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Everybody's business

SoHo branch off the Chavez tree

Chavez at Home will primarily sell takeout from its 1350 S Howard Ave. restaurant when it opens later this month.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published February 11, 2005

The former Cafe by the Bay, one of SoHo's longtime restaurants, will soon carry a name widely known in Tampa restaurant circles.

Chavez at Home should open at 1350 S Howard Ave. by the end of this month, said Denise Chavez. She will own the business with her mother, Helen Chavez, a prominent Tampa restaurateur, caterer and former City Council member who now owns Chavez in Old Hyde Park.

Cafe by the Bay closed in October, a few months after its chef and owner, Andre Roth, died.

The restaurant will be primarily takeout, offering quick home meals for the singles-heavy SoHo area, Denise Chavez said. The menu will feature daily specials along with some of her mother's famous dishes, including Grouper Royal, seafood casserole and Chicken Bayshore. Desserts, salads and sandwiches will round out the menu.

Denise Chavez is also considering importing Brunswick-style stew from the Jot 'Em Down restaurant in Athens, Ga., run by her friend Elrod Simms.

She plans to keep the outside tables and have four or five tables inside. New awnings and a coat of paint are also in the works.

Denise Chavez learned the ropes apprenticing at her mother's previous businesses, including Chavez Catering, Chavez at the Royal, Chavez Windows on the Park and the Tea Room in Old Hyde Park.

In recent years, Denise Chavez has been running an arts program at Mental Health Care Inc. in Wellswood. She says she'll leave that post when Chavez at Home opens.

Tentative hours are from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

NEW OWNERS FOR YEOMAN'S ROAD: Take a New Jersey couple looking to leave jobs as a union bricklayer and a hairstylist and semiretire in Florida. Add a British-themed pub on Davis Islands that was up for sale.

It seems like a natural fit.

"My last name's Bond. I am an Englishman, by proxy," Richard Bond said.

Bond and his wife, Connie, bought Yeoman's Road Pub at 236 E Davis Blvd. from Joe Redner in mid December. So far so good, said Bond, who moved with his wife, daughter and uncle to Valrico from Deptford, N.J., in June.

"Davis Island was basically the quaint, little place we were looking for," he said. "Nice neighborhood."

The Bonds have enjoyed researching the pub's 12-year history. Richard Bond has contacted former managers, including Redner's son, Joe Redner Jr., to discuss reviving old menu items. One possibility: the London Bridge roast beef sandwich.

He has added four beer taps, bringing the pub's arsenal to 20, plus 108 varieties of bottled beers.

Otherwise, he has done very little to change the neighborhood favorite, Bond said. Already popular as a live music venue, Yeoman's now has entertainment six nights a week.

The pub's status as a free Wi-Fi Internet zone, initiated for a time during the Redners' tenure, has been reinstated.

CHANGES FOR TAQUERIA: Taqueria Quetzalcoatl, another perennial SoHo favorite, wants to add parking and alcohol.

Co-owner Jason Sanders is scheduled to go before City Council on Thursday to seek permission to serve beer and wine at the restaurant at Howard Avenue and Azeele Street. Patrons can buy bottled beer at the Taqueria, but can't drink it there.

Sanders also wants to convert the restaurant's semicircular driveway into a 13-space parking lot, which would ease chronic parking woes. He hopes to have the lot finished within three months.

Do you know something that should be everybody's business? Call 226-3382, or e-mail mikecanning@hotmail.com

[Last modified February 10, 2005, 11:48:06]