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Restaurant review

Change is on the menu

Though to some it will always be the old Meeting House, Daily Eats offers a new array of classics with a twist.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published February 2, 2006

[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]

Daily Eats sous-chef Andres Quintero, left, and head chef Mitchell Freibaum say that they’re taking an “innovative, modern approach to diner food.” Two examples are the Daily Eats Waldorf Shredder, left, $6.95, and the Kobe Burger, $8.75.

TAMPA - Some fans of beloved landmark restaurants love to grump that they're not as good as they used to be, and to fret and sweat when any change occurs.

In Tampa, especially South Tampa, where anything beyond a steak at Bern's and breakfast at Pach's Place is suspiciously nouvelle, they simply don't admit change has occurred. The universe still revolves around Plant High School and Palma Ceia Country Club.

It will take a while before they get used to the idea that the old Old Meeting House is now Daily Eats. To the SRO crowd that lined up the first two weeks, it's the new Old Meeting House. Schoolkids, seniors, cruisers and daters are back for burgers, shakes and fries without missing a beat after months of renovation.

Burgers and fries they'll get, but not the same ol'. The new proprietors are James Lanza and Jeff Gigante, from Ciccio & Tony's, better known as the Gang That Can't Do the Same Thing Twice. Yes, sometimes they miss the target, but they just reload and fire again.

Their first place, one of the new smart Italians, is still there and in its umpteenth menu now, mixing wraps with big bowls of pastas. Spinoffs in Carrollwood and WestShore Plaza didn't last, but a busy station in New Tampa and a wrapperia in St. Petersburg are still going. Plus they reinvented sushi as upscale low-carb dining. And in the former Primadonna next to Daily Eats, they're thinking Brazilian rotisserie. Honest.

There's no pasta at Daily Eats. Instead, comfort foods of Happy Days meet the lettuce wraps and mix 'n' match of the Light and Healthy years.

An observation/warning: Burgers and fries will attract boisterous families. With no sound baffles here, the best solution for curmudgeons is segregation. Come after 8 p.m. or sit outside, where the traffic noise is more pleasant.

Back to those fries. You deserve a carb today, maybe 60. The skinny fries are just that, thin and crisp, nearly frites all the way through the pile, a modest yet rare accomplishment. True wonders lie beyond in triumphant sweet potato fries. Every one was golden crisp, drizzled with honey, a pinch of cinnamon and punch of salt. If you can have them only once a year, you must.

On other visits, treat your arteries to lushly revamped macaroni and cheese made with fat cannelloni in a pool of molten cheese. Or go green with buttermilk-battered green beans with a crunch of tempura and fresh vegetables.

Fries and carbs are the easy part; the burgers are a three-step menage that would exhaust Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. These are not three-quarter-pound monsters, but they pack a lot of flavors in endless combinations. First you pick the burger's protein, 11 choices of red, white and non-meat (tuna, veggie, soy and grouper), then one of six rolls, breads or Atkins-approved lettuce, and more than two dozen cheeses, gravies and other garnishes. (I'll have my next with guac, bacon and Cajun horseradish.)

I can vouch for a veal burger and Kobe beef with caramelized onions, mushrooms and a tomato goat cheese sauce. The best, a premium selection, was ground turkey rolled in crumbled potato chips to give an edge to any healthful pretensions about white meat.

Skip the sliced New York strip; it's actually shaved beef a la Philadelphia. Filet mignon was sliced, too, when I'd like to see a plain old steak or toothsome slab of prime rib there. And while I'm dreaming of more more more, I'd love rye bread or bun.

Of course, there's pulled barbecue, open-face turkey, and mega grilled cheese, but it wouldn't be Ciccio's without lettuce wraps and mix-'em-up salads old and new. Here it's shredder bowls, lettuce and brown rice topped with meats and salad makings from Sonoma to Havana (with mojo cilantro and pickles).

Nothing wrong with healthful options. They rationalize shakes, parfaits and ice creams from Working Cow and the surviving Old Meeting House creamery. Only thing more tempting than a bowl of banana pudding ice cream is to layer it with sourdough bread pudding. That's just me; I assure you there are oodles of other choices.

Daily Eats is brand new, the menu is in flux and breakfast tables not set. It's already way out of the box, innovative and busy enough to shame the other new entrants in casual dining, $10 division.

Staff is just as smart, food-savvy and proud. Wine like Two Tone cabernet sauvignon, cherry-vanilla, smooth and only $18 a bottle, smokes the competition.

The Fonz never had it so good.

- 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

901 S Howard Ave.

Tampa

(813) 868-3335

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Open for brunch 8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Details: Credit cards accepted, no reservations, beer and wine available, takeout offered, outdoor seating.

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 10:29:26]