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LUTZ
Hospital food. It can be a two-word punch line, or a culinary insult — the standard for bad eats. Or it could be the favorite choice for lunch and even that special birthday dinner. At least that has been the case lately in Lutz. Indeed, some like the cafeteria at St. Joseph's Hospital-North so much, a few recently tried to make reservations for Sunday brunch.
"It's not hospital food," said Twigs Café regular David Bedin, 70, who discovered the gem after a doctor's appointment but now comes back every week. "Well, it is, but it ain't."
The year-old cafe's mix of healthy, fresh and often gourmet cuisine at reasonable prices has made it a hit among locals who frequent the cafeteria like a mom-and-pop diner.
"We come every week, and some weeks, every day," said Bee Stevens, 78, while her husband, Delbert, worked on his New York strip steak, tender and dark pink on the inside. The couple live 15 minutes away in Tampa, and neither one has been to the hospital for anything but the food.
"I tell everyone about it," Mrs. Stevens said. "I was talking to my bond broker the other day and he asked where I was. I said, 'I'm at the hospital for my birthday party!' He's going to start coming here now, too."
Executive chef Paul Finocchi rotates a creative and diverse menu that mixes fine dining with home cooking: roast beef au jus, fried catfish, horseradish and prime rib pizza. Today, for instance, entrees will include coq au vin and grilled mahimahi, with sides of potatoes, sauteed greens and white cheddar grits. An entree and two sides run under $4.
"Almost 90 percent of the stuff is made from scratch, all fresh ingredients," Finocchi said. "I care about the product. I won't put anything out here that I'm not willing to eat."
Finocchi, 45, is the former executive chef of Yacht StarShip Dining Cruises, which he elevated to three-diamond status with his skills in a cramped kitchen on a yacht floating in Tampa Bay, said StarShip owner Troy Manthey. In late 2009, the hospital selected him to lead the kitchen at St. Joseph's new state-of-the-art branch. The health care industry was certainly a change for the noted chef, but not necessarily a step down.
"When you hear about bad food, generally it's hospitals and airlines. When I saw the kitchen I thought there's no reason that that perception should be true. You have all the equipment and resources you need to put out a good product," he said last week, hours after he was named the branch's employee of the year.
Darlene Laney, the hospital's food and nutrition manager, said Finocchi has been crucial in achieving the administration's vision for Twigs Café as something much more than just a hospital canteen.
"The key to success is Paul is very visible in the cafe. He's a good listener, incorporating suggestions into the menu," she said. "And the product is made fresh, batch-cooked, flavorful, healthy, there's something for everyone, and reasonably priced."
Finocchi said the first months were full of trial and error, as he learned that some of his more ambitious dishes weren't selling. But after he settled in, the dining room began filling out, sometimes by customers who had no other business in the hospital.
"Pretty soon I started getting to see a lot of locals that weren't actually patients or employees of the hospital. The guys from Publix come down two or three times a week to have lunch," Finocchi said. "I'm capturing a lot of the neighborhood, and I have a lot of people that were patients who come back just for the food."
The Rev. Brian McDougall, executive pastor at nearby Idlewild Baptist Church, said his clergy frequent the cafeteria, sometimes all 19 of them for meetings.
"Our pastors are in the hospitals all over the city and in the course of making the rounds, we kind of discovered it that way," he said. "We were surprised, but walking into that hospital is like walking into a four-star hotel."
The kitchen staff also cooks for patients, a program the hospital calls "room service."
"Everything is cooked to order," said room service coordinator, chef Elie Rouhana. "If someone asks for chicken, we put it on the grill then, so he gets it freshly cooked and hot."
Patients consult with dietitians and then choose items from a bedside menu, Laney said.
"What's really unique about it is patients order what they want to eat, when they want to eat," she said.
David Bedin, a cafe regular, said the in-room meals were a perk to his short stay at the hospital last year, but he's glad the cafeteria is open to the public seven days a week. Heck, he even brings a date.
"My girlfriend comes down with me," the 70-year-old said. "She loves the food as much as I do."
Jack Nicas can be reached at (813) 226-3401 or jnicas@sptimes.com.
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