The Crazy Conch has made good on its promise and should have foodies flocking to Tierra Verde.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published September 11, 2003
[Times photos: Lara Cerri]
Sally Herb, left, and Michael Peel have spent the past year refining the menu and service at the Crazy Conch Cafe in Tierra Verde.
The 16-ounce Angus Strip Steak on Rocket with Parmigiano Curls is one of the cafe’s “no-carb” offerings.
The Crazy Conch Cafe opened last summer in Tierra Verde in far south Pinellas with tempting promises and vexing problems.
Fast forward to 2003. The Conch has made good on the promise of smart, casual food for beach locals. It's become a hideaway hangout for islanders and is well-positioned for the coming season, but it's too good to remain an exclusive pleasure.
For a caring chef and a young restaurant to survive in a year when so many others lost hope is a small miracle, but Michael Peel and partner Sally Herb have stuck to their guns and their plan. They cooked up a polyglot menu from coasts around the South and the globe, with old comforts and new flavors, fixed with from-scratch effort and uptown flash. For a bonus, the menu ranges from sandwiches to serious entrees.
Those lofty principles happen to translate concretely and deliciously into more than a few of my favorite things, starting with a salad of frizzy greens and thick bacon sweetened with caramelized onions, then topped with a warm poached egg. Skipping carbs doesn't get any better than that.
Then there are the house-made potato chips with blue cheese. Conch's first efforts were wimpy, but they're limp no more. Have them as a side or with a sandwich (maybe the rum-glazed tuna).
Conch also has my favorite Italian pasta, pappardelle, those big flat noodles, with a duck ragu. It may sound frilly and silly, but it's as rustic and hearty as any meatballs and spaghetti. The chef smokes the duck out back, pulls it like barbecue and adds the meat to a thin red sauce punched up with pepper and maybe cinnamon. I rarely find this dish in the Tampa Bay area, and I've never had it better.
Add to the inventive menu the best wine program on either side of the bay. Peel, an importer who's partial to Italians, has a short, smart list that includes more than a dozen between $15 and $24, monthly wine dinners and a Thursday night tasting flight. I lucked into the Thursday night affair with three sauvignon blancs, from a brisk New Zealander to a lush, perfumey Tenuta from Tuscany, complete with a handy chart of useful tasting notes. At $10, or free with a "large plate" (entrees from a $14 chicken breast or grilled vegetables on up), that kind of promotion makes wine fun for everyone. I dare other restaurateurs to top that. At least try. Please.
There are other pleasures, too. Limey tuna ceviche with guacamole plus first-class crab cakes - crumbs on the outside, pure, large chunk crab inside - well worth the $9 for one. Squash souffle proves once again that we'll eat our veggies happily if you put enough eggs and cheese on them (something parents and steak houses have always known).
The only dessert I tried this time was a sorbet of mango, actually more of a granita, made of fruit from a neighbor's trees. Tierra Verde is a long way from the Sonoma Valley, but at least someone's got the spirit.
The menu's longer on beef and pork than finfish, despite the name and theme, so you'll have to be content with a few species from the gulf and the island's backside mangroves. And the kitchen does take its time, but your patience is merited.
Crazy Conch worked long and hard to get it right, and it has. That's rare, and we ought to support it. And make the folks on Tierra Verde share their good fortune. There are 90 seats, counting the porch and the common table; you should be in one.
- CRAZY CONCH CAFE, 1110 Pinellas Bayway S, Tierra Verde, (727) 865-0633. Hours: 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Most credit cards, reservations recommended, full bar. Prices $7.95 to $18.95.
