A chef at the Hurricane? The grouper-sandwich Hurricane with three decks of sunburned beachgoers?
True and no accident. The Falkenstein family went on a hunt for a trained modern chef last year in an admission that "with the challenges ahead of us, our expertise and family skills could carry us only so far."
The arrival before Christmas of Mark Boor, an Omni Hotel chef from Indianapolis, was a first for the kitchen that has run on family instructions and a hard-working crew of line cooks for years.
It's one of a few changes in Hurricane history. "We served only fried grouper sandwiches. That changed in 1986. We added a broiler," Rick Falkenstein says. "Now in the '04s people want different flavors, different sauces."
The menu, like the building, has constantly expanded and not always for the best as local Hurricane watchers know. Boor himself told the owners as much when they interviewed him.
He had worked part time at the Hurricane "in the glory days of '92," while stationed here with the Coast Guard, but said that on a subsequent family vacation he found the quality had slipped.
Since Boor took over he has reorganized the kitchen for from-scratch, to-order cooking, designated salad and dessert stations, added a pastry chef for all bread and pastry and a bigger wine list. The menu is rewritten . . . daily.
The menu still has grouper sandwiches (now $10.95) but the obvious addition is newer dishes, ranging from a Hoosier pork tenderloin sandwich to bison filet and grilled sea bass. Newer prices start around $13 and top out at $49.50 for twin lobster tails and a filet mignon.
Now the kitchen is stocked with line-caught salmon, diver scallops, artichokes, olive oil and mangoes and the main dish salads include a Cobb with ahi tuna.
Though Boor hopes not to lose old customers, he concedes that the menu is a little nouveau and a determined move away from the days of fried seafood.
"Either you're going to love us or you'll find some (other) place that cooks the way the old Hurricane did," he says.
That's a dare the Nibbler will have to check out.
Adding to Six Tables
Two new chefs have joined Six Tables, adding new flavors to the Dunedin-based mini chain of high-end dining salons.
It's a worthy refinement on the concept of near-private fixed price dining pioneered by Roland and Gail Levi and then expanded. The success of the concept hung on the warmth of the Levis - and on his cooking, which happened to be Continental of the grand old school.
The small size of the operation, limited hours and limited seating at $70 a person make smart business sense when times are tough for large top-dollar independents, but it still requires good cooking and, depending on the market, modern accents.
Enter David Miller at Six Tables in Gulfport's Peninsula Inn and Spa and Richard Bottini in Tampa.
Miller, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked at the Ritz-Carlton and Syrah in Naples, has added some fresh vegetable sauces and pastry to the classical menu. In Gulfport (2937 Beach Blvd., (727) 346-9800), lavender aioli dresses the romaine salad; a house-made sorbet of Meyer lemon serves as intermezzo, entrees include prawns with tarragon cream, and the presentation features more flash and height.
He's also installed a lighter bar menu of tapas, sushi and desserts in the lounge of the inn, where you can sample his contemporary style at a more affordable $9 to $11.50. Ginger oil and carrot vinaigrette gives tuna tartare more punch, and a tiny pinch of kim chee perks up pot stickers.
Joining Six Tables' team in Tampa (4267 Henderson Blvd., (813) 207-0527) last year is Richard Bottini, a longtime Tampa chef (Palma Ceia Country Club) who went on to CIA credentials and cook in Tallahassee and on a yacht in South Florida.
Along with duckling in cherry sauce and rack of lamb, Tampa menus now include the likes of ostrich filet with pinot noir and blueberries or trout with roast mushroom beurre blanc.
Northern delights
This winter the Nibbler has stumbled across various snowbird munchies from upstate New York and the upper Midwest, starting with the wings of Buffalo, N.Y. Here are some more for folks hungry for the taste of home (holler if you find others):
WALLEYE AND HADDOCK: Beach-blinded Midwesterners adrift without an ice boat have fished for a Great Lakes catch at Foxy O'Toole (8585 Ulmerton Road, Largo; 727-531-7373) for years. Owners Paul and Sherry Cavanaugh from Minnesota stock Foxy's with pan-fried lake perch and walleye (grilled too), plus haddock for Buffalonians, as well as fish from other waters.
Other snowbird treats: grilled ham steak and pork chops, mom's recipe coleslaw, a TV tuned to the Packers and occasional pork tenderloin sandwiches and potatoes from Minnesota and North Dakota when possible.
SPIEDIES: The kebabs that skewered Binghamton, N.Y., and one of America's most distinctive regional tastes, can be found at Giustina's Pizza and Pasta (2525 Pasadena Ave. S, South Pasadena; (727) 363-7800) and at the pizzeria's stand at St. Petersburg College's Tyrone campus.
By most legends, spiedies started out in the 1920s as grilled lamb chunks seasoned by an immigrant from Abruzzi, Italy, but they are now made from poultry and meats including venison. They are rarely found outside New York's Southern Tier.
At Giustina's, owner John Calabrisi serves chicken spiedies marinated in Lupo's marinade brought direct from spiedie land by marinade king Sam Lupo, who winters in Pinellas. Sandwiches are $4.50 for a half, $6.95 whole, and served on hoagie rolls - not the white bread slices I teethed on. Giustina's offers lettuce and tomato although veteran spiedie lovers dispense with such frills.
FROZEN CUSTARD: The fabled improvement on ice cream beloved from Buffalo to Milwaukee has a contemporary outlet in St. Petersburg, It's Custard Mon! (3739 49th St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 520-8608). There is a drive-through for morning coffee and muffins but the star remains the frozen custard in cones and various sundaes, shakes and such.
Custard is made daily in vanilla, chocolate, sugar-free, fat-free vanilla and a flavor of the day today that should be maple walnut according to the flavor calendar on www.itscustardmon.com You can doll it up with broken candy bars and gummy whatevers, but whole berries and nuts taste fresh and cut the guilt.
St. Petersburg Times food critic Chris Sherman writes about dining and restaurant news in the Nibbler. He can be reached at 727 893-8585 or by e-mail to sherman@sptimes.com
