In Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood, an American fusion cafe and bar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. U & J Cafe, LLC, which is doing business as Mortar & Pestle, started the process on June 14, according to court documents.
Owners and cousins Badal and Ujwal Patel opened M&P in Seminole Heights, with the promise of an adjacent indie pharmacy, in August 2017 — not long before Hurricane Irma came to town. Early reviews of the cafe and bar's high-concept dishes were mixed, and the direction of the menu was later changed to lower price point items.
But the neighborhood's serial killer, who committed a string of four shootings after the storm, certainly didn't help business, either, as the Tampa Bay Business Journal pointed out earlier this week in a report on M&P's bankruptcy.
Offering lunch and dinner along with weekend brunch, the young cafe and bar told the Business Journal that it doesn't plan to close its doors.
This article appears in Jun 14-21, 2018.