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Long live the evolution
[Times photos: Dirk Shadd]]
A customer scans the menu before stepping up to order at the new Evos in St. Petersburg. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 29, 2002
Evos, the cutting edge, healthful fast food restaurant, needs to continue to evolve to stay ahead of the competition.
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Drat, the Wednesday noontime therapist didn't show. No free back or neck rub. I would have to find inner peace at Evos with a garden grill, a Berry Berry smoothie and a sack of air fries with consciousness cayenne ketchup.
If that wasn't enough to achieve harmony with the planet, I could up-size my order. But that would push it past the tipping point for most of the crowd here except the powerlifters, for the new age fast food outlined above adds up to a respectable 716 calories (and a modest 17 grams of fat).
Evos’ All American Champion (a quarter-pound charbroiled soy burger) with air fries and a smoothie.
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A free massage would be almost expected in this environment, which may be why I was pleased to see it was missing. The entrepreneurial band behind Evos has spent a decade sculpting its menu and brand, from Good Energy organic coffee (shade grown, chemical free and socially responsible) to its Nickelodeon color scheme that can make you root for a little imperfection.
When Evos started it had hipper, earthier food, tabbouleh salads and other favorites of the Birkenstock school of cooking, but they served it with a keen eye on the Details magazines lying around their South Tampa lunchery.
Frustrated that even the young and the feckless still cruised fast food joints, they surrendered and went with the flow. Now they do burgers and fries but more healthfully and at a higher price. When smoothies and wraps rolled in from the West Coast in 1997 and created a new fast food format, they caught that wave, too. And if the Atkins revolution upset some granola bowls, Evos quickly adapted: Low-carb? Skip the bun and double the protein on any sandwich for $1.49 more.
They haven't missed much, and through it all, every phase saw fine-tuning of the concept and nonstop marketing. In the process they built a bold new place in South Tampa and flung branches out to the fringe of New Tampa and now into the central artery of St. Petersburg.
Evos attracts Gen Zen diners with burgers such as this All American Champion soyburger, along with salads and smoothies.
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Heady success on the business plan, but how does it play on the plate?
Take it from a bloody carnivore, Evos' greatest hit is with vegetarian burgers. While the big chains are shy on non-burgers, Evos musters three and I like them all: a burger of vegetables with dill sauce and cucumber, a soy quarter pounder and a skinnier lowfat soy patty.
Fully dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup and mustard (and even cheese) they satisfied me far better than the actual meat sandwiches Evos has added. The Montana free-range steak burger and the roasted turkey were so dense and low in fat, I thought they were soy. Trout was skimpy and bland too.
All come on the biggest, most-bakerylike bun a burger has seen in any chain. That may be a lesser part of the burger, but it's great presentation.
In wraps, one made with spicy soy crumbles had more crunch and flavor than a Buffalo chicken version made with mushy chicken and blue-cheesy dressing. The veggie chili has plenty of punch, too (great alternative for carbophobes). Is my inner vegetarian showing?
Evos has done well refashioning the other fast food staple, fries. The "air fries" are skin-on and baked fairly crisp, but they're best eaten right away. If you have to wait for fries, don't complain. Not perfected, but headed in the right direction. Evos' great reinvention has been ketchups of many flavors, made with garlic, pepper or coriander, but they seem diluted and need more fire. And why not color? If Heinz can go blue, Evos' palette could go wild.
Smoothies are smooth indeed, one product I can't quibble about. Evos has a broad range, even a few that, like the Berry Berry, weigh in under 200 calories. My favorite had chai spice and frozen yogurt, a milkshake in diet drag.
Post-millennial thinking has refashioned more than burgers and fries. The locations are stylish and fun for adults and papered with sly jokes and eco-seriousness. Managers, "partners" and "Head Coaches" bus tables to monitor quality and the cashiers and line staff in beards and kerchiefs are just as upbeat and proud. Take a wrap back to be cut differently or have to wait for anything and you get a "Thank you," or 'I'm so sorry" with feeling. Restaurants of any caliber could learn something here.
The big gap is in salads, prepackaged in a way that's for takeout but the lettuce selection is basic and the trimmings tame. Spicy mandarin orange salad, for example, has moved from Wolfgang Puck genius to commonplace, and Evos' is dull.
The competition for Gen Zen bucks and appetites isn't just traditional burger chains, but also Einstein Bros. Bagels, Starbucks, Borders and Barnes & Noble, and especially Panera (which opens another outpost on Fourth Street in St. Petersburg in September).
At their best, those chains cater to young appetites -- and dietary anxieties -- with similar feel-good settings, crustier breadstuffs, imaginative soups and salads with more edge, hummus, feta, goat cheese at similar prices.
Evos may feel it's been there and cooked that, but its rivals are doing more than playing catch-up. Evos has the system, people and muscular sense of nutrition in place, but it needs more work on food and flavor to get back to the future and ahead of the crowd.
Evos
- 609 S Howard Ave., Tampa, (813) 258-3867
- 19410 N Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa, (813) 226-3867
- 2631 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg, (727) 571-3867
- Hours: 11 a.m to 10 p.m. (some locations may close earlier)
- Reservations: No
- Credit cards: Yes
- Details: No smoking, no alcohol served
- Handicapped access: Restrooms adapted
- Features; Outdoor seating, takeout available
- Prices: $3.69 to $6.49
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