Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Dade City officials say a new bakery and a new restaurant will help draw traffic past Meridian Avenue.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2001
DADE CITY -- At San Ann Chef, the motto is "Our Kitchen. Our Rules."
Across the street, at Garden Delights, the city's only open-air cafe entices visitors to dine amid fountains and foliage.
While both businesses would have been welcomed separately by city officials, together they create a bridge some hope will draw tourists and local shoppers across Meridian Avenue to N Seventh Street.
"That will help blend the community a little more," said Ginny Solberg, executive director at Downtown Dade City Main Street. "I think this is the beginning of the momentum. I really think that."
Last week, Mayor Scott Black welcomed the new ventures.
"I love seeing this happen. This is the beginning of what we were looking for on N Seventh," Black said at a City Commission meeting. "This is going to be a real asset."
The two enterprises fill a gap between S Seventh Street's galleries, antique and gift shops and the businesses farther up the street. While N Seventh has offered a busy shopping district, the businesses between Meridian Avenue and further to the north weren't exactly tourist draws -- an automobile repair garage, car dealerships, a funeral home. Then there was a vacant property or two along the way before the shopping picked up again.
Garden Delights replaced the garage, and San Ann Chef is filling one of the vacant spaces, a green building known either as the old post office or the old Goodwill store, depending on how long a resident has been in town.
Chefs Natalie Pyche and Pamela Diez poured tens of thousands of dollars into the building this month and started baking Friday. They plan to open their retail storefront today, with a case full of pies, brownies and pastry.
"It's been crazy, but we're making it," Pyche said. "We never imagined this."
The two women started what they envisioned as a mom-and-pop-type bakery in January with a small storefront in San Antonio, baking their brownies and cakes using household ovens.
The business grew in a hurry.
At their new headquarters, the two have installed giant refrigerators, cutting boards 15 feet long, industrial sinks and dishwashers and ovens big enough to stand up in and capable of reaching 800 degrees.
All the new equipment was enough to pop industrial fuses on the 7,600-volt power lines outside.
Tampa Electric Co. lineman Bert Jackson said his team was called to replace overloaded lines at all hours, including a 4 a.m. emergency, as the bakery prepared to open.
"We welcome them, we're glad to have them, and we're doing all we can to get them open," Jackson said. "But let's put it this way, I don't believe the Goodwill store ever drew as many amps as that bakery."
As he spoke, Jackson was preparing to sample fresh Danish prepared by San Ann Chef.
Pyche and Diez are joined at the bakery by Beth Reynolds-Tillack, who will run a gift shop in the dining area, and events coordinator Tracy Boltin, employed to help arrange catering and other touches for business events, weddings, large parties and other events.
"We can do as little or as much as you need," Boltin said.
Out front, the bakery that began with a homemade brownie recipe, will feature a mural of the company logo and its hometown motto, "Our Kitchen. Our Rules."
The bakery is scheduled to open today, with hours of 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Its grand opening is scheduled Thursday.
Across the street, Connie Jones and her family opened Garden Delights last month. After a lifetime of restaurant work -- and a stint as editor of the weekly Pasco News -- Jones said she was eager to help her family jump into the downtown business scene.
"Everything stopped right at Meridian," Jones said. "There was nothing to look at, nothing to draw you past there, to go down to the other shopping areas. We're going to be a bridge to those areas up the street."
Part plant nursery, part lunch restaurant, Garden Delights offers dining inside, but the big attraction as the weather improves likely will be the outdoor seating where tables are surrounded by greenery and the sound of water from a nearby fountain.
Jones, a native of east Pasco, said she enjoys working with daughter, Courtney, and her mom, Shirlie McCarthy, at the busy restaurant, which already has carved out a loyal following at the nearby courthouse.
The secret, Jones said, is consistency and good service for a lunch crowd that has limited time.
"I've always been excited about Dade City," Jones said. "I'm excited to be in downtown Dade City.