In South Tampa, an indoor-outdoor restaurant called The Local is breathing fresh life into the building formerly occupied by Square 1 Burgers & Bar. While CL can't help but wince at the description of this newcomer at 3701 Henderson Blvd. as a "craft restaurant," the menu focuses on Florida-inspired comfort food with Southern roots, which is pretty great.
Shrimp and grit cakes (Voodoo blackened gulf shrimp, andouille sausage, peppers, celery, shallot and Gouda grit cakes), beer cheese fondue made with a local brew, and cool citrus salad (Florida grapefruit, orange, nectarines, red and golden beets, baby kale, blue cheese and apple cider vinaigrette) are among the elevated menu items of The Local, which launched in late June.
The swanky neighborhood restaurant's specialty cocktails include The Honeymoon Island, a mix of Three Olives Rosé Vodka, honey, lemon, basil and Schöfferhofer Grapefruit foam. In addition to the foam, other nifty ingredients include cumin-scented flatbread and cola barbecue sauce.
Opening at 4 p.m. daily, The Local — whose tagline is "Eat, Drink, Be Local" — began serving lunch on July 2, and its weekday happy hour runs till 7 p.m.
This article appears in Jul 5-12, 2018.