In the past, the Tampa Bay region hasn’t been high on a foodie’s travel bucket list.
Sure, there are some tasty Cuban sandwiches in Tampa and fresh grouper in restaurants along the Gulf of Mexico. But cutting-edge culinary trends haven’t surfaced here — until now.
The Epicurean Hotel, a $35 million (Dh129 million), 137-room hotel, opened on December 17. The entire concept revolves around food: There’s an 80-seat restaurant, patisserie, culinary theatre, and cooking classes in a theatre that looks like it’s a Food Network set.
While a vacation centred around food is nothing new in Napa Valley, rustic Vermont or romantic Tuscany, it’s a fresh idea in Florida.
Guests have personal pantries in their rooms stocked with gourmet goodies, including chocolate, sea salt caramels and goat cheese.
The decor is also food-themed. Paintings of fruit grace the walls, cookbooks line bookshelves in the lobby and pillows on the hotel beds depict utensils. An eight-foot-high knife and fork rest in a corner and in a hallway, two vertical, living herb gardens are a lush addition.
Even the hotel’s employees, who have dubbed themselves “Epicureans”, feel they have a culinary responsibility.
“They are lovers of food and will curate the experience for our guests,” said Joe Collier, president of Mainsail Lodging and Development Group.
The Tampa-based Mainsail partnered with the owner of the city’s best-known restaurant — Bern’s Steak House — to develop the boutique Epicurean hotel. Bern’s is across the street from The Epicurean, and Collier said that he expects guests to eat at the restaurant, sleep at the hotel, then enjoy other food-related activities the following day.
Bern’s, which opened in Tampa in 1956 by Bern Laxer, is now owned by his son, David Laxer. TV chef Rachel Ray named it the best steak house in America.
“Education and culinary growth have always been a big part of my family,” said Laxer.
Classes in the culinary theatre aren’t only for hotel guests. During the restaurant’s opening party, the city’s movers and shakers cheered when The Epicurean’s executive chef Chad Johnson sautied a slab of steak on the culinary theatre’s Viking stovetop. (The hotel restaurant also has a second, massive Viking stove, which cost $175,000).
Meanwhile, throughout the hotel, workers busily placed flatscreen TVs in rooms, wheeled pallets of doors into the spa and unwrapped chaise lounges on a patio deck. Only about 35 rooms were open as of December 17, but Norwood Smith, Mainsail’s vice president of sales and marketing, said more rooms are coming on line every day. The hotel is booked solid for New Year’s Eve, he said.
The hotel is part of Marriott International’s Autograph Collection, and has a ballroom and space for weddings or business meetings. Room prices range from $200-$300 a night.
The patisserie will be open by mid-January, the spa will do business by the beginning of February, and a lavish grand opening party with celebrity chef Norman Van Aiken is scheduled for January 17-19.
If You Go...
Epicurean Hotel: 1207 South Howard Avenue, Tampa, Florida, Epicureanhotel.com