Politics, premieres and blooming Brandon

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published January 18, 2002

Black Heritage Week just got a little more interesting.

Congressman Jim Davis, D-Tampa, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., will stage one of the concluding events of the six-day festival with a community meeting at Beulah Baptist Church on Monday at 2:15 p.m.

Davis and Lieberman will field questions and address audience members' concerns.

Davis, who also will attend the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs breakfast and participate in the King Day parade, had planned all along to be in Tampa. Lieberman is visiting South Florida this weekend and altered his schedule to join Davis on Monday.

"Clique' magazine is launching its television show this weekend on WFLA-Ch. 8 after Saturday Night Live, and will have a premiere party Saturday at Club 1509 in Ybor City. Doors open to the public after an invitation-only fashion show set to begin at 9 p.m.

We've written before about the perception that the professional (25-34) crowd tends to congregate in SoHo as opposed to Ybor, but this is an event likely to draw a lot of folks from that demographic. The magazine is specifically targeted toward that audience and has met with success since debuting last summer.

The show will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoots, fashion events and entertainment events featured in the local magazine. The show is being done in conjunction with Vistamax Productions.

Three B's why Brandon is becoming a better place: Becs has moved to Bloomingdale Avenue, Buca di Beppo will open Feb. 6 and the Bucs are going to build their new training facility in the area.

Becs is a former favorite of MacDill Air Force Base folks that closed up shop on Gandy to move to a bigger location in the Winn-Dixie Marketplace at the corner of John Moore Road and Bloomingdale. Of course, a lot of MacDill personnel reside in East Hillsborough, and they are keeping business steady for owner Bryan Becton.

The restaurant is best known for dough-zers, calzone-type sandwiches stuffed with an array of different foods, and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Meanwhile, the decor truck arrived this week for the new Buca di Beppo on Causeway across from Wal-Mart. More than 2,000 to 3,000 photos and paintings are being unloaded to cover the walls. A crew of professional decorative painters will adorn the wall with Italian-styled art renditions.

And the pope bust has been sighted. It will be carefully placed in the center of the restaurant's famed pope table, which seats 16 to 18 people.

Doors open for dinner on Feb. 6 and reservations for the signature tables are always appreciated.

And in case you missed it, the Bucs are slated to start building a new training facility in Brandon in April. With the Lightning already conducting practices in Brandon, this makes East Hillsborough the predominant home of Tampa's professional athletes.

Here's another restaurant note: Bonefish Grill, already thriving in South Tampa (and drawing quite an attractive crowd, according to one single friend) now has designs on a second Hillsborough location in Carrollwood. The old Bennigan's just north of Fletcher on Dale Mabry is being converted and should open on Feb. 25 next to a new Panera Bread.

Don't forget about the Black Heritage Festival's street festival, which kicks off this morning at 11 in Curtis Hixon Park. The highlight of the first day will be Theo Valentin & Friends performing on the main stage at 8 p.m. and Fred Johnson taking over at 9 p.m.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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