is Crescent City Steakhouse in New Orleans, the old-school joint where Ruth Fertel got the idea for the sizzling platter of steak and melted butter. Once again, we take the number one spot show the nation that not only do we have beautiful women in Florida; we know how to eat a good slab of beef.

Philly has the cheesesteak, New York has popularized thin crust pizza and Chicago has a pretty unique hot dog. When it comes to food, Tampa Bay isn’t quite as well known. Sure, we’ve got Bern’s, famous for serving dry aged beef and housing the largest restaurant wine cellar in the nation, but otherwise we’re not known for any one dish. I believe the biggest reason is the lack of history and a rich culture.

Relatively speaking, Tampa is a new city. We’ve got a large Cuban influence in the Bay area and have recently seen an increase in the food offerings from the Hispanic population, but that’s where it ends. The rest of us likely emigrated from elsewhere. My roommate is from Clearwater, my friend Katy is from Tampa and my buddy Todd hails from New Port Richey, but otherwise most of my friends are from places like Dallas, Boston and New York City.

Fortunately there is hope for a food culture in Tampa. Instead of dwelling on the past, it’s time to get to work to create our own culture, rich with dishes and flavors unique to the Tampa Bay area. Since I grew up in a city with a celebrated food culture, I guess I’ve always taken it for granted, but not anymore. I got to work thinking of a few dishes unique to the Tampa Bay region as a beginning to my quest. I’m sure I’ve missed a few, but here is a great start to the list:

Grouper Sandwich. I wouldn’t consider the grouper sandwich a cutting edge creation, but it’s a Tampa Bay original nonetheless. It’s essentially a fish sandwich made with grilled, blackened or fried grouper and served on a bun with lettuce, tomato and tarter sauce. Frenchy’s in Clearwater claims to have the original grouper sandwich; created out of a necessity to use up a plethora of extra grouper caught while fishing. They put the fish on a bun and began serving it as a sandwich in their restaurant; the rest is history. The best place to enjoy a grouper sandwich is after a hot day at the beach; Frenchy’s on Clearwater Beach and The Undertow on St. Pete Beach are a couple of my favorites.

Cuban Sandwich. Perhaps one of the most famous of the Tampa creations, the Cuban sandwich can now be found across the United States and at every corner lunch cafe and gas station in the Tampa Bay area. There is still debate as to whether or not the sandwich was indeed created in the area, but I enjoy the fact that there are people like Andy Huse, who take the sandwich VERY seriously. If you’re like me, you’ve probably had a few lackluster Cuban sandwiches, but a well made pressed Cuban with pork, salami, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on fresh Cuban bread can be a work of art.

Alaskan Tacos. Found only in Ybor City, an Alaskan taco is a twist on the traditional Tex-Mex crunchy shell taco. At Meme’s Alaskan Tacos, they deep-fry the shell and meat, then top with lettuce, tomato and cheese. They weren’t created in Tampa, but instead were a concept that the owner picked up from his grandmother, who created the taco while she lived in Alaska. Go ahead and try and find them outside of Tampa; you probably won’t. I’m not certain that I’d drive across town for an Alaskan taco, but they sure do make for a good street food while strolling around Ybor.

 Beer. It surely wasn’t invented in the Sunshine State, but it’s nice to know that we can still enjoy a locally made brew. In Ybor city, sample home made beer at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Established in 1997, they are the only brewpub in Ybor that still brews their own beer. If you’re a little farther north, you can make a stop by the pub at the Dunedin Brewery where they produce several year round favorites as well as seasonal brews like the Oktoberfest or the Christmas Farm Ale. Or pick up a six-pack at your local liquor store and enjoy at home or have a pint at a local tavern.

Honorable Mention: Bang Bang Shrimp, the Bloomin’ Onion and Hooters Wings. Ok, so these three dishes are synonymous with chain restaurants and Anytown, USA, but they were all created and popularized right here in the Bay area. I admit that I can’t step foot in Bonefish grill without the intention of ordering Bang Bang shrimp; fried shrimp coated in a spicy mayonnaise based sauce. I can’t get enough. And there are few indulgences more satisfying than sitting at the bar in Outback Steakhouse and having a deep fried onion and a couple of cold beers. I love Hooters wings but I still keep that quiet from my good friends from Buffalo. Since they’re breaded, they are more like the distant cousin of the famous Buffalo Wing. I’ve enjoyed them since I was a kid and still patronize Hooter’s to this day. Thank you Clearwater!

So what’s next on the horizon for Tampa food? Our biggest battle will be to fight the influence of the chain restaurants and the erosion of the palate. It’s unfortunate that our kids are being raised believing that Carrabba’s is genuine Italian and that the food at Applebee’s is actually good. Sure, we all indulge in a little chain restaurant food from time to time, but without restaurants in the area like Bella’s, El Taconazo, Ceviche and Sidebern’s, what would make Tampa Bay any better for food than any other city in the nation?

