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Neighborhood Report

Latin restaurant becomes a Pipo's

El Pilon takes on a new name, but its popular breakfast will live on.

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published August 4, 2006

After a 12-year run, El Pilon has morphed into another Tampa Latin institution, a Pipo's restaurant.

First off, Pipo's owner Danny Hernandez wants everyone to know that El Pilon owner Pedro Aramayo is staying on. "He's got a huge following," Hernandez said of the former champion jai alai player. "And he's still here in the mornings serving El Pilon's great breakfast."

Beyond that, Hernandez has made some significant changes to the place at 411 S MacDill Ave. He remodeled it in the image of his other Pipo's restaurant at 3501 N Armenia Ave. He described the decor as a "Mediterranean Hispanic" hybrid.

The menu has also been expanded with dishes such as steak Uruguayo (steak stuffed with ham and cheese smothered in tomato sauce) and shrimp al ajillo. Latin staples such as roast pork, beans and rice, ropa viejo, picadillo and Cuban sandwiches remain. So does El Pilon's breakfast with Cuban toast, Spanish omelet and cafe con leche.

Hernandez plans to expand the hours in September to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Hernandez's parents, natives of Cuba, opened the first Pipo's in Town 'N Country in 1979. At one point the family controlled seven Pipo's restaurants between Clearwater and Orlando. Some have been sold off.

SURVIVING IN THE BUNKER: For years it looked more like a shell than a bunker. But the Bunker is getting another lease on life when the old brick building at 1905 N 19th St. in Ybor City opens later this month as Tre Amici at the Bunker coffeehouse.

Tre Amici general manager Mimi Finley said the coffeehouse will offer Italian and Cuban coffees, desserts, sandwiches, and salads that make patrons "feel like it's their second living room," she said. It will have free wireless Internet. Beer and wine are planned for the fall.

Modern furniture, exposed brick, earthy orange and military green will set the interior tone. A sprawling light fixture made from objects found around Ybor will go over the stainless steel bar top. Work by local artists will hang on the walls.

It's a far cry from the building's most recent incarnation, literally a shell of just four walls, a ceiling and no floor.

Then it was reduced to three walls when a dump truck accidentally knocked down the facade not long after the Tre Amici business owners started leasing the building two years ago. But Ybor City attorneys Dale Swope, Angela Rodante and Debbie Natter - the Tre Amici, or "three friends" - pressed on with renovations.

The coffeehouse is part of a row of old casitas on the 1900 block of 19th Street next to Centennial Park. The Florida Department of Transportation moved the houses to accommodate the Interstate 4 expansion project.

The Tre Amici are leasing the Bunker from its owner, the Ybor City Museum Society. Rodante said Tre Amici should open by mid to late August. Hours will be 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

NOSTALGIA ONCE AGAIN: Now and Again II antique store owner Milton LaVoie is returning to his roots.

LaVoie is moving his business from Old Seminole Heights to Ybor City under the new moniker Ybor City Nostalgia Market. LaVoie was a longtime vendor at the original Nostalgia Market at Ybor Square before it converted to offices in 2000.

"It's like going around full circle," said LaVoie, who dealt in antiques inside Ybor Square for 20 years.

The new Ybor City Nostalgia Market will open in the former GTE building at 1701 E Ninth Ave. The 7,800-square-foot building owned by Alan Kahana will have room for about 80 vendor spaces, LaVoie said.

The store is expected to open in early September, he said. Now and Again II's last day was Sunday.

LaVoie said the new location will offer better parking and exposure than Now and Again's spot at 4713 N Florida Ave.

"It sits in front of the Hilton Garden Inn," he said. "We're right next to Centro Ybor; the trolley's a block away. The foot traffic around the area is incredible."

Do you know something that should be everybody's business? Call 226-3394.

[Last modified August 2, 2006, 12:57:34]