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  1. Asian super buffets in Tampa Bay: There's an art to the meal

    06/19/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    Two hundred items. That's two with two zeros. How many of those have to be great, or even edible, to make an Asian buffet a SUPER buffet? Teppanyaki Grill & Supreme Buffet opened in May in the former Social Security office in St. Petersburg: 18,000 square feet, 15 buffet lines, more than 200 items.

    Crazy Buffet, an egg roll’s toss from I-275 on Dale Mabry, offers pretty high quality and has the prices to show for it. And the interior is inviting.

  2. Review: Birchwood restaurant, lounge create buzz in downtown St. Pete

    06/18/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    ST. PETERSBURG

    There in the dining room is a man with a cowboy hat and the silky tresses. It's Beverly Hills celebrity stylist José Eber with a table of HSN folks. Glance out the front door to the line for the elevator to the Canopy Rooftop Lounge. Looks like maybe 70 people waiting, most of the women in …

    Friends Amy Potthast, left, Mario Farias and Suellen Bowe, all of St. Petersburg, share a toast while waiting for dinner at Birch & Vine recently. One quibble is that servers and supporting staff aren’t trained well enough yet.

  3. With Chicken & Waffles, one man's hard work pays off

    06/18/13 Human Interest By Katherine Snow Smith, Times Staff Writer

    ST. PETERSBURG — Towan Rush navigates his wheelchair through the narrow kitchen effortlessly and focuses on shrimp sizzling in a pan. Don't ask him what he seasons the plump, tasty shellfish with because he'll just smile, revealing his braces, and tell you it's a secret.

    Towan Rush, shot and paralyzed in 2001, later graduated from Le Cordon Bleu. He owns Rush Hour Chicken & Waffles.

  4. Tampa Bay celebrities share their secret restaurant hideaways

    06/17/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    For Tampa Bay area movers and shakers, a familiar mug can be a liability. There are those nights — after a long workday, when your sweat pants seem like two legs of heaven — when you just want a comforting meal, no hoopla, nothing fancy. You don't want to run into anyone you know, be forced to wear makeup or …

    Lawyer Lisa Brody, left, dines at Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in St. Petersburg with her son Clayton, 12, daughter Mara, 15, and husband Carl Brody.

  5. Salt Rock Tavern, Hot Tuna: a cool, neighborly combo platter in Oldsmar

    06/11/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    OLDSMAR

    In both cases, they are so new, and so popular already, that their websites say "coming soon," as if the virtual world can't quite keep pace with what's going on in brick-and-mortar Oldsmar right now. In a city that has had several waves of new restaurants in recent years, something big is going on. On a …

    Shrimp and grits at Salt Rock Tavern. The restaurant is from the team that brought the bay area Salt Rock Grill, Rumba, Island Way and Marlin Darlin.

  6. Margarita Mexican replaces Estela's on Davis Islands

    06/05/13 Food & Dining By Amy Scherzer, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Davis Islands resident and plastic surgeon Jamie Perez has purchased Estela's restaurant, renamed it Margarita Mexican Restaurant and scheduled a major facelift.

  7. Brass Tap adds food to its plate of craft beer

    06/03/13 Bars

    It's a simple cause and effect that works both ways.

  8. Review: Tampa's CopperFish just may be the best new restaurant of 2013

    06/03/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    TAMPA

    "It's not that we're angry; we're just very disappointed." This was the most withering sentence of my childhood. Like my parents could stare into my soul and figure out the best they could expect of me and discern exactly how far from that my performance had strayed. In a way, this job is like that. Figure …

    The CopperFish Platter, which feeds four to six, consists of jumbo prawns, chef’s choice of oysters, Middle Neck clams, poached lobster and crab cocktail. It costs $89.

  9. Review: Stann's on Fifth brings groovy 'casual fine dining' to Safety Harbor

    05/29/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    By Laura Reiley

    Times Food Critic

    SAFETY HARBOR

    When Stann Cherniack left San Diego on his motorcycle in the summer of 1969 it was him and a couple of other guys. And by the time he got to Woodstock he was 400 strong (apologies to Joni Mitchell on the lyric tweak). Cherniack, by his own …

    The Tie Dyed: seared ahi tuna served with wonton crumbles, cucumber seeds, avocado cream, ponzu sauce and wasabi powder.

  10. How does the Egg White Delight McMuffin stack up?

    05/28/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    At the end of April McDonald's launched its first new breakfast sandwich in a decade. The last one, the McGriddle, played to our weaker impulses, a sweet, salty, fatty early-morning train wreck that weighed in at more than 500 calories with as many as 31 fat grams. This newcomer is a little less self-indulgent: The Egg …

  11. Hootie's Dean Felber on restaurants and music

    05/28/13 Music & Concerts By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    By Laura Reiley

    Times Food Critic

    Hootie & the Blowfish started in 1986 at the University of South Carolina. Over the band's career, they recorded five studio albums, the best known of which was 1994's Cracked Rear View. Dean Felber still gets together with Darius Rucker and fellow …

    Dean Felber

  12. Review: Hootie & the Blowfish bassist opens restaurant in Seminole

    05/27/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    SEMINOLE

    They go by a lot of names: fugu, pufferfish, globefish and blowfish. By any of its names, blowfish has drama. The toxins in some parts of the fish's flesh can cause tingling in the lips, rapid heart rate and a host of other more serious symptoms. For this reason, consumption of blowfish is outlawed or …

    Bartender Bridget Stenstrom serves one of the many craft beers on tap at the Blowfish Bar and Grill. The Seminole restaurant, on Bay Pines Boulevard just west of the intersection of Tyrone Boulevard and Park Street, is run by Dean Felber, bassist for hitmaker band Hootie & the Blowfish. 

  13. New Florida regulations could strengthen restaurant inspections

    05/24/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    The thought of cockroaches in a restaurant's kitchen might make you queasy, but they may not be what should worry you most.

    Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant was closed for 24 hours on April 8.

  14. New Sarasota restaurants worth the drive: Made, Blue Rooster, Louies Modern

    05/21/13 Food & Dining By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic

    SARASOTA — This year has already been very generous to Sarasota diners. From a raucous blues club with Low Country fare launched in January, to another sultry Southern newcomer in March, to a chic New American brasserie debuted at the beginning of April, there are loads of reasons to head over the Sunshine Skyway …

    Louies Modern restaurant in Sarasota on N Palm Avenue has a garage that holds 700 complimentary covered parking spaces with elevator access.

  15. Survey says shoppers like the experience, convenience of going to malls

    05/20/13 RetailBy Susan Thurston, Times Staff Writer

    All this talk about online and mobile shopping might make you think traditional malls are becoming obsolete.