TampaBayEats.com

Several weeks ago I took a vacation to San Francisco and for a whole week I consumed some of the best food and wine in my life.  Needless to say, returning to the reality of everyday life has been especially hard and I’ve done my best to come down from the vacation bliss.  Imagine my shock yesterday morning when I opened up the local paper online and was met with a picture of a former Tampa chef, in San Francisco! 

According to the article by Chris Sherman,  Chef Scott Howard cut his culinary teeth in Tampa at top-notch restaurants such as rg’s, Capriccio and Mis en Place.  Unfortunately for Tampa, Chef Howard felt that in order to make it big, he had to leave the area for a city more serious about food.  So he moved to San Francisco and is now doing things with food that Tampa won’t see for a long, long time.  I am ecstatic that a Tampa Bay chef has moved on to find great success, but in the same note I find it disheartening to learn of such a talented chef who felt the need to leave the area in order to succeed.

Sherman interviewed Chef Howard about his “move to California, his cooking philosophy and how the chains are eating Tampa Bay.”  One of those topics struck me particularly close to home, especially since I have done quite a bit of writing on the subject:

On what Tampa Bay needs to become a “food town”:

“…I talk to my friends every week on the phone. When I speak to Marty (Blitz) and B.T. (Nguyen of Cafe BT in Tampa’s Hyde Park), they say it’s become so saturated with chains. That’s the big difference. Chains don’t survive here. Or maybe, they don’t thrive. There may be an Outback around, but I don’t know where.

People here support individual restaurants and chefs; they really demand quality.

Of course you’ve got some really great restaurants (in the Tampa Bay area), but the competition from the chains is really strong, especially in the casual restaurant segment. You (Tampa Bay diners) just can’t support many good independents.

How do you feel about this statement?  I do my best to promote independent restaurants but I’ll admit that I have an occasional meal at Bonefish or Fleming’s.  Are we doing our best as a city?  If you are a frequenter of chain restaurants, what makes you gravitate toward them?  What would you like to see from independent restaurants to win your business?  I have my own opinions about these questions and freely admit that the some of the chains do a great job with customer service and marketing.  But is the food really better?

Local restaurants mentioned:

Restaurant BT
www.restaurantbt.com

Mis en Place
www.miseonline.com

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?

Since the last time I posted to this site, the world of food writing in Tampa has changed quite a bit.  Yes, It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but I’m hoping you can cut me some slack.  Brian Reis is still banging out solid restaurant reviews week after week for Creative Loafing.  The Tampa Tribune still has a pretty weak and unknown food critic (I generally don’t waste my time reading them), but the biggest news is the retirement of Chris Sherman, the longtime restaurant critic and food writer for the St. Pete Times.  It seems all of the dining out, eating and drinking got the best of him and he decided to step down into other writing roles that didn’t require him to eat as much.  It’s probably the best for him, but with his retirement I’m afraid we may have lost the foundation for food writing in Tampa.

For several weeks, the St. Pete Times had several guest writers take turns writing restaurant reviews before they finally chose Laura Reiley, a local writer and author of Florida Travel books.  I’ve only read a couple of her columns, so the jury is still out on her expertise in the food world.  That being said, I realized that we’re in trouble after reading her glowing review of two brand new chain restaurants making their debuts in Tampa.  Yea, you read me right, chain restaurants as a review in the paper.  Is she kidding?

I can understand a review of a higher class chain restaurant, like Ruth’s Chris or Roy’s, but the fact that she chose to write a column so early in her tenure about two mediocre, mid priced chains is alarming.  I’m not really sure where we are headed, but I don’t like the looks of it.  Another noteworthy retirement is that of Matt Ragas, a New Orleans native who’d been writing the food reviews for Sticks of Fire, a popular Tampa blog.  When I first moved here and was featured in the New York Times, Tommy at Sticks of Fire did a neat little article about me that created quite a buzz.  Unfortunately Matt will be moving out of the area in a couple weeks and guess who has stepped in to write a weekly food column?  Yes, it’s me.  Check out the site often and keep an eye out for some exciting talk about food in the Tampa Bay area.  Just in case you miss a post, I’ll re-post everything here as an archive of my food writing.  See you soon!