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Restaurant review

Ceviche, robust and revitalized

St. Petersburg's new tapas restaurant offers powerful flavors on small plates - so don't stop with just one - and revives a location that has drooped in the past.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published December 15, 2005

[Times photos: Lara Cerri]

Ceviche, a Tampa tapas bar, has found a new home on the main floor and basement of the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Petersburg

	The ensalada de vieiras at Ceviche includes sauteed day boat scallops over greens with candied walnuts, bacon, and cabralles cheese with warm vinagarette.

ST. PETERSBURG - "Mediterranean" was an architectural comic opera when the Ponce de Leon Hotel opened in 1922. No one would have dared serve something so Spanish as raw fish marinated in lime juice in a cocktail glass.

Tampa's Ceviche has brought its namesake appetizer and a full table of Spanish tapas to the veranda of the grand old dowager hotel. And not just raw fish: There's oxtail, anchovies, octopus, salt cod and white beans too. Restaurateur Gordon Davis has made those tastes a staple diet for the South Tampa singles scene.

All come with tomato, garlic, olive oil, pimentos, sherry and paprika for a solid taste of Spain, not so much spicy as robust and rococco. The new recipe for this old space includes a matching revival of the decor, with hand-painted tiles, Moorish arches and filigree screens.

After two months, Ceviche is already the most successful of the last decade of attempts to remake this once-bustling corner. On Friday evenings, the upstairs is packed, and the downstairs will be later with a crowd ranging from 20s to 50s.

Restaurateurs imported the Spanish custom of tapas 20 years ago, and Americans have slowly warmed to the idea. In Spain, tapas are small portions of bar food that go with wine, beer or coffee from late morning until . . . early morning. Having small bites of ready food at all hours fits modern free-form schedules.

Yet small plates does not mean delicate. This is hearty, often meaty fare; prices ranges from $5 up to $12. One can order entree portions called raciones, but why?

There's a big open table of olives, cold seafood and grilled vegetables, plus a kitchen rustling up hot stuff. Sticking to tapas portions means you'll try more. And you should.

There's a small filet and house-made potato chips, but the list of 60 items includes so much more. Where else can you have a small grilled quail, fried chicken livers in sherry, croquetas, grilled vegetables and cold calamari, all in one meal?

If you've never had oxtail, this is a good one to try, the richest part of beef braised in red wine and tomatoes. Meatballs, you know of course, but try Ceviche's, made of veal and chorizo.

Only a couple disappointed: My batch of potato chips was not fresh out of the fryer; the potatoes brava, however, was a crisp Spanish take on home fries with a garlic kick. Cured salmon and tuna was surprisingly dull, and scallops seemed thin. Still, you can have a good time running wild through this menu (and a bill to match if you don't control yourself).

The proper accompaniment is wine, of which there is a good selection, especially Spanish (I commend the Godeval from the northwest), or a beer, although the Spanish choices are scant.

Ten Beach Drive, the hotel's half-basement, has also come back to life. It's a historic site of a later time, the period of piano bars and long cigars, or at least lots of cigarettes between eras of prohibition. The bartenders wore black, and the air wore blue. The smoke-easy is back and it's crowded, but at least the music is flamenco, not Sinatra.

Ceviche is just starting, and it has a few growing pains; the downstairs bar needs unchipped glasses instead of the too-rustic barware, and the upstairs needs better traffic control and hosting at the door.

Yet Ponce, our first real estate promoter, may be right: Something is bubbling here. It need not be eternal youth. I'll settle for revitalization and grown-up pleasure.

- Chris Sherman dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays for all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for a review or the assessment of its quality. Sherman can be reached at 727 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com

10 Beach Drive, St. Petersburg, (727) 209-2302

2109 Bayshore Blvd. Tampa; (813) 250-0134

Hours: St. Petersburg, 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday; 5 to midnight Tuesday through Thursday; 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Saturday; bar open later. Closed Monday. Tampa, 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Monday; 5 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday; 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday; bar open later.

Details: Reservations for parties of 6 or more; full bar; smoking in downstairs bar only; live music, outdoor seating in St. Petersburg.

Prices: Tapas, $3 to $11; entrees $7 to $24.

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 10:46:14]