With restaurant, couple set own schedule

Now that the Skinny Rooster is up and running, the Combses are at work early and off early to spend time with their children.

LARGO - Katie and Steve Combs began a quest several months ago that would totally change their lifestyle. Today they are the owners and operators of this community's newest restaurant: the Skinny Rooster.

It began when the Largo couple decided that they wanted to spend more time with their two young sons.

Steve Combs, then a manager of a local Bonefish Grill, also wanted to put his chef's training to work for himself. Mrs. Combs took time off from a teaching job at Indian Rocks Christian School, and they began looking for a place to open a restaurant.

Their plan was to serve only breakfast, brunch and lunch, giving them evenings at home with their two children.

Early searches for a location were unsuccessful. Then one Sunday at church, Mrs. Combs said, an acquaintance mentioned that a Largo restaurant might be for sale because the owner was in poor health.

Longtime area baker and restaurateur Bruno Gallace had been plagued with health problems for some time and was looking to retire and sell his business, Bruno's Lakeside Italian Restaurant in the Village on the Lake retail center at 556 Clearwater-Largo Road.

The couple, both in their 30s, fell in love with the spacious garden-style restaurant with an outside dining deck overlooking a lake and shaded by trees and exotic plants.

"It was perfect," Mrs. Combs said. "We wanted a restaurant that could be elegant and beautiful but at the same time not intimidating - a place where people could come in shorts and T-shirts and feel comfortable."

They bought the business and set about turning it into an upscale breakfast, brunch and lunch spot.

Mrs. Combs directed the decorating - new carpeting, new colors and textures for the walls and her own mosaic wall art created for the restaurant.

Her husband took over in the kitchen, rearranging and installing new equipment. The couple's total investment in the business was around $300,000, Mrs. Combs said.

The restaurant can seat 90 and has been open a month.

The large breakfast menu offers many choices of gourmet omelets stuffed with meats, seafood and vegetables. Pancake selections include buttermilk, peach, almond, shaved chocolate, sweet potato and banana nut. Waffles come with a variety of fruits, and the French toast ranges from the traditional to the decadent. Crepes come stuffed with fruits or meats, and there are several offerings of eggs Benedict.

Luncheon cuisine includes salads, sandwiches, daily soups and lunches for children. Prices range from $8.25 for an open-faced sweet-jerked pork tenderloin topped with mango chutney on herb flatbread to $4.75 for a steaming bowl of oatmeal served with brown sugar and fruit. Children can get a pancake meal for $2.75.

"All the recipes are my own," Combs said. "Everything is made from scratch every day - fresh soup, quiches, crepes. Our breads are fresh daily from Bruno's Bakery."

Combs said daytime restaurant work had changed the couple's lifestyle.

"Everything in my experience has been geared to late-night fine dining," he said. "It's really been refreshing for us to make this change."

The Skinny Rooster is open 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday for brunch. It's closed Monday.

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