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Everybody's business

Music can affect the mood for food

So the owner of the restaurant/record store expands his dining area so he can feature more low-key acts for patrons.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published February 4, 2005

Food appears to have the edge over records at Mike Martin's restaurant/record store, the Music Spot at 1902 S Dale Mabry Highway.

Success of the restaurant has prompted Martin to shrink the record store area to create more room for dining and music listening.

At the year-old Music Spot, customers can browse through record bins, order a meal in the bistro and listen to live music. Perhaps it's a concept better suited for Ybor City's Seventh Avenue than Dale Mabry, but Martin seems to be doing something right.

Still, he wants to tweak things.

"I was scaring people away with (some of) the musical acts," he said. "Nobody really wants to come here for a really fine meal and hear some knucklehead on his guitar trying to be the next reincarnation of Hendrix."

So Martin is creating a second dining room by using 1,000 square feet of his 2,600-square-foot record section.

Martin plans to book lower-volume acoustic acts in the second dining area. The original dining/music room will host louder music acts.

Martin expects to finish construction by late March or early April. In the meantime, he's having a clearance sale on his used CDs and old 45 records to make room for the changes.

New chef Jeffrey Ricca, formerly of Roy's and Bonefish Grill, will expand the Music Spot's lunch menu and appetizer menu with items such as seared scallops and pesto mash on wilted spinach with smoked tomato jalapeno buttersauce, chilled avocado and cucumber soup with croutons and melted brie, and filet mignon tornadoes topped with crab meat and finished with asparagus and bernaise sauce.

Heady stuff for a music store. But Martin promises to continue offering live entertainment nightly.

SUSHI TO OPEN CLOSED YELLOW DOOR: Jeff Hall has spent eight years apprenticing at his mom's place. Now he's ready to run a place of his own.

SoHo Sushi is set to open in early to mid April at 311 S Howard Ave., site of the former Yellow Door restaurant. Hall's mother is Yoko Hall of Yoko Japanese Restaurant on S MacDill Avenue. She'll be part owner in SoHo Sushi, but her son will be at the helm of the 49-seat restaurant.

In fact, Jeff Hall will be slinging rolls from behind the sushi bar. His restaurant's concept will be based on Yoko's, he said, but with a few more contemporary touches. More trendy sushi rolls, such as caterpillars, dragons, volcanos and tempuras, will be offered, along with traditional favorites.

Jeff Hall, 28, is half Japanese. He lived in his mother's native Japan from age 4 to 13.

Yellow Door closed in June 2004. Its owners, B.T. Nguyen Batley and Norman Batley, plan to open the new Restaurant B.T. in Old Hyde Park Village in late February.

PIZZA ON DECK: Po'Boys Creole Cafe, a popular watering hole in SoHo, has a new neighbor.

Deck Pizza and Pub opened Jan. 22 in the adjacent building at 2202 W Platt St., just east of Howard Avenue.

The 1,100-square-foot space was recently used by Po'Boys as its catering and private party room, the French Quarter. Before that, it was home to Antipasto restaurant and Ravioli Co. takeout.

Deck Pizza co-owner Ryan Quinn said the location is a good spot for serving SoHo pub crawlers who get the "late-night munchies." He's a former Plant High schoolmate of Hank Brown, who owns the site of both restaurants.

The pizza shop has a covered patio with tables, four flat screen televisions and ceiling fans that make a nice alternative to the standing-and-drinking-room-only deck at Po'Boys.

Inside there's an open kitchen, four more flat screens, a bar and booths for about 25 diners. The menu is pretty straightforward: pizza by the pie and the slice, calzones, strombolis and salads. Beer and wine are expected to be sold soon.

Hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Do you know something that should be everybody's business? Call 226-3394, or e-mail mikecanning@hotmail.com

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 10:01:08]