Neighborhood residents who reside in the V.M. Ybor area, just north of Ybor City, plan to speak at Thursday's Tampa City Council meeting regarding their opposition to a proposal by the owners of the Trinity Cafe to open a restaurant in the neighborhood.
For over a decade Trinity, currently housed at the Salvation Army on Florida Avenue, has offered high-quality lunches to the homeless or those who just want to come in for a meal cooked by a professional chef and served by waiters.
In June, officials with the Trinity Cafe purchased a property on Nebraska Avenue and 17th Avenue to serve meals at a facility that they could call their own.
But the move has not been greeted with open arms.
Kelly Bailey is the vice president of the V.M. Ybor Neighborhood Association, which is leading the opposition. She says her group's legal challenge is that the Trinity Cafe is calling itself a restaurant, "but people don't queue up 24 hours in advance to eat at a restaurant," referring to the fact that the cafe would predominantly be serving meals to the homeless.