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Everybody's Business

Frisco's Fly ready for Tampa launch

A Tampa native who co-owns two restaurants in San Francisco has returned to open a new bar and restaurant here.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published December 23, 2005

If you can make it in New York, the old song goes, you can make it anywhere.

Does the same go for San Francisco? If so, then Tampa native Leslie Shirah's upcoming Fly bar and restaurant should have a leg up.

Taking shape at a former downtown nightclub space at 1202 N Franklin St., Fly could join the all-too-rare company of Old Seminole Heights' Viva La Frida and the lamentably late Atomic Age Cafe of Ybor City, stylish restaurants created to offer musicians and artists a venue for their work.

Shirah (pronounced "SHY-rah") has the same ideals. "It's going to be a funky, community-oriented restaurant that supports local art and music," she said. She has faith in the formula. She co-owns two restaurants in San Francisco, the original Fly and Solstice, which operate on the same principle.

Shirah, who recently moved back to Tampa from San Francisco, and business partner Matt Sturm will render the Tampa version of Fly with "a New Orleans funk feel," Shirah said, meaning magenta, warm reds, greens and exposed brick will lead the decor.

The menu will consist of small plates, but not tapas, Shirah stresses. Just small portions of Asian, Mexican, California and Southern cuisine with modern twists, like gorgonzola mac and cheese and fried green tomatoes with polenta.

Specialty cocktails will be imported from the San Francisco operations: raspberry mojito, ginger rummy with fresh ginger puree, and mango caipirinhas with fresh mango.

Local art will hang on the walls and a stage will present live music. The 4,000-square-foot space will have seating for 150 inside, and Shirah hopes to add sidewalk seating and a rooftop deck in the future.

Shirah grew up in Sunset Park and graduated from Plant High School in 1988. While majoring in marketing at the University of Alabama, she worked as a server and bartender. After college, a job in data processing sales took her to Atlanta, then San Francisco. Shortly after arriving there, she realized, "I was working my booty off way too hard for someone else."

She quit the corporate world and opened Fly in 2000 and Solstice in 2003, fulfilling yearnings and skills growing up with her "foodie" father.

Tampa's Fly should open by late February or early March.

OLD MEETING HOUSE REBORN: A South Tampa landmark restaurant will reopen soon, trading its quaint-for-the-commoners legacy for a more upscale and trendy outlook.

Hardly surprising, considering that the former Old Meeting House is being transformed into nouveau diner Daily Eats by James Lanza, Jeff Gigante and Luis Flores, the same trio that brought SoHo the first Ciccio and Tony's and its sushi den adjunct Water.

At least a fingerprint will remain of the old restaurant that served South Tampa since the Truman administration and closed in 2003. It will still have the indoor lunch counter joined by an outdoor diner counter under the awning.

That's where servers will serve diners on roller skates.

Flores, the chef at Ciccio and Tony's, is conjuring a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. Samplings of it include hamburgers in eight different meats, assorted eggs Benedict dishes, sides like sweet potato fries and flash fried green beans, and a new creation called "shredders," a bowl of brown rice, shredded lettuce and meats, and an assortment of toppings.

The owners have traded the 1946 building's old-fashioned diner feel for a modern California minimalist vibe.

Daily Eats should open in early January, Lanza said. He and his partners also plan a Mexican restaurant sports bar, which will occupy the former Primadonna Trattoria just down the street and should open in three or four months.

Good news for Old Meeting House fans. Daily Eats will carry about 20 flavors of ice cream, some of which will be made by Old Meeting House Ice Cream, the S MacDill Avenue parlor that owns the original Old Meeting House ice cream recipes.

GROCERY HITS THE HEIGHTS: Abuela's Meat Market opened Dec. 10 at the former site of Ansley's Natural Marketplace, at Sligh and Central avenues.

The grocery, fresh meat, frozen food and produce sections are heavy on Latin products. A small steam table serves roast pork, beans and rice, and other staples commonly found in Tampa cafes.

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

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:27:09]