Family-style restaurant takes citified approach

A Beef O'Brady's with an outdoor dining deck is set to open on Channelside Drive, just blocks from the downtown business district.

By MICHAEL CANNING, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 19, 2002

NEW BEEF 0'BRADY'S DOWNTOWN: This one will be a more urban, slightly more urbane, departure from the chain's predominantly family-style sports restaurants. Though it's not in suburbia like most of the 74 other locations, spokeswoman Karen Garcia says the new location at 490 Channelside Drive is appealing. It's just outside the central business district and across the street from the Ice Palace. An outdoor dining deck will further distinguish this link of the Tampa-based chain.

It's tentatively scheduled to open April 29.

What won't change is the menu and the company's philosophy on family atmosphere. There'll be no hard liquor or games that involve person-to-person competition like billiards and darts. There will be video games, though they probably won't be hogged by company founder Jim Mellody, like in the television commercial. The semiretired Mellody still pops into the restaurants for visits but is more into golf these days.

MORE TAPAS ON SOHO: Sangria's opened two weeks ago, somewhat later than the projected Valentine's Day opening we reported here. But business has nonetheless been overwhelming, according to co-owner Andrew Wilkins.

Located at 315 S Howard Ave. (site of the former New England Lobster Pound), it ended Ceviche's five-year run as South Tampa's only tapas restaurant. Small, appetizer-sized dishes are also featured right next door at the Yellow Door. Though not tapas in the traditional Spanish-Mediterranean style, the pan-Asian restaurant can be counted as a kindred soul to Ceviche and Sangria's. Their credo: small dishes can pack big flavor.

Sangria's other co-owners are Victor Perez, formerly of Estela's Mexican restaurants, and Rui Pedroso, a former Ceviche chef.

HYDE PARK NORTH OFFICES: The blighted blocks south of Kennedy Boulevard near downtown are getting another shot in the arm. A group of overgrown, littered lots on Cleveland Street between Edison and Delaware will give way to Park Place.

Groundbreaking on the office condominium project is in a few weeks. Four one-story buildings will range in size from 3,055 to 3,400 square feet and can be subdivided. But only two are still for sale, according to Gary Cohen, co-president of ABC Capital Corp., Park Place's developer. Construction should be complete by late summer or early fall, he said.

The buildings' architectural style will be -- are you sitting down? -- Mediterranean. Is it us, or does it seem like every other new commercial building in South Tampa is a Med?

MARTY'S DELI: THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES: Is it at Kennedy and Lois, or a little further west on Kennedy? Or on South Dale Mabry across the street from Plant High? Or in a host of corporate parks from Sabal Park to Pinellas County?

Marty Terle has opened his deli -- and at times, delis -- at all those places. Those who know a good reuben will remember it was last at 2307 S Dale Mabry Highway, now home to the Bamboo Flute restaurant.

Terle, a 14-year veteran at 1540 S Dale Mabry, recently bought Sunshine Bagel Co. and moved his resurrected deli into that location. If you're keeping score, it's now called Sunshine Bagel and Marty's Deli. It's like whitefish salad and Bermuda onion: sounds a little weird, but actually makes a good combination.

Terle said 80 percent of his old menu is offered in this new incarnation. That includes his famous reubens, and his San Fran deluxe sandwich, a turkey, Havarti, avocado, tomato and grilled sourdough number.

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