NiniaPimp Magazine

This week’s review is of Portofino Mediterannean Grill (18825 US Hwy. 19 N.  Clearwater; 727-286-6234), where we witnessed some of the largest portions of anything i have ever seen on a plate that wasn’t intended to feed an entire family. Frankly, i thought it was too much, but it certainly increases the value if you take it home and make three or four meals of it. The interior, it should be noted, is beautiful. In fact, on one visit, one of the people I was with took a photo of the blue-lit, wave-textured white wall (pictured) and made it the background on her phone. Also, I thought it was funny that I could find no vestiges of the building’s former life as a Hops … until i looked at the high-top tables outside, which were inset with barley and hops and other beer ingredients. Here is a link to the review, and here is a link to the restaurant’s website.

I helped judge Ribfest entries Saturday, one of about 15 media and political types, including St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foser and Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe, who gathered under a tent to try out ribs and sauce. Seven entires were judged Friday and six on Saturday. The top three from each day then competed on Sunday for the top spots.

Orgnaizers brought out a rib at a time and we took notes on each. Same with the sauce. A couple of the ribs were surprisingly tough, and one had little or no rub or sauce. Most came with sauce, but a couple were sauceless. Once we tasted them all, we could try our top choices again to be sure. My favorite was the last rib we tasted: meaty, tender, with just the right amount of smoke (though too much sauce for my taste). I found out later it came from Porky ‘n Beans from Parma, Ohio, a previous Ribfest winner. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who favored them. Interesting how well Ohio did this year. Who knew Ohio was a hotbed of rib-deliciousness?

Here’s a list of the top three in each categroy:

Ribs:
1st Porky -N-Beans
2nd Blazin’ Bronco (Cleveland)
3rd Desperado (Hinckley, Ohio)

Sauce:
1st Camp 31 (Toronto)
2nd Blazin’ Bronco
3rd Desperado
 
 

Tonight is the first night of the second and last week of Kitchen Bar’s run at Pinky’s diner (3203 W. Bay to Bay Blvd., Tampa; 813-374-4537).  In Saturday’s story about the first couple days, we talked more about the concept and the scene than the food. So here are some more details on some of the things we tried.

Among the small plates, I really liked the arroz de champignon ($9). It was a rich risotto with chunks of mushroom and studs of Idiazabal cheese. The menu didn’t mention truffle oil, but rest assured, it was there. It might have been the most decadent bowl of rice ever.
Tom Scherberger says his favorite small plate was the little neck clams ($7), which came on top of luscious pork belly and sauced with a salsa verde. Tom says that after the clams and the pork belly were gone, he asked for extra ciabatta to sop up the combination of the salsa and the juices in the bottom of the bowl.

The farro tabouleh ($3) was nice, with beets and feta providing all the flavor against a backdrop of the grain. I suspect the sauce for the fingerling potato bourguignon ($7) was meat based, because even though it was billed as a red wine sauce, there was something seriously meaty going on in there. Very, very rich and delicious. Shallots on top were fried in duck fat, which is a fine fate for each.

On to the medium plates.

The shrimp al ajillo ($12) had a nice spicy sauce featuring pimenton and the jus from the shrimp heads. Didn’t get much from the green garlic in the name, though. And a chiccharon added a nice pork element.

Inititally, we hadn’t ordered the stone crab buttercrunch lettuce wraps ($16). But from our vantage point in the dining room, they seemed to be going to every table, so we put in a late order for them. The hot-and-sour hollandaise on the crab had an interesting tang, but I wasn’t crazy about the texture of the crab. Tasted fine, but I was underwhelmed. Also, the plate had three wraps, and each wrap was two bites. So, six bites cost $16. That’s more than $2.50 per bite. I’m sure this isn’t the first dish that doesn’t stand up to that kind of math, but that was where my head was when I was having it.

Entrees, or large plates, were all fine. We noticed inconsistencies on the plating of the prime culotte steak ($25). Some had the green peppercorn sauce on the plate and some on the top of the steak. The reason we noticed that was because it was really good, and on ours, it came on top of the steak, while our neighbor’s had it on the plate around the steak and seemed to have much more of the sauce. The barramundi ($24) was a nice piece of fish, and the lemon fennel black rice was an amazing combination of tangy and chewy. Tom liked the lamb tenderloin ($26), but said that the star on the plate was the beet soubise, which he initially mistook for a rice dish because of its unique texture and creaminess.

I was underwhelmed by both desserts we tried. The torrejas ($5) was dry french toast with bananas and dates. It needed a better soak in egg before being griddled, and some sort of sauce/syrup would have helped. The green opera cake ($7) was better, but tasted like it had been precut and left to sit out quite awhile. The double chocolate ice cream that came with it, though, was excellent. And I got a call today from someone who said they have gone to Kitchen Bar three times just to have the Catalonian flan. We didn’t try that, so maybe we missed the best dessert.

