There was a time, decades ago during the Dark Ages, when Howard Avenue was mostly residential and had only two restaurants of note: Tampa's most famous eatery, Bern's Steak House; and the Old Meeting House, which specialized in home-cooked Southern fare in a 1950s setting.
If you were hungry for something other than steak or hamburgers and fried chicken, you were out of luck.
We can attribute the changes in part to unprecedented prosperity in the 20th Century that resulted in a steadily larger proportion of the food dollar being spent outside the home, according to studies by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
In 1955, for example, just 25 percent of each American food dollar was spent away from home; in 2001, the number had leapt to 46 percent, and by 2010, it is expected to reach 53 percent, according to statistics compiled by the Institute and the National Restaurant Association.
We can see these trends clearly in our own back yard, along Howard Avenue. A six-block stretch roughly from Platt Street to Bayshore Boulevard, including Hyde Park Village and a couple of blocks either side of Howard, now boasts nearly 40 restaurants.
They offer everything from Thailand's national dish to Japanese sushi to Italian gnocchi, healthful fast food, Mexican quesadillas, Vietnamese seafood, traditional Cuban black bean soup or New York-style pizza.
Here are a few new additions to the Hyde Park's thriving restaurant scene.
Jekyll's Located in what was once a private house at the far southern end of Hyde Park Village, it was for many years a cafe operated by longtime Tampa restaurateur Helen Chavez. After she retired, it went through a number of incarnations before opening as Jekyll's.
We ate a decidedly mediocre breakfast recently in its tidy front dining room, though we enjoyed its pretty aqua, purple and gold color scheme, crisp black-and-white tile floors, and a big patio outside where people can stop to sit under big umbrellas and sip coffee.
On the menu are pastries, crepes, soups and wraps, casual salads, ice creams and pizza. We ordered blueberry crepes ($6.50), lovely to look at, but alas, cold from fridge or freezer, and oozing what tasted like commercially made blueberry pie filling. Similar problems plagued the breakfast burrito ($5.25), its tortilla cold as a polar bear's claw, stuffed with a forgettable filling of eggs, potatoes, green peppers and onions, and a side dish of fried potatoes that had that Sad Sack look from sitting too long on the grill.
I left the burrito on the plate, sipping caffe latte ($2.50, regular). When it was gone, I ordered conventional coffee ($1.50, regular). It exhibited all the charm of industrial solvent from overstaying its welcome in the coffeepot.
Dessert was raspberry mousse towers ($2.50), so-so mousse set on a ho-hum, cake-y foundation. But the service was friendly, alert and speedy.
Mia's Just up the block from Jekyll's, it opened on Dec. 15. The restaurant's glamorous interior is done in a fierce lime green matched with blue; its tables and booths looking out big front windows.
We found the fare uneven. Some dishes were totally delectable and others I don't think my dog would eat. On the minus side was the crab cake appetizer ($8.95), served with smoked corn, sweet pepper and tomato sauce; the sauce was excellent with a biting heft, but the crab cakes themselves were dry and awfully dull.
A dish that simply failed to ignite any enthusiasm was a chicken pasta ($12.95) with small bits of dark meat, wild mushrooms, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and caramelized onions, tossed with penne pasta and veal demi-glace. It probably sounded good when the chef thought of it, but in practice it needed more flavor, more oomph. White meat might have helped too.
On the plus side, were a good Caesar salad ($5.25), a healthy serving of romaine topped with sunny shreds of Parmesan; and a cup of Southwestern tomato bisque ($2.95, cup, bowl $4.95), a rich meld of fresh tomato set in a well-done broth; and a petite filet ($19.95) done exactly to medium-rare and anchored in a pool of deep brown, no-nonsense gravy.
Dessert really shone: Southern bourbon chocolate bread pudding made from croissants ($5.95), with a top-knot of creme Anglaise and whipped cream. Or the "cookie from heaven," ($5.25) aptly named because it entailed a big wheel of toffee cookie atop ice cream, lavished with warm chocolate sauce, toasted walnuts and whipped cream. Those with a sweet tooth should definitely make a visit to Mia's.
The Yellow Door My favorite new entry in the Hyde Park dining scene, it sits anonymously on the northern end of Howard Avenue, except for its neon yellow door. Owned by B.T. Nguyen-Batley, who also operates another restaurant, Cafe BT, at 3324 W. Gandy Blvd. The Yellow Door is Restaurant Royalty. It's a fabulously original, creative and consistent restaurant that any foodie would love.
I tried a number of dishes, and was astonished at their complexity and sheer exuberance. Starting with an appetizer called vegetarian tofu ($10.95), a Vietnamese dish that featured tofu pouches filled with a mix of lily buds, mushrooms, bean curd, noodles, ginger and scallions, I was just knocked out by varied textures, tastes and its striking tomato and pineapple sauce.
Moving on to the entree, I tried the exotic snapper ($25), a Laotian/Cambodian dish featuring a whole fresh red snapper stuffed with a mix of lemongrass, chili flakes, bay leaves, galanga, garlic and curry paste, baked to tasty perfection encased in fresh banana leaves. I nearly dropped my fancy chopsticks in a fit of swooning.
Could dessert match the first two courses? I wondered. Sure enough, out came an amazingly perfect rich, dark chocolate mousse ($6.95), served with fresh berries, so delicate and creamy, along with an unusual lotus seed pudding ($5.95) mildly sweet with coconut broth and teased with toasted sesame seeds. Fabulous.
Sure, the competition in Hyde Park is cutthroat, but the market produces a |remarkable range of unparalleled choices. We are lucky to be able to sample some of the whole world's extraordinary culinary delights, all Howard Avenue's delicious denizens.
Contact food critic Sara Kennedy at sara.kennedy@weeklyplanet.com or call 813-248-8888, ext. 116.
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2002.