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For chef, seafood grill is dream come true

By CHRISTINA K. COSDON
Published June 5, 2005

LARGO - "My dream is right here," said Jorge Leon, smiling and glancing around the spacious dining room of his new restaurant, Jorge's Seafood Grille. "It's been hard to get to this point, but I know I'm ready,"

The restaurant, which opened May 24, specializes in seafood and some Costa Rican-style dishes, but also offers chicken and Ridgefield Farms beef entrees.

Among the restaurant's first customers were Belleair residents Barbara and Cleveland Branscum and Mrs. Branscum's mother, Edna Haynes.

They selected the fried shrimp ($11.99) and two of Jorge's specialties - sea bass stuffed with lump crab meat and Fontina cheese in a lobster cream sauce ($16.99) and jumbo shrimp stuffed with lump crab meat in a lemon butter sauce ($16.99).

"All three of us enjoyed our entrees," Mrs. Branscum said. "The service was great. We plan to return."

Before deciding to open his own place, Leon, 36, worked nine years as executive chef for four family-owned restaurants that included Sculley's on John's Pass and Leatherback's Steakhouse on Madeira Beach. He also has been doing culinary presentations for three years on Channel 47.

Leon said it took an investment of $250,000 to open the business and cover costs such as new kitchen equipment, a new bar and landscaping.

"Right now, I spend all my time in the kitchen," he said. The restaurant has a kitchen staff of eight. One of the cooks has worked six years with him and another, four years.

Nothing is prepared in advance, Leon said.

"I make all my soups from scratch and the sauces are my own recipes," he said. "We have specials every day. But if a customer wants something that's not on the menu and I have the ingredients, I'll make it.

"My present is when I see the customer likes the food."

"I like knowing that my food hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp for an hour," said Paige Gainey, the restaurant's manager.

Leon's introduction to restaurant kitchens was at age 8 when his grandmother gave him chores in her restaurant in San Marcos, Costa Rica. But he didn't develop a serious interest in the culinary arts until he was 19, when he came to the United States to study cooking and work in restaurants. He eventually joined his brother, an executive chef at a Paramus, N.J., restaurant.

He decided to make the Clearwater area his home after vacationing here.

"The climate reminded me of home," he recalled. "I liked it so well I bought a home." He and his wife Peggy and their 9-month-old daughter Isabella live in Seminole. Mrs. Leon works with her husband in the business, which includes a serving staff of 12.

Jorge's Seafood Grille, at 800 Clearwater-Largo Road, is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Call 584-7800.

EconOffice Products & Supplies has expanded and moved to new quarters at 640 E Douglas Road, Oldsmar. The 5,000-square-foot space is double its previous space.

The business has 11 employees and was established in 2000 by president Jean McNally. It provides office products and supplies online to corporate and government clients. EconOffice is the 2005 Upper Tampa Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce Medium Business of the Year.

Creative Contractors, 620 Drew St., Clearwater, has completed a nine-story, 286-bed hospital wing at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. The $57-million project has 260,000 square feet and was constructed in 23 months.

Since 1998, the firm has been contracted for 29 new projects at the medical center and is providing preconstruction and construction services for its six-year master plan. Creative Contractors was established in 1974 by Alan Bomstein.

Sue Espey Ellis is the newest associate at Prudential Tropical Realty, 2539 Countryside Blvd., Clearwater. A Clearwater native, she has a degree in communications from Florida State University and does volunteer work in Pinellas and Polk counties.

--News of businesses and business people can be faxed to the Business Digest at 445-4119, e-mailed to cosdon@sptimes.com or mailed to Business Digest, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. We are interested in new and unusual businesses, promotions, expansions and major new contracts. Photos can be sent, but not all will be used and they cannot be returned.

[Last modified June 5, 2005, 02:15:25]