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Restaurant news

High fusion

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published April 13, 2005

Asia meets Europe with a bang at opposite ends of Tampa.

-- Carrollwood gets a whiff of high-end dining at Opium, a dark red and black jewel box that showcases California French-Asian cooking and the owner's collection of antique opium pipes.

He is David Kao, an international businessman with restaurants in Hong Kong and Melbourne. Chef Caroline Thaxton is a Tampa native and formerly with the Signature Room.

The menu starts with lobster-shiitake crepes and foie gras with peppered peaches and tops out with butter-poached lobster and leek fondue, venison rouladen and filet with sauce perigord. Dinner entrees at Opium (14445 N Dale Mabry Highway; (813) 908-8800) run $20 to $38.

--B.T. Nguyen completed the move from Gandy Boulevard to Olde Hyde Park Village, injecting her eclectic style into the genteel village with Restaurant B.T. (1633 W Snow Ave.; (813) 258-1916). The flat-iron space, formerly Mia's, is now sleek, bright and sunflower yellow. The menu is chic and pan-Asian with classics including pumpkin soup, seared salmon salad and such from Nguyen's three former spots. A lively crowd fills the dining room and Nguyen's first bar right out of the box.

Lunch includes Vietnamese sandwiches, salads and more ($8.95 to $12.95); the dinner menu includes smoked eel on cucumber and ginger prawns (entrees, $16.95 top $26.95).

-- Silk (1120 Central Ave.; (727) 820-9500) puts out a global midday menu through a tiny diner window onto sidewalk tables just west of downtown St. Petersburg in the shadow of Tropicana Field. Salads from Middle Eastern spices to Norwegian salmon and blinis, pizzas, crepes and chocolate mousse run $4.99 to $11.99.

-- New owners have revamped an old Middle Eastern baksha into a Lebanese bakery, market and restaurant. The new menu at Petra (4812 E Busch Blvd., Tampa, (813) 984-9800) includes red lentil soup, kibbeh, labneh yogurt, bread salads, shakshoka eggs, chicken and beef shawarma and kebabs.

-- Colorado-based Nick-N-Willy's Pizza brings take-n-bake to the Tampa Bay area (325 W Bay Drive, Largo; (727) 588-9208 and 5145 34th St. S, St. Petersburg; (727) 867-8000). They do have seats and eats, but the big pitch is a new division of labor. You order; they toss, sauce and dress the pie; you drive it home and bake it 10 to 15 minutes when you want.

It is more work than delivery, but the pizza is hot and your house smells like a pizza parlor (that's a good thing). Baked personal size are $3.99 to $5.99. Take-home pies run $6.99 to $18.99.

--Old Chicago, part of the Rock Bottom group in Denver, now has three units here in Brandon, Clearwater and Palm Harbor. The menu covers pizza, pasta, calzones, stromboli and sandwiches and a 100-plus beer list long on microbrews.

--RJ Gator's, a chain of Florida-themed neighborhood grills from Stuart, plans to open 10 restaurants around Tampa Bay. The menu includes gator tail, wings, grinders, burgers, seafood and jerk chicken with requisite black bean trimmings.

--The Taco Bell boycott organized by farm workers in Florida tomato fields ended last month with the parent company's agreement to pop an extra penny per pound for Florida tomatoes. The company also agreed to a code of conduct requiring its suppliers to provide better working conditions, inspections and grievance procedures.

[Last modified April 12, 2005, 12:51:04]