Marketers count on manipulating kids

By CHRIS SHERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 20, 2000

Ask any parent who has made it to (and through) the checkout lane alive. Kid-savvy marketers are manipulating the color, taste and shape of every known food to capture the "Mommy/Daddy-buy-me" dollar of children weaned on advertising, cross-branding and power-morphing.

Hot dogs aren't yet wearing "Tommy" colors, but Nicktoon's two-headed CatDog has become bubblegum and a Cheese Nip, Pokemon is bubblegum, macaroni and cereal, and dumb ol' red ketchup has turned oooooooh-grossss! green.

The Nibbler won't pretend to say where it will end, but I may have found where the commercial indoctrination starts.

It's very early and maybe with intentions that sound as pure as Sesame Street: a new series of counting books teaching little ones 1-2-3 with pictures of what someone hopes will be their favorite products.

The first, I believe, featured M&Ms in 1994. Now your kids' first math book can be brought to them by Sun-Maid Raisins, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Cheerios, Reese's Pieces and Gummi Bears.

The Nibbler's enough of a kid to endorse the idea of playing with your food for educational purposes -- the kitchen's a great place to learn math -- but you can do that without commercials or quite so much sugar and salt. If you want to give a nutrition lesson, stick with Cheerios or plain unbranded carrots.

Despite the hype, Harry Potter's a better deal: no calories, and you can count to 734.

Second helping

Nothing tastes better than finding an old favorite back on track, unless it's the rack of lamb at the Ashley Street Grille (200 Ashley St., Tampa, (813) 223-2222). It makes being right all the sweeter.

The rack here is not just fine lamb; the accompaniments include black-and-white orzo, ratatouille, eyebrow-pencil-thin asparagus and scarlet runner beans so meaty and smoky you could skip the lamb. Almost.

What's important here is that this and more first-rate contemporary cooking is again on the table at the Grille in the Radisson Riverwalk in downtown Tampa after too long an absence. When the hotel was renovated in 1998, it had a rare taste of freshness and quality imported from the Northwest. It won my palate easily as the Nibbler's best new restaurant of 1998, but chef Kurt Taylor moved on, and the hotel returned to ordinary ways.

Management commitment to culinary rebuilding this year has put Ralph Sitero (formerly of Bernini and, once upon a time, Le Bec Fin) in the kitchen as chef de cuisine and put the Grille back in the top-quality, top-dollar ranks on either side of the bay.

Food is straightforward with twists of fusion in the background and always smoothly prepared. Scallops big enough to stuff with shiitake mushrooms came with an exquisitely buttery sauce of roasted pepper and cardamom. Grilled shrimp were served on a glimmering pool of guava, pomegranate and other fruit juices that Klimt could have painted.

The menu is long on seafood -- you can get tuna "osso buco" and salmon with an olive crust. I stuck with a simpler red snapper, perfectly cooked with a crisp edge, crawfish sauce and an uptown down-home hoecake.

Dinner entree prices run $12 to $26, but you get the deluxe dining a good hotel should deliver. Ashley Street has the old niceties of a pleasant river view, a pleasant room and waiters who know the details of food, technicalities of service and the generosity of hospitality (but please, do give them cleaner jackets).

It has the rarer treats of a wine list that's both affordable and extensive plus a kitchen that cares about fish (except swordfish -- none here), fresh fruit, rare tomatoes, fine cheeses and good vegetables (especially great beans).

The Grille is shining again, and, if you need to dine in downtown Tampa, you won't do better.

Wish upon a Starbuck

Designer coffee and style just got closer for St. Petersburg downtowners starved for a jolt of Starbucks. After opening inside Tampa International Airport, Barnes & Noble, Palm Harbor, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace, Westshore, Hyde Park and Gateway, the chain has opened a coffee bar inside Albertson's (3700 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg).

So maybe it doesn't feel like Seattle. If you really came for a machiatto and biscotti, Albertson's has it.

Going dark

Closings of the old and new:

Schmooze, the most recent incarnation of the Clearwater Frisch's, which briefly became a rock-themed place run by local concert caterers.

Caffe Firenze, an Italian restaurant in downtown Tampa next door to the Tampa Theatre and the site of "Big Night" re-enactments.

After serving St. Pete Beach burgers, pancakes and coffee at all hours for almost 50 years, the Pelican Diner is for sale.

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