3.5 out of 5 stars
3159 Curlew Rd., Oldsmar.
813-475-4712; shakerandpeel.com
Appetizers: $5-$12; entrees: $3-$17; desserts $4; booze: $4-$12.
“Everything has its season, everything has its time.” So sings young Pippin, in the Broadway classic of the same name. It seems that now, we’re in the season of resurgent craft cocktails and an absolute explosion in the taco universe.
It’s no longer the world of Taco Bell and a DIY kit from Old El Paso. Tacos are everywhere, from food trucks to high-end brick and mortar purveyors like Hyde Park Village’s bartaco. Last week’s review included tasty options from SoHo Fuego at Bar HWRD.
This week, we’re off to Oldsmar, where Shaker & Peel joins its sibling Craft Street Kitchen as Curlew meets Tampa Rd. just east of the Lake Tarpon Canal. It’s a haven of suburbia, which is reflected in the decor and the teeming masses who fill the restaurant to the brim. I am there on Taco Tuesday (not to be confused with Margarita Mondays or Cocktail Wednesdays), but the hungry crowd is a cross-section of humanity. There are families with young children, seniors looking for a bargain, millennials drowning their sorrows at the bar, and everything in between. It’s packed and buzzing like there’s no tomorrow.
While the menu includes salads and a “wok & bowl” section with lo mein noodles, sticky rice, and couscous, they’re founded on the idea that tacos can transcend their TeX-Mex origins and that their corporate executive chef Ben Bowman is in the world of “anything goes.” Their reinvention of the taco begins with making their own organic tortillas, and utilizing slow-roasted free-range chicken and grass-fed beef. The cocktails use small-batch local liquors and the whole operation makes everything from scratch.
We start with a small plate layering shreds of marinated short rib and avocado sitting on bacon chickpea pancakes bringing lots of heat with squiggles of Cantonese Char Sui crema. It’s delicious, but very spicy.
Since it’s Taco Tuesday, we decide to run the table. After all, they’re just $2 or $3 each. The flavors are striking and bring together many culinary influences. And while S&P offers organic gluten-free tacos made fresh daily or local lettuce shells, we stick with the housemade flour tortillas.
Angry pig is spicy Yucatán pork pibil with crunchy green cabbage, lush avocado, queso fresco and spicy habanero coulis. Korean BBQ steak combines short rib, kimchi and sriracha mayo.
Tempura fried grouper has mango slaw, spicy mayo, hoisin chili sauce and the surprise of house pickles and sesame seeds.
The simple rotisserie chicken with pico de gallo is topped with shreds of Manchego and avocado salsa. The pulled jerk chicken shows Caribbean roots with plantains plus dark rum aioli. Short rib barbacoa with Manchego and queso fresco, gets a bite from the roasted diablo sauce and diced pickled red onion. The array of flavor combos is diverse, fun and uniformly enjoyable.
Perhaps the best and most unusual is the surprising flower power (veggie) taco on a dark organic hibiscus tortilla filled with quinoa, elote (street corn), jicama slaw, cotija cheese curds with cilantro crema and a microgreen garnish.
We finish with a rectangular “kitchen sink” brownie piped with ganache and a maple-pumpkin affair that sandwiches cake around a creamy cheese filling. All told, the tacos are terrific, but the cacophony reminds me of dining at Disney World, just so you know. You, like Pippin, must now decide if this sounds like your “corner of the sky.”
CL Food Critic Jon Palmer Claridge dines anonymously when reviewing. Check out the explanation of his rating system.
This article appears in Dec 12-19, 2019.