I recently wrote about the popularity of the grouper sandwich and it’s propensity to appear on Tampa Bay restaurant menus.  Unless it is a compelling preparation, I don’t often order the fish because frankly, it doesn’t have a lot of taste.  In addition, based on the availability of the fish locally and the prices of the fish in local markets,  I suspected that a majority of the grouper served was farmed, then frozen and shipped to Florida.  Unfortunately some of my fears were true, but they were even worse than I originially thought.  The St. Petersburg Times ran a two day series about the state of grouper fishing in Florida and one of those articles involved testing the “grouper” served in local restaurants to find out whether it was even grouper at all.  The results were troubling.

Of the 11 restaurants tested for the article, six served a less expensive fish in its place.  It was fair that the reporters gave each restaurant  the opportunity to explain their actions, and some gave an excuse about using fish that was “labeled” as grouper.  I wonder if there is a dishonest fish merchant making the substitutions, but I hardly believe it is a conspiracy.  Any chef or cook worth his salt should be able to tell the difference between grouper and catfish! One restaurant failed to return calls, but would you really order their Breaded Grouper Sandwich for $4.80 and expect to get a piece of real fish?  Most surprising was the restaurant that served a $23 “grouper special” who instead served tilapia.  For those who want the Cliff’s Notes version, there is even a chart.  There are several different reasons for serving an inferior fish and labeling it grouper, but I believe the biggest reason is cost.  And most of these restaurants never expected to get caught.

Having worked in the restaurant business, I know that there are unscrupulous chefs and owners who will cut corners to save a few bucks.  When the chef’s bonus is influenced by a couple percentage points on his or her food costs, it is entirely possible that the “fresh gulf shrimp” on your plate are actually Asian tiger prawns.  Even in New Orleans I saw chefs substituting claw meat of the blue crab in a dish advertised to contain “jumbo lump” crabmeat.   There’s nothing worse than ordering an omelet supposedly filled with jumbo lump crabmeat only to end up with dark claw meat. 

The truth is that most pedestrian diners would never have noticed and most of these restaurants never expected to get caught.  The grouper is a fairly mild (bland) white fish that will take on the flavor of just about any seasoning or sauce used, but substituting ingredients for the sake of a few bucks is unethical.  Remember, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.  I urge you to read the entire article and check out the chart before doing business with a restaurant who’s more concerned about their bottom line than they are doing the right thing for their customers.

In the midst of the hurricane aftermath, I decided to drive around the country seeking a new place to live; one of those stops was Tampa.  On a Thursday morning, I woke up early and drove straight from Hammond, LA (my parents house) to Tampa, and I was exhausted.  So only minutes after I arrived, my friend Jason took me to have dinner and a few drinks on the beach at Caddy’s on Treasure Island.
 
While enjoying a couple ice-cold beers and looking over the menu, I came across something totally foreign to my South Louisiana heritage: the grouper sandwich.  Fortunately I had a “local” with me to explain that it was a common menu item in the area, and one which he dubbed the “Hamburger of Tampa.”  After only a couple weeks in Tampa, I realized it was the de facto menu item for any seafood joint, beach bar or sandwich shop (neither Outback nor Bonefish grill serve a grouper sandwich, yet).
 
Grouper wasn’t something very common to me in New Orleans, but it is definitely plentiful in Tampa.  Many years ago, grouper from the Gulf of Mexico was plentiful, but the uses for the fish were few.  An enterprising fisherman saw an opportunity and decided to make a sandwich out of the fish, and the rest is history.  Frenchy’s in Clearwater has the claim that they are the inventor of the grouper sandwich.  Once plentiful though, the grouper was overfished, and now a bit more controlled than in the past.  I would bet many of the grouper sandwiches in town are made with farmed fish. 
 
This past weekend I had the opportunity to try the grouper sandwich at Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill, right on the beach in Clearwater.  Since I was there with others, I was able to sample the grouper sandwich in two varieties, grilled and fried.  We also split a bowl of their popular “She Crab Soup,” a thick creamy soup loaded with lump crabmeat and bursting with flavor.  However, at $4.95 for the bowl of soup, I suspect they used imitation (k)rab meat.  Nonetheless, it was excellent, and compared nicely to the crab soup that my mother makes on occasion (recipe coming soon to NolaFoodie.com).
 
If you are reading from afar and still wondering about the grouper sandwich, I’ll explain.  It’s basically a piece of cooked fish on a hamburger bun, topped with lettuce, tomato, sometimes a piece of cheese and maybe some mayo or tarter sauce.  While the grilled and fried grouper sandwiches are the most common, there other varieities such as blackened or Cajun style (just means it is seasoned with Cajun seasoning).  Yep, eat it just like a fish-burger; but take note, this is no fast-food square fish sandwich.  The sandwich usually is lacking in a strong flavor, as the grouper is a mild fish, but it’s a staple nonetheless.  And though I am not blown away by the flavor, I’ve been known to indulge from time to time.  Since most of the residents around here are transplants, it’s just nice to have a food item that’s a Tampa native.

What’s your opinion on the grouper sandwich?  Like it?  Love it?  Hate it?  Where’s the best one in the Tampa Bay Area?