Restaurant news

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

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 …

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

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

Review: Food critics Raymond Sokolov, Craig Claiborne got us talking

The chew-and-tell food memoir has subgenres. One is the behind-the-kitchen-door romp, like Anthony Bourdain's excellent Kitchen Confidential or Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones & Butter, which proves every restaurant entree comes with a free side of crazy sauce.

Beach Drive's Birchwood restaurants open Friday

Doors open Friday at the Birchwood hotel's restaurants, a soft opening with lunch at 11 a.m., dinner beginning at 5 p.m. and the rooftop lounge welcoming guests starting at 4 p.m.

New Latin American restaurant in Largo cooks up tastes of home

LARGO

It's lunchtime inside the tiny restaurant on Ulmerton Road. While one customer waits for the arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and another waits for the pernil (slow-roasted pork), Edward Lopez was ready for his pastelitos (meat pies).

BellaBrava expanding on downtown St. Petersburg's Beach Drive

At the beginning of 2010, BellaBrava cemented Beach Drive NE as the up-and-coming restaurant row of downtown St. Petersburg. Owners inked a deal to leave Central Avenue and move into the 200 block of Beach. A few months later, Cassis American Bistro opened its doors across the street. And the Birchwood Inn, formerly …

Memories and dishes auctioned at the Wine Cellar

NORTH REDINGTON BEACH — This is what 37 years looks like. A guitar, a violin and an accordion propped against a stack of chairs. A hundred sauté pans nested five deep, their dings and battle scars on display. There's an antique butter churn and a tangled nest of Christmas decoration.

Review: Don't dare skip dessert at Cena

By Laura Reiley

Times Food Critic

TAMPA

This never happens. I walk in. The host is a little snooty. The place is chilly, physically and metaphorically, and there's a soundtrack of the kind of smooth jazz that's one step above waterboarding. I think to myself, "Ech, another new restaurant …

Ceviche hires independent inspection crew for all locations

ST. PETERSBURG — On April 8, Ceviche had its "Tylenol moment." Its St. Petersburg location, one of six, was closed for 24 hours after a disastrous health inspection revealed a raft of violations, including a serious roach infestation. The popular Spanish restaurant reopened the next day after an all-hands-on-deck …

Review: Pensare in Dunedin brings back well-versed chef

DUNEDIN

Michel and Robin Rey were big fans of Ciro Mancini. They enjoyed his work at Bellini in Dunedin, where he cooked from 2004 to 2009. And they enjoyed his food again at Casanova in Clearwater briefly in 2011.

Panera Bread expands its drive-through concept to Tampa

Panera Bread fans might shudder at the idea of calling the pastries, sandwiches and salads fast food. But that's just what the bakery and cafe wants to accomplish with the addition of drive-throughs at some of its locations.

Burger 21 to open a location in New Jersey

Here's another example of a local restaurant concept heading north. Burger 21, a better burger chain founded by the owners of the Melting Pot based in Tampa, has expanded outside of Florida with the opening of a location in Voorhees, N.J.

CEO of Checkers and Rally Rick Silva to appear on Epic Bosses

Rick Silva, the CEO and president of Checkers and Rally's based in Tampa, is back on prime time television this week. Silva appears on Epic Bosses, a special episode of Undercover Boss featuring updates on the most compelling bosses and how their undercover experience affected them and their …

Joey Biscotti hits the sweet spot in Safety Harbor

SAFETY HARBOR

Joe DeBortoli and Steven Wright opened their little storefront bakery on Main Street in Safety Harbor in April without any fanfare.

High tea for Mother's Day in the bay area

Afternoon high tea is about as Mother's Day-appropriate as it gets. Little pinkie extended. One lump or two, Mother dear? Care for a watercress sandwich, crusts delicately excised? The Tampa Bay area has a number of places to take the lovely lady for an afternoon of crumpets and such.