Antonio Santiago really knows a thing or two about Tampa’s food scene. He’s worked at restaurants including Piquant, Cooper’s Hawk, and with Ferrell Alvarez at Rooster & the Till and Nebraska Mini Mart. Santiago says he and Alvarez, along with his former co-workers, built a relationship that’s like a family. He says Alvarez has become a mentor to him.
“We have great communication and he’s a great mentor. I can call him for any help with Tapas,” he says.
The family vibes continued when Santiago and his wife Johanna Petel partnered with former Rooster & the Till co-worker Ben Pomales of Pickford’s Counter for a pop-up event in late September. Pomales and Santiago did two pop-ups at Urban Bungalow (since relocated to the old Pickford Sundries three miles away), so this occasion wasn’t new for them. The pop-up event featured fine dining takeout food. The five-course menu for the night included cioppino calzone, pork belly salad, and a cookies & cream latte.
“With the pandemic going on, we wanted to do something cool. I’m used to doing fine dining and that’s what I like. I hadn’t done it in a while, so it was good to get back to that,” Santiago explains.
Santiago began his culinary career at the Universidad del Este for a year before moving to Tampa and finishing his A.S. degree in Culinary Arts at the Art Institute of Tampa. After graduation, he spent three months interning at Miramar, a two-time Michelin star restaurant in Spain. After working in other restaurants over the years, his friend Jordan Hoeffner presented an opportunity he couldn’t resist. Hoeffner introduced Santiago to his now-business partner Wyatt Castelvi in late 2019, who was looking for someone to take over the restaurant from his parents. Castelvi bought the space for them to run when they moved to Tampa from Venezuela in 2018.
“Jordan called me saying she had an opportunity with my name on it. Wyatt and I met and the rest is history,” says Santiago.
Tapas Spanish Café, located in East Tampa at 1202 Tech Blvd. in unit 100, had been open for 13 years before Santiago and Petel became co-owners. Usually the word “tapas” is associated with small plates, but Santiago explains the word can also mean “lid” (as in pots and pans). The restaurant serves hot drinks, baked goods, and a variety of Puerto Rican and Cuban foods for breakfast and lunch. Petel is in charge of all the baked goods and pastries through her bakery Luci and Lucy’s Dough Table, which she runs out of the restaurant with Santiago’s aunt. A majority of everyone employed at Tapas Spanish Café is family, and Santiago’s grandfather serves as inspiration for a lot of his cooking.
“I come from a family of cooks. My grandfather was a cook in the Army, my older brother and cousins are chefs. I used to watch my grandpa cook a lot as a kid,” Santiago explains.
The menu ranges from $1.25 for a canned soda to $12 for their daily fish of the day meal. Everything but three items are fresh and made-from-scratch. Santiago currently operates the restaurant at 50% capacity with social distancing practices inside (think less tables and space between them). Online ordering and takeout are options in addition to delivery via DoorDash and UberEats. Santiago says when he took over initially, he reworked the new menu by adding a few new dishes.
“The menu was all over the place, so I wanted to put my twist on it. I made a few changes but nothing drastic,” he says.
One thing to note is how niche the clientele is. Tapas Spanish Café isn’t like the usual picturesque Tampa hotspots where locals and tourists alike flock to get the pretty Instagram photos. It’s surrounded by business commerce parks, hospitals, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), so the majority of their customers are loyal regulars who were used to the menu. There are a few customers who even have their same meal every day and never deviate from anything.
“There’s a customer that comes every day and all she orders is two medium eggs. There’s also a guy who only orders an omelet with tomatoes and onions. Same with coffee,” Santiago says.
The first few months were tough because of changes like new ownership and a new menu. Santiago says it took some time for the customers to get used to new things, but they came back around eventually. Having a niche clientele means a lot of their business is word of mouth but, between donating food, providing Alvarez’s Sunday Suppers with desserts and Google reviews, Tapas’ clientele and popularity is growing steadily.
“A lot of people that don’t work in the area come here. They come in and bring friends and that helps a little with creativity and menu specials,” says Santiago.
The café was affected by both the pandemic and the numerous protests after George Floyd was murdered. He was afraid Tapas would close indefinitely mid-March however he and his wife reopened it after one week when they realized they had several missed calls and voicemails from customers. One thing he did to sustain was cut the menu down 50% so he could prepare meals himself. He adds that many HCSO officers stopped coming over for a short time for safety reasons. They weren’t able to leave for lunch because supervisors were worried about them being targeted by civilians.
“Those were interesting months because we saw business get slower. For me and my wife, we were in a tough situation,” he says.
Fortunately for Santiago, he was approved for a PPP loan for $30,000 which went towards paying his employees. He was able to bring back half of his employees and remain afloat.
“If it wasn’t for the PPP, I’d probably still be cooking by myself. It helped us get to where we are now,” he explains.
Recently, Tapas Spanish Café was one of eight Hispanic-owned small businesses to receive a $2000 “Empresario Emprendedor” grant from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Tampa Bay, which Santiago is a member of.
Although Santiago’s culinary training is in fine dining, the switch over to casual wasn’t a challenge for him at all. He’s able to create whatever types of food he wants now and doesn’t have to worry about adjusting his cooking skills to fit any other cuisine. What helps him the most in the transition is staying organized and efficient. It’s even rubbed off on his employees who take those skills with them in their everyday lives.
Just from looking at Santiago and understanding how passionate he is about cooking, no one would know he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease when he was 16. He says he went to a number of doctors who misdiagnosed him until a “hippie gastroenterologist” performed a colonoscopy and correctly diagnosed the issue. Santiago thinks he suffered with Crohn’s for two years before learning what was really going on. He says Crohn’s affects him more positively than negatively because he stays active and busy. He’s made it work for him over the years with various medications and holistic remedies like supplements and maintaining a healthy diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables.
“Crohn’s has made me tough mentally and it’s not easy. No matter how bad I was feeling, I never called out sick at any restaurant I worked at,” he says.
Tapas Spanish Café is open for breakfast and lunch Mon.-Fri. from 7a.m.-2p.m. Tampa is his second home and he’s noticed how much the Hispanic community has grown over the last decade. Santiago says he hopes Tapas Spanish Café grows into other locations in the future to help create more jobs for others.
“It feels good to provide for other people too plus I enjoy doing this. It means a lot,” he says.
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This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2020.