Restaurant rehabs

A night out can be a mini-vacation, a chance to get away for a few hours to a novel environment. The attractions of travel — expanding our vision, stimulating our senses with unfamiliar flavors, aromas and vistas — can be enjoyed in a miniature version, just minutes from home.

Creative restaurateurs are magicians, transforming a local place into a virgin destination. For CL’s Food Issue, I decided to explore the challenges of this particular alchemy.

What was once a gas station serving barbecue from an oil-drum smoker-on-wheels was first transformed into a trendy BBQ joint, Smoke, and then into Tampa’s premier farm-to-fork restaurant, Boca. These dramatic changes were wrought by Soho Hospitality Management’s Gordon Davis and Kevin Enderle. With decades of experience, skills and imagination between them, this savvy duo changed a gritty property into a textured, intimate space, combining the rough brick from its gas station origins with glassed-in banquettes and new outdoor seating.

Next, they opened Ciro’s, a speakeasy in the Bayshore Royal building, and most recently CopperFish on South Howard. Both owners cite their philosophy of DNA — Differences, Nuances, A Concept — as the root of their venues’ successes. They directed their latest restaurant’s ambience themselves, sourcing leads from friends in the design world.

“We wanted to create a transcendent experience, not too formal, where people can come for a clam roll and beer and relax,” explained Enderle. “We selected rustic woods to communicate that informality because when the economy shifted, people didn’t want their dining experiences to be ostentatious.”

The CopperFish sign, an extraordinary sculpture commissioned from local artist Eileen Goldenberg, is a mosaic of materials — Gasparilla beads, glass, shells, buttons, watches and charms — all painted gilt copper. The restaurant’s interior, with brick, barn wood and a copper-hooded grill as the central focus, creates a casual atmosphere.

The owners said that they look for restaurant locations with “good bones” and personality. Then they strategically decorate, light and position their dining areas to provide a memorable experience. They credit The Food Channel with helping to educate customers with a knowing take on restaurants and a willingness to spend on special memories.

So how come their neighbors, armed with pitchforks, are trying to make this building’s exterior shed its split stone columns? CopperFish sits within the boundaries of Hyde Park’s historic district and is therefore subject to the design guidelines, which specifically forbid stone on a building’s exterior.

A blatant defiance of local rules? Or a fair tradeoff for a terrific new venue? As a no-longer elected public official, I do not have to vote … but a similar transition took place in our fair neighbor across the bay.

The Birchwood is the trendy new spot on Beach Drive in downtown St. Pete. An apartment house built in the 1920s was hollowed out and reworked into an 18-room inn and restaurant with two new floors added to make way for a ballroom and rooftop lounge.

Chuck Prather, the Birchwood’s creator, made the strategic decision to consult with the St. Petersburg Preservation Society from the get-go. He asked the group what qualities were critical to them as he moved ahead to make the abandoned property economically viable. He described the process of working with them a “great collaboration,” and their annual luncheon was the first event held in the Birchwood’s ballroom.

Prather used historic photos as a template for replacing the doors and 3-over-1 windows facing the street with historically accurate but hurricane-proof materials. He took 50 original doorknobs from the guest rooms and created an inset, lit band above the banquette seating, using them as a decorative element in the restaurant, Birch & Vine.

The original wrought iron work was cleaned, restored and reinstalled. A stucco entry post topped with a terra cotta tile top and a lantern was restored, and the original stucco facade was repainted.

Prather was directed by the city to make the new construction visibly different from the original structure. The split rock decoration on the taupe walls, elongated windows and visible staircase certainly fulfill that directive. Is the new portion too distinct? Depends who you ask. Certainly the first floor’s side courtyard, with its waterfall, green tile and faux shrub wall, is so South Beach-y as to seem a little incongruous. Still, the team behind the Birchwood does seem to have done a good job of communicating their design plans in advance; perhaps Davis and Enderle could have avoided objections from Hyde Park neighbors to the use of exterior stone if they had clarifed their intentions earlier.

There’s no question that Birchwood and CopperFish have brought new sensations to the table: a skillfully curated dining experience for SoHo, a thoughtfully reimagined inn and restaurant for St. Pete. In both, you feel dramatically transported to a different place and time.

And isn’t that sense of freshness what we seek?

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]