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An early look at Big City Tavern, Dish and GameWorks provides an ample sample of tempting things to come.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 5, 2000
TAMPA -- Barricades and dust everywhere, and yes, tattoos and pink hair too, but your intrepid critic persevered to get a first taste of Centro Ybor before the grand opening.
Many windows were still shut but when I found the right red brick roads and stairways, the doors opened to surprise parties of wows. Food and prices differ widely at GameWorks, Big City and Dish, but each one has more visual excitement than five minutes of Cartoon Network and MTV. You'll think you took a wrong turn off Interstate 4 and landed in Downtown Disney.
Since the staff on the floor and in the kitchen was barely a day out of training in each restaurant, the ultimate quality is unknown. But there's a lot to like, whether your taste is high-cal pop or East Coast elegance.
I've tasted barely half the menu at Centro Ybor (1600 E Eighth Ave., Tampa) with three restaurants not yet open. And there are three more mega projects on our horizon, St. Petersburg's BayWalk; Ybor's neighbor and rival, Channelside; plus Outback's new Restaurant Row, three restaurants debuting near the Tampa airport.
We've got a lot of eating to do, so let's get started with Centro Ybor. The first batch of restaurants are open for lunch and dinner daily, not just on weekend nights.
Big room, big dreams. "Tavern" is a misnomer; this is the grandest space in Ybor and probably always has been, the top floor of the Centro Espanol, the 1912 jewel of the neighborhood.
This old ballroom is as tall and wide as a field house, with 20-foot windows and a magnificent bar running the length of the place, yet you don't feel small. You feel lucky to be here, with crusty, exposed brick walls on one side, a harlequin patter of red fabric panels on another. There's a big painting of a prizefight here and glittery mirrors there. Waiters in vests and long white aprons bustle among big tables.
Chef Matthew Ries makes straightforward modern American classics, neither retro nor frilly. Ask for a pork chop, and you get a thick one, juicy pink as ordered, plus a hash of sweet potato and bacon, with haricots verts on the side. Pasta? Linguine with clam sauce or whole wheat penne with porcini mushrooms. Or you can have a big burger (with hand-cut fries) or tuna salad (with basil and capers). Just don't pass up the triumphal lobster carrot soup or the pastry chef's blueberry pie.
Feel Big City? You bet. That's the goal of owners, Big Time Restaurant Group, which has five restaurants that have become crowded centers of power and style for revived West Palm Beach.
Snap judgment: If Ybor is to help Tampa realize its vision of itself as a sophisticated urban area, it'll happen here.
Prices: Lunch, $7.95 to $11.95; dinner entrees, $8.95 to $28. (813) 247-3000.
Don't wait for your eyes to adjust. This funhouse jumble of modern arts -- swirls of broken mosaics, Mondrian grids and the organic '50s -- sets the stage for unstructured meals.
Keep your wits though, for here you are the prep cook and the waiter; the folks in black T-shirts are just guides. Dish rejuvenates the Mongolian barbecue format with a flashier decor, a bigger selection and higher prices than a Chinese buffet. The new concept, known as Fire+
Ice in New England, will also be one of the big restaurants at St. Petersburg's BayWalk, opening next month.
Here's how it works. You pick up a tray with a big bowl and a small bowl; you fill the big bowl with meat, seafood, vegetables, pasta and such from various counters; fill the small one with one or more of a dozen sauces, ranging from barbecue to orange sesame. Take these to the massive round grill where a cook will saute your concoction, add your sauce and after a few minutes scoop it onto a plate. Take back to your table, eat with rice or flour tortillas (and go again if you wish).
The trick, and burden for some, will be picking the right combination. Do you really want chicken, scallops, mandarin oranges, portobello mushrooms and bean sprouts in mole?
My strategy is to window-shop meats and fish first (from lamb to wahoo and calamari) and check out vegetables. Choose a concept (fajitas, stir fry or pasta toss). Pick an appropriate sauce first, then load your vittles, remembering you can go back.
For me, that meant a still sloppy, gluttonous combo of lamb, beef, tuna and scallops with snowpeas in a lemon curry with onions and a few jalapenos for extra fire. I wised up by my second vegetarian round, penne with zucchini, portobellos and asparagus spears with a roasted garlic Parmesan sauce.
Price includes serve-yourself salads and a chocolate-dipped strawberry. Drinks are extra. The bar on the Seventh Avenue balcony is the best spot for drinking.
Snap judgment: A crowd-pleaser for big appetites, casual celebrations and do-it-yourself fun.
Prices: $7.50 for one time through at lunch, $8.50 with salad bar, $1l50 unlimited; dinner is $14.75 unlimited; children 10 and younger $5.95; (813) 241-8300.
This was the first Centro spot to open, full of video game flash and crash plus a midway and casino tests of skill and fortune.
It's already got a big crowd ringing its bells. A pinball-like alley sweeps children of all ages into the games, where you can race Indy cars or Corvettes in the rainforest and shoot it out with a world of villains, land a virtual barracuda or fight it out in old-fashioned air-hockey.
GameWorks also likes to play with food and drink. Arena Bar in the middle of the play zone and the more refined Hopscotch Lounge next to the pool tables, serve burgers, "buckets o' ribs" and modern munchies such as coconut shrimp, the biggest and freshest I've tried.
Margaritas, daiquiris and martinis are mixed with fun. Making a Big Apple 'tini with pucker and a Granny Smith slice isn't silly, it's good and crisp.
Jax, GameWorks' main restaurant, has a more uptown menu than others in the chain. It's serious enough about food to put its culinary staff in an open kitchen with a chef's bar and to set a grown-up dining room with Heywood-Wakefield cool, bright tilework and trained table service.
The menu goes from pizza and burgers to rotisserie chicken, meatloaf, spinach-ricotta ravioli at the most modest prices in the complex. A good place for adults to retreat, while kids burn away the hours in the gameroom.
Snap judgment: Never bet against the house, especially one that serves a 48-ounce Megarita for two.
Prices: $6.95 to 15.95. (813) 241-9675.
Adobe Gila's, an outdoor margarita bar set in a ramshackle hoosegow, opens this weekend. The kitchen forBig Mouth Grill, an uptown hamburger stand, is in place, but it will not open immediately. Cafe Mezzanotte, a high-end Italian restaurant chain from Miami known for its high-energy dance floor, plans to open at the end of October.