The scene was a little hectic on the first night, as could be expected. Things had settled by later in the week.

An aside on Pinky’s: Apparently, some people misread the story on Saturday to think that Pinky’s would be closing after the 10-day Kitchen Bar event. It will not. The story did not say or in any way imply that it would. After Kitchen Bar moves on, Pinky’s will still be there for breakfast and lunch.
 

This week’s review is of the completely renovated Maritana Grille at the Don CeSar Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach. In addition to the new dining room, chef Eric Neri has some new toys to play with in the kitchen, and has used them to change the direction of the menu. Here is the link.

Anthony Bourdain, the host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel, is going to speak at Mahaffey Theater on Friday night as part of his book tour promoting his newest, Medium Raw. The QA story in Thursday’s weekend section is the result of an e-mail exchange i had with him while he was somewhere between Haiti and Wisconsin … I don’t really know where he was. And that made it perfect, I thought. A print version of the QA is in Thursday’s Weekend section as a preview to Bourdain’s appearance on Friday, but here is a link to the web version, which includes the answers to more questions.

The story also includes information on Friday’s event at Mahaffey.

Chef BT Nguyen, left, has opened Café BT (2507 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa; 813-258-1916). This comes about a month after she closed Restaurant BT and its associated lease drama in Old Hyde Park. The first menu looks like it will not disappoint BT’s fans. I’ll update if someone corrects me, but here is a link to the old site for Restaurant BT, because I can’t find a site for the café. Several of the dishes have made the trip to the new location, and the ballpark of the prices ($22-$39 for entrees) has remained the same.

Quick hit: The Yard (4300 Sixth Street S, St. Petersburg; 727-498-8809) has opened in the spot formerly occupied by Shackleton’s Folly. Looking at the menu on Facebook (no website as yet, that I have found), the soft shell crab BLT looks immediately interesting, and I’m always listening when chicken and waffles are on the menu.

Quick hit II: I was in Clearwater over the weekend and saw that a place called Chopsticks is taking over the spot that used to be Fish Tail Willys (2543 Countryside Blvd). ….

I suspect that there are already a litany of nasty comments going in under this heading based strictly on the headline, but I’m not talking about that McRib.

No, chef Greg Baker is serving up his own take on the limited-time-only pork sandwich at The Refinery ( 5137 N. Florida Ave. Tampa; 813-237-2000), and will have it until Dec. 1, or until he gets a cease-and-desist order (in 3 … 2 … 1 …). But if they have to change the name, it is still a brilliant idea. Baker’s isn’t made with ribs. Which, come to think of it, is probably another thing the sandwich has in common with the fast food giant. What the Arches people aren’t doing is making their patties out of pig head torchon. Baker is.

The Refinery usually changes its menu every week, but with the holiday this week, this menu is staying an extra week. If you’ve had one, please let me know how it is. Because it sounds amazing.
 

Pei Wei, the fast casual Asian chain that is an offshoot of P.F. Chang’s,  is looking for a blogger to go on a two-week tour of Asia with its head chef, Eric Justice. The tour will go through the five countries represented on the Pei Wei menu: Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and Korea. This isn’t so much a contest as a job application. The chosen blogger will be expected to generate content about the trip for the websites of Pei Wei and P.F. Chang’s, including blog posts, photos and video … and get $10,000 for their trouble. If that all sounds good to you, here is the link for more information.
 

I spoke briefly this week with Abe de la Houssaye about Michael Brandt, co-owner of Gulf Coast Po’ Boys, for this piece on the humble Largo sandwich shop. The chef credited with introducing Cajun cuisine to New York City in the early 1980s, de la Houssaye gushed about his former protege’s work ethic and wished him success. Brandt and his partner, Anthony Jack, are amiable fellows working long hours to keep their small business going in difficult economic times. Their goal is simple: quaility food at low prices, using fresh ingredients and loads of integrity.

Po’ boys seemed an appropriate way to start our new seres of occasional stories we’re calling Cheap Thrills (longtime readers may recall the title from a similar feature by former St. Petersburg Times food critic Chris Sherman). If you know of similar restaurants worthy of mention, you can e-mail me: scherberger@sptimes.com.

Or  just leave suggestions in the comments section below.

This week’s review is of Diner 60 West (2525 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., Clearwater; 437-0255), right in the middle of the U.S. 19 shopping corridor. So far, it is the only restaurant that i have ever been that was guarded by a 6-foot statue of a rooster. Here is the link.