TampaBayEats.com

It only took me a year and half, but this weekend I finally found something I longed for in Tampa: a good seafood restaurant.  Sure there are great restaurants in the bay areas serving seafood, but I’m not talking about a fine dining restaurant serving a $27 entree of fresh imported fish with a fancy sauce.  I’m talking about a seafood restaurant for those of us that grew up and live on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  You know, the kind place with raw oysters served on the half shell, seafood platters, steamed blue crabs and cold beer to wash it down.  On Saturday afternoon I found it all during an early dinner at the Crab Shack Restaurant in St. Petersburg.

My girlfriend and I spent most of the day at the beach and on the way home I realized I was in the mood for seafood.  Besides, there isn’t a better way to follow up a hot day at the beach than with ice-cold raw oysters.  My friend Joe raved about the Crab Shack last week, singling out the taste and freshness of the Apalachicola oysters. After a quick stop at home and a little more Internet research, I decided that it was time for a try.

Located on the Pinellas side of Gandy, Crab Shack Restaurant is a local favorite.  With only about 15 tables, the place fills up fast and always seems to have a wait.  The building is small, with low ceilings and has the character of a run down seafood joint on the water; exactly what I expected.  The clientele is unpretentious too; a mix of families, bikers and young couples alongside the gray haired lady sitting at the bar nursing her carafe of white zinfandel.  It’s definitely not a tourist destination.

We started out our meal on Saturday with a dozen cold raw oysters on the half shell ($8.95) that turned out to be some of the best I’ve had in the bay area; salty and fresh.  Although I never eat dinner at five o’clock in the afternoon, we were lucky this time to have stumbled upon happy hour, which runs 4-6 pm Monday through Saturday and allowed me the to enjoy two for one draft beer and oysters for only $6.95 a dozen.

The menu is diverse and reads like a typical seafood joint: fried fish, oysters and shrimp, steamed blue crabs and they requisite seafood platter.  After eating them raw for an appetizer, I decided I would continue and order the Fried Oyster Plate ($12.95), which I enjoyed with French fries and homemade cole slaw.  The oysters were fried perfect and packed with flavor – I loved every bite.  My girlfriend decided on the Stuffed Shack Fish ($13.95), a large piece of cod filled with a blue crab stuffing then broiled.  The fish was excellent, but I have to admit that almost anything would be good if you stuffed it with crabmeat and broiled it with a heap of butter.  Unfortunately we were about to hit another happy hour down the street so we didn’t indulge in any dessert, unless you count my two-for-one beers.

Dining at Crab Shack restaurant was a winner and I consider it a victory in my search for reasonably priced, down to earth seafood.  It’s my kind of place and will definitely be back soon.  The menu has something for everyone and is one of the few places in town I have seen steamed blue crabs as well as fried softshell crabs.  Check out the Crab Shack website to peruse the menu and even print out a coupon for a free drink!  The prices are reasonable, the food is good and the restaurant has character.  When you are in the mood for seafood, be sure to avoid that “Joe’s” place and try out the REAL Crab Shack Restaurant.

Crab Shack Restaurant
11400 Gandy Blvd
St. Petersburg, Florida
(727) 576-7813
http://www.crabshack.com/index.htm

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.

One morning earlier this week I sat down for a breakfast interview with Mario Diaz of Channel 10 news.  We talked about my thoughts on evacuating New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, my food writing and my newfound love for Tampa Bay. He also asked me about the best meal I had eaten in Tampa and without hesitation, I responded “Ceviche.”  During that interview I told the complete truth, but if was asked the same question today, the answer would be different.  Last night I dined at Benedetto’s Ristorante Italiano and it was by far the best meal I’ve had at a restaurant in the Tampa Bay area.

True to my upbringing, we arrived at the restaurant early to catch a drink at the bar.  Cozy and cluttered with Rat Pack memorabilia, the small bar was inviting.  Segregated from the restaurant, it gave me the feel of a real bar where I could get a real cocktail, so I had a martini.  I didn’t ask for a “martini” menu, I wanted a REAL martini, gin with a touch of vermouth, shaken and served in an ice-cold cocktail glass with olives.  The art of bartending seems to be dying, but even in Land O’ Lakes, I found a martini that was made right.  I also watched closely as the bartender made my girlfriend’s cosmopolitan, as well as several other drinks that were sent to the dining room; they were all done well.  After chatting with the bartender and waitstaff about the food at Benedetto’s and recommendations on our evening, we were ready for the main event.

