The Nibbler

Can't tell the players without a scorecard

It may be so painfully hot in kitchens around the Tampa Bay market that some restaurateurs are getting out, but others rush in, both independents and chains.

As the Year of the Goat opens, so does KWANDA ASIAN BISTRO, an ambitious Asian restaurant in north Pinellas (30280 U.S. 19 N, Palm Harbor; r(727) 789-8988). New owners from Hong Kong and mainland China, working with Anthony Choi of the former Marco Polo, have done a major revamp on the 250-seat space.

Kwanda offers daily dim sum, Peking duck on demand, a sushi bar and live tanks for eel, freshwater and saltwater fish, Dungeness crab and lobster. The menu will include New Wave Chinese dishes and classical regional entrees from Canton and Hong Kong, including char siu (Chinese barbecue) and clams in black sauce.

Five years ago Ambrosia injected fresh cooking and Greenwich Village flair to the southern fringe of St. Petersburg's Old Northeast.

After months of deterioration and confusion, the struggle has ended but not the neighborhood transformation. Now it's catching a whiff of Santa Monica.

Last year Herb 'n Yoga (say it fast or very slowly and meditate until a smile comes over you) planted tall green prayer flags near the curb and opened a store selling organic foods, veggie bars and a studio for kundalini yoga classes and more.

This month HERB 'N YOGA (720 Second St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 824-9989) expands into Ambrosia's space, turning the main dining room into a studio while making the former bar area into a tea house for coffee, teas and vegetarian meals. John Bancroft, a former chef, says it will have room left over for a hair salon and other small businesses.

It used to be that Tampa Bay restaurateurs looked to Southwest Florida as potential colonies, not the home of competitors. Look again.

RIB CITY from Fort Myers, which trades on slabs of baby backs and half-pound sandwiches, now has two Pinellas locations (776 N Missouri Ave., Largo, (727) 586-6300, and 1550 66th St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 343-1103). RC has 13 spots from Gainesville to Naples.

OBEE'S, a soup, salad and sub outfit that aims to be the next Subway, started in Port Charlotte in 1995, and will open its 27th spot in an office corridor of Tampa (4210 W Spruce St.). Obee's has 40 more under construction and 1,000 under contract nationwide.

From another direction comes Tallahassee's Po Boy Cafe chainlet, which has opened in Tampa's SoHo. PO BOYS (302 S Howard Ave., Tampa; (813) 250-0434) packs a full New Orleans menu -- oyster loaves, dressed roast beef, gumbo etoufee and Sunday brunch into a diner-shaped bar.

A new take on Italian has shown up on the beach in a casual uptown menu at CALEB'S (6700 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach (727) 368-0081) taking over space that was Carino's deli. Food at Caleb's runs from lobster ravioli and barbecue pizza to veal saltimbocca and sides of warm sweet potato salad.

Meanwhile, CARINO'S focuses on its original location (9524 Blind Pass Road, St. Pete Beach; (727) 360-8502). It has expanded to add an ornate piano bar and offer lunch; the menu remains northern Italian with fresh antipasto, wild mushrooms and rich sauces.

BLACKSTONE'S TAPAS CAFE, a Nibbler favorite on the beach, is back in business with the old menu and some of the original hands. Former sous chef Stephanie Howser is in the kitchen, with Andy Rigusa managing out front, at Blackstone's (301 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach; 727-595-8911).

Department 86

Ambrosia isn't the only restaurant that has gone dark recently.

CAFE CREOLE, one of Ybor City's pioneer sit-down spots, put the chairs up on the tables for the last time Feb. 1, a month after OVO CAFE abandoned its birthplace location a few blocks away.

Another name from decades past, CACTUS CLUB, hung up its fajita skillets and salt rimmers in Hyde Park. That closes the book on the 1980s and the once-hot restaurants of America's Next Great City. On the Pinellas beaches, NADIA'S French restaurant and the WHITE HERON seafood house are missing this season. Likewise SWEETWATERS, a popular snowbird roost and a fixture on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater for more than 20 years, is gone.

Let it flow

They are wines we'll never taste and money we'll never see, but some Naples kids will benefit from the cash.

When wine fans of the poshest corner of Florida emerged from the auction tents and the counting houses of their third Winter Wine Festival this month, 225 couples had chipped in $5.14-million for children's charities through a top-this auction and dinners with America's A-list chefs and winemakers.

That's less than a million dollars shy of last year's Napa Valley Wine Auction, where thousands vie for hundreds of rare wines that include whole barrels. The 22nd Napa auction raised $6.12-million last year.

The top wine bid of the day in Naples was $210,000 for 11 magnums of Harlan Estate, one bottle of every vintage of the cult cabernet from 1990 through 2000; a case of 1982 Chateau Petrus brought $85,000.

No point trying to compete, but it's worth raising a toast and thinking charitably about our more fortunate neighbors.

The Napa Valley vintners tour pulled into Tampa last week for a $100-a-person tasting and auction hosted by Abilities of Florida, a sophisticated pairing of wine, food and charity.

More than 1,200 wine fans filled an upper concourse of Raymond James Stadium at the benefit, raising approximately $250,000.

About 70 winemakers and estate owners returned the favor by sharing some of Napa's newest and oldest treats.

They showed off rarities such as a sturdy Spring Mountain cabernet from 1985 and a fresh-from-the-barrel taste of Shafer's next Hillside Select. They also introduced new labels from old vineyard areas such as Oakville Ranch and Constant from Diamond Mountain.

48 hours and counting

Valentine's Day is Friday this year and the wise lover who doesn't have plans had best think fast.

Call today and if you can't get reservations for Valentine's day itself, all is not lost.

Sometimes Valentine's Day in a restaurant can be a zoo, and there are alternatives:

-- Consider stretching the holiday out to Saturday night, Sunday brunch, or even getting a head start with dinner tonight or Thursday.

-- If Friday's a must, go someplace reservation-free: grouper sandwiches and those famous walks on the beach or cotton candy for two at the Florida State Fair.

-- Or treat yourself at home: steaks, salmon, stone crab or grocery store lobsters with better wine than you could afford out.

-- No matter where or when you eat the food of love, the judgment day itself needs observance somehow. A card's enough, costs little and has no calories. Flowers, too.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

-- Food critic Chris Sherman writes about dining and restaurant news in the Nibbler. He can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or by e-mail at sherman@sptimes.com ">sherman@sptimes.com .

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