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Foodies, hoist the forks

Three new noshing spots - with solid track records - are coming to Fourth Street N, two at the American Legion post and one at the old Hungry Bear.

By SHARON L. BOND
Published February 12, 2006

PETERSBURG - Three new food outlets on Fourth Street N are in the works: Louis Pappas Market Cafe, Personal Touch Catering and Cities Cafe and Marketplace.

Two of these new places, Louis Pappas and Personal Touch, are at American Legion Post No. 14, which is in a complex of three buildings at 1520 Fourth St. N. The third, Cities Cafe, will be farther north on Fourth at the former Hungry Bear location.

The post sold the north building in that triplex to former St. Petersburg City Council member Larry Williams years ago. He intended to sell it but agreed to lease it to Louis Pappas for a new cafe.

Pappas and his family owned the well-known Greek restaurant with his name in Tarpon Springs until three years ago, when he sold it. That restaurant now is closed.

Pappas said he wanted to continue to cook so he built a kitchen in an industrial area in Tarpon Springs and began to open the market cafes, which serve Greek food, take-out items and specialty oils, peppers, cheeses and wines. The one in St. Petersburg will be the seventh, and it will feature specials each month that include some of the dishes popular at the Tarpon Springs restaurant, such as lamb stew.

"I looked forward to being down there," Pappas said of St. Petersburg. "We are not quite a fast casual (restaurant), but we are not quite full service." It is more a restaurant than market, though, he said.

The restaurant will have 3,500 square feet and seat from 75 to 100 people, Pappas said. It should be open in 31/2 to four months.

Personal Touch Catering left Mansion by the Bay in January. It serves dinners at the American Legion post several nights a week. As of Monday, Personal Touch will serve lunches of soups and sandwiches. Those meals are open to the public.

"My husband did not want to retire," said Midge Trubey, who with husband Ray Decker was running the catering business. Trubey also had a florist that relocated from 8800 Fourth St. N to 2140 Ninth Ave. N and now is operated by her daughter Melanie.

Midge Trubey said that so many customers and clients of Mansion by the Bay wanted the catering business to continue that her husband formed a separate company to keep it going. Mansion was a lunch place as well as a venue for weddings and celebrations. Trubey sold it to Dan Harvey, who plans to build condominiums there.

Decker ran the Mansion by the Bay program, so he just had to find a new place to continue. Trubey said the American Legion post had a kitchen that wasn't used much. Trubey and Decker brought in up-to-date appliances and decorated with accessories from the Mansion.

"We're trying to take catering back to the basics," Trubey said. "We're thinking of everyday people who want platters, who need something reasonably priced."

Personal Touch also will do high-end orders.

City Gourmet has been at 11140 Fourth St. N for 15 years. Steve Johnston, who owns the business with his uncle Jim, said he is opening a second cafe farther south on Fourth Street.

Construction started last week on the project at 3238 Fourth St. N, where the Hungry Bear restaurant was. Steve Johnston said he has owned the property for about a year.

The new restaurant will be called Cities Cafe and Marketplace and be akin to Fancy's, a longtime gourmet shop on Fourth Street N that closed several years ago.

Cities Cafe and Marketplace will offer prepared salads, steaks, seafood, entrees and pastries. It will seat about 75 and be open for breakfast, lunch and early dinner, Johnston said.

The cafe will keep two of Hungry Bear's walls and add on, making the new cafe 50 percent larger than the Hungry Bear was.

It will take about five months to complete, Johnston said.

[Last modified February 12, 2006, 00:25:19]