We were seated in the first dining room at a nice table out of the way of foot traffic, but in full view of the piano playing lounge singer.  It reminded me of the New York Lounge singer of the 70’s only now found in cheesy movies, but I couldn’t help but to like it.  Perhaps it is a throwback to old-school times when the music WAS cool.  I believe it still is.  The wine list is adequate and loaded with a blend of old world and new world selections; we chose a reasonably priced Chianti to pair with the Italian style food.  The complementary basket of bread began the makings of a great meal, soft, warm bread topped with garlic butter and cheese; absolutely delicious.  We also began with an appetizer of the Benedetto Dip, a shallow bowl of cream and cheese filled with crab, scallops and shrimp served with toasted crustini’s.  Though outstanding, it was very rich, and in anticipation of our meal, we purposely left part of it for later.  The salads that preceded the entrees were also good, dressed with the house dressing, a home-made vinaigrette.

When the entrees arrived, I knew I had discovered a new favorite.  I wish I could have seen the look on my face during my first bite of the Grouper Bianco; I couldn’t help but to exclaim, “this is how food is supposed to taste!”  The pan fried grouper was cooked perfect on the inside and was protected by a crispy, light breading, then topped with a creamy sauce with crabmeat, sea scallops and jumbo shrimp that tasted as though they were caught that morning.  It was absolutely exquisite and equally as decadent.  For a side dish, we chose the penne pasta with a pink sauce that ended up fairly pedestrian, especially sitting next to the grouper.  The best bet would have been to have it served over the angel hair pasta.  We also tried one of the specials, a crabmeat stuffed Florida halibut topped with a champagne cream sauce.  The fish was cooked until tender and flaky, and the light flavor of the fish allowed for the taste of crabmeat to shine.  The cream sauce was perfect, just the right consistency to blend well with my side dish of angel hair pasta. Neither one of these selections were on the menu, but were both suggested by the staff.

For those less adventurous souls seeking good but simple Italian favorites, you are also in luck.  There is an extensive selection of entrees including an excellent baked ziti and tasty lasagna.  The prices for the basics are very reasonable, in the range of $12 to $15 per entree.  However, the specialty seafood dishes and evening specials can find you in the neighborhood of $30, well worth every penny.  If you are unsure what to order from the vast menu, your best bet is to ask your waiter.  If you listen to your server at Johnny Carino’s, he or she is likely pushing the daily specials suggested by management.  At Benedetto’s, the staff actually eats the food, and they love it.  While at the bar before dinner, we were actually able to get some great suggestions from the bartender as well as some waiters passing by.  They all seem happy to be there, and that’s a sign of a good restaurant.

We finished up our evening with an order of the homemade tiramisu.  From the dessert tray, about half of the selections were made in house, and we definitely went the right way with our choice.  Rich, creamy and sweet, it was the perfect end to a perfect meal.  Fortunately we packaged up a decent portion of our meal (half the appetizer and most of the side pasta) in anticipation of dessert.  Make sure not to fill up during the meal, you won’t want to miss the ending. To some people in South Tampa, Land O’ Lakes seems like the other side of the world, but the food there is worth the drive.  If I could only have one last meal in Tampa Bay, it would be the Grouper Bianco from Benedetto’s Ristorante Italiano.

Benedetto’s Ristorante Italiano
21529 Village Lakes Shopping Center
Land O’ Lakes, Fl. 34639
813-909-9694
www.benedettoitaliano.com

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?

Last night to celebrate a special occasion, we decided to try Splash! Restaurant in Lutz.  There were a couple reasons for the restaurant selection; the first was a coupon for $10 off a dinner for two, but the main reason was that Splash! has the reputation for being one of the premier seafood restaurants in the Tampa Bay area.  Situated in a strip shopping center next to Subway, it is probably the last place you’d think to find an upscale seafood restaurant, but this one has seemed to buck the stereotype of the normal strip mall chain restaurant.  White tablecloth and all, the restaurant is cozy and elegant, with a square bar in the middle of the restaurant separating two dining rooms, the walls adorned with black and white pencil drawn caricatures, possibly of regular patrons.   The kitchen in the back of the restaurant is open, and though it may be a plus for some, every word spoken by the cooks seemed to carry throughout the back of the dining room.  After ten minutes in the place, I mentioned that I couldn’t believe I was in a strip shopping center.

