Times Didn't Quite Get it Right

A restaurant review in today's St. Pete Times of the newly opened BRIC in SOHO sure missed a couple of important details.

The overall review of the owner/chef and the menu items was detailed, balanced, and thorough - great job !

While acknowledging that the location at the corner of Platt and Howard had been a tough place for a restaurant to succeed - it went all wrong from there.
The article acknowledged Tommy Ortiz of Cheap, Hyde Park Cafe, and The Kennedy as the Bric's landlord - basically true - Ortiz leases the property and then leases it to the Bric.

The article indicated that the former Strings and Rings was a concept from Ortiz. Totally untrue. Strings and Rings was founded by Alan Smolar in the North Tampa/Carrollwood area two and a half years before opening the SOHO location. The SOHO location had already been two other different restaurants with different owners and Ortiz had not been involved.

After a few months of difficult operations in SOHO, Smolar sought financial help and got Ortiz involved. That involvement eventually established Ortiz as the landlord of Bric.

The location is described in the Times article as a "disaster cafe" location. While the location may be be an issue, the real issue has been the restrictions placed on the operating hours by the city council. Smolar was restricted to being open not later than 8 pm on most weeknights. Those restrictions in the night charged area of SOHO were devastating. Bric was able to get some better hours than Strings and Rings, but even those are significantly more restrictive than the restaurants and clubs only feet from them.

The owner of Bric - Tony Bellanca - seems to be an extremely nice, hard working, and creative business owner. We hope he suceeds.