c/o Slide
Joe Dodd swears there’s nothing special about the burger his new concept, Slide, is bringing to the Flocalé food hall in Seminole Heights.
That’s what happened when Joe Dodd casually made a burger for his cooks, who then looked at each other and said, “this has got to be on the menu.”
Dodd, founder of Tampa’s ever-expanding Nashville hot chicken chain King of the Coop, swears there’s nothing special about the burger his new concept, Slide, is bringing to the Flocalé food hall located at 5910 N Florida Ave. in Seminole Heights starting Thursday, July 28.
“There’s nothing to it, it’s very simple,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “There’s already great burgers around here—Thee Burger Spot, Nebraska Mini-Mart—we’re just trying to put out a good burger, too.”
While Slide is making its debut in the Flocale food hall Dodd launched with business partner and Westshore Pizza CEO Travis Masters, some locals may have already tried Slide’s offerings.
The burgers have been available on Uber Eats for a few weeks now, and they’ll continue to be available there, similarly packaged with printouts featuring vintage newspaper front pages documenting significant events in local history.
CL’s recent Uber Eats order included the Jan. 20, 1977 front cover of the Tampa Tribune explaining that while it was going to stay cold in Tampa, the snow would stop falling.
“The idea was to give a family a reason to put the phone down, sit at the table and actually talk about something, face-to-face,” Masters told CL about the “Slide Of the Times” insert. “I want families to have an old school meal and conversation.”
And if burgers aren’t your thing, Dodd says a patty melt is headed to the slide menu, which already has a grilled cheese sandwich. Also available: a hot dog, which can be dressed up just like the signature slide burger that has white cheddar, seasoning and the Slide sauce, which longtime fans will remember from King of the Coop's meatloaf sandwich at Tampa Armature Works.
"I’m a fatty, man, and I like a good Five Guys burger, and they do a hot dog, too,” Dodd explained. “And with the sauce, honestly, I think was just high and fucking around with the mayo, Carolina gold barbecue, ketchup and our special seasoning."
Fuck around and find out, indeed—so just slide on by.