We started with a bottle of pinot grigio from the inexpensive, basic wine list.  With prices around $20 per bottle, the wine list is accessible to any diner, and a “reserve” wine list is perched on every table for the discerning wine drinker.  As with any good restaurant, the appetizer list looked like the most impressive part of the menu, with selections such as Escargot, Ahi Tuna Tartare and Crispy Cottage Fries with Bleu Cheese; we decided to try the Trio of Cakes - Scallop, Crab and Ahi Tuna.  Of the three, the fresh scallop risotto cake was my favorite, made with the day’s risotto of spinach, sweet pea and tomato, although I’m not really sure if there was much scallop in the cake.  The crab cake was ordinary, but was complemented by a well-seasoned aioli.  The ahi tuna cake was also good and had a smoky grilled flavor that would probably please some and turn off others.  I enjoyed it; my girlfriend didn’t.   With an emphasis on the oak grill, I was not surprised that the tuna cake would be grilled.

The entrées consisted mainly of grilled fish, and rightly so for a seafood restaurant.  For the carnivores, there is a surprisingly good number of meat dishes on the menu that I suspect would be excellent on the oak grill.  But since we were at a seafood restaurant, we opted for fish.  Each of the fish dishes comes in an assembly line format: pick your fish, then your sauce, then your choice of side items.  The process reminds me of Bonefish Grill, but I digress.  We had the Mahi-Mahi, oscar style with Béarnaise sauce and lump crabmeat, as well as the Red Snapper with the Cognac Lobster Cream Sauce.  Both of the pieces of fish were outstanding, cooked just right with a smoky, grilled flavor and flaky and tender enough to eat with a fork.  I can’t think of another place where the fish was as fresh and cooked as well.  Unfortunately that is where the complements end, as the rest of the meal was quite unimpressive.  The oscar sauce was scant on crabmeat, especially for a dish that costs $23.99, and my lobster sauce didn’t contain a bit of lobster, though on second glance, the menu describes it as a “Lobster and Cognac Infused Cream Sauce.”  I should have known.  The side dishes were pretty ordinary; the tired garlic mashed potatoes, brown rice pilaf and sautéed veggies of the day.  I was hoping for more from a top-notch restaurant.  Each of the fish entrees also comes with an accompaniment of a Splash! salad or the soup of the day, which happened to be Lobster Chowda.  The salad was excellent and fresh, brought to the table in a metal mixing bowl, then tossed tableside with a parmesan vinaigrette then served.  The chowder was a different story.  Though I am from the south and obviously not a chowder expert, I can still spot ordinary food.  Again, maybe the lobster was “infused” into the chowder because I couldn’t find any amongst the chunks of potato.  With the fried onion strings floating on top, it reminded me of a canned potato soup.  Oh well, I wasn’t there for the chowder anyway.  Unfortunately on this visit I couldn’t report on dessert, as we were stuffed after the meal, but I’ll make sure to try it next time

I’m happy I was able to try the food and the fish was about as fresh as they come, but for some reason, I just wasn’t blown away by a dinner that ventured into the neighborhood of $100.  Don’t get me wrong, the fish was outstanding, but unfortunately it takes more than a fresh piece of fish and an oak fired grill to make a seafood restaurant work.  But I’m not sure they need much more, as Splash! has received numerous awards and accolades in the past several years.  I guess you’ll just have to try it for yourself.  On my next visit, I’ll likely sit at the bar with the neighborhood regulars, enjoy a martini with blue cheese stuffed olives and sample several of the appetizers from the impressive list.  While Splash! may not be on the top of my list of places to return, there’s something about the place that makes me want to try it again.  When you visit, be mindful of the strengths and weaknesses of the menu and you should enjoy yourself too.

Splash! An Ocean Grill
3973 Van Dyke Road Lutz, Fl 33558
813.269.8611
www.splashanoceangrill.com