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On the side
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 31, 2000
FIRST BITE
* * *
Check out Ybor old and new before the crowds rush to the Centro Oct. 5. Already open and putting on the style is the Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn.
Once a clinic that birthed much of Tampa, it's now a 16-room hotel feeding and feting the city in (Rita) Carlino's, a grand new space for grandee dining.
In the kitchen, Jon Eric Kern (ex-Boca) and Carlino's daughter Kelly Chandler gild the menu with surprisingly modern flourishes. Duck breast wore a nest of crispy leeks and sat on spinach risotto; filet mignon was made more interesting with artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes in a finger-licking demi-glace.
It's all done with flair and flowers: I ate a peppery little orange zinnia with my cheese plate of grape leaves, apples, pecans and a crusted wedge of fol epis. Prices range from $8 to $24 (1915 Republica de Cuba Ave., Tampa; (813) 241-4646).
OPEN, SHUT
Sisters Melissa and Cathy Graf have remade Le Pompano into Ann-Marie's North Beach Bistro (880 Mandalay Ave., Clearwater Beach; (727) 461-7079). The updated menu has lollpop pork chops, herbed sea bass, shrimp with soba noodles. . . . A big play off the field by Tampa Bay Buccaneer Chidi Ahanotu saved the Nibbler's favorite high-style, high-tech sports bar/steakhouse/jazz club, formerly Bill's Sundowner, and remade it into Sacks (5401 W Kennedy Blvd., Tampa; (813) 287-2257) . . . Fred Fleming's Famous Bar-B-Q serves up a second helping at 2257 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Clearwater; (727) 799-3733. Summer saw the closing of Heimann's, which showed St. Petersburg how modern Continental can be, and Caffe Firenze, host of downtown Tampa's Big Night feasts
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