Email
Print
No Owls Needed
Kilts Add Interest At Scottish Pub Chain
The Tilted Kilt
The waitresses' outfits draw obvious comparisons to the Hooters restaurant chain.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 3, 2009
Updated: 04/03/2009 04:13 pm
Related Links
Golf wasn't happening for John Reynaud. After competing in 34 tournaments on the professional circuit, Reynaud hadn't made much of a dent - at least not enough to continue playing.
Enter high school buddy Shannon Reilly, who was managing a Las Vegas restaurant.
Reilly mentioned to Reynaud that his restaurant partner, Mark DiMartino, wanted to open a pub somewhere in Las Vegas. Reynaud ditched the tour in 2003 and moved to Vegas so the three could go in on a new bar at the Rio Hotel and Casino. That bar became Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery.
"We didn't want to open your typical Irish pub," Reynaud told me recently. "We wanted to be a nontraditional pub that specializes in selling fun."
The idea: to create a modern pub with a hybrid of American, Irish, Scottish and English elements, with a little sex appeal added to the mix, of course.
Yes, there's the rich, wood interior of an English pub. And the requisite Guinness, Bass, Smithwick's and Harp beers on tap. The nontraditional sex appeal comes from female servers dressed in Scottish schoolgirl outfits. And ladies, don't despair: The male wait staff wears kilts.
The pub's menu also reflects the hybrid, from shepherd's pie and chicken wings to a Kick-Arse Burger and the One-Shot Johnny meat-lover's pizza (named after Reynaud, who recently sunk a hole-in-one for charity). The "Drunken Clams" are steamed in beer and served with garlic bread.
With this formula, the company has grown to a chain with 16 locations, including a Clearwater Kilt that opened in October 2007 on Drew Street. The 17th pub is scheduled to open Monday in Carrollwood at 14457 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Reynaud owns both Bay area locations. (The restaurant has had a soft opening since March 30.) Another 20 are pending across the country.
"It has performed very well," he says of the Clearwater restaurant. "It exceeded my expectations."
Reynaud concedes the chain's sex factor, but "what separates us from competitors is that we combine the sex appeal with a very classy build-out," he says. "Anyone who walks in gets a warm feeling. The servers have a girl-next-door look, not a trashy sex appeal."
Reynaud doesn't care for the obvious comparisons to the Hooters restaurant chain.
"People think Hooters until they walk into the front door," he says. "That's where the comparison stops with the competition. Anyone who stands inside the restaurant almost feels bad saying that."
Hot Stuff From Tampa
We've been following the story of Michelle Northrup's Intensity Academy Gourmet Sauce company in Tampa for a while, as it continues to garner exposure and has won nearly to two dozen awards, including the Golden Chile Award at the 2009 Fiery Food Challenge held by Chile Pepper Magazine.
Two years ago, Northrup developed a line of carrot-based hot sauces, tea-infused marinades, ketchups and dipping sauces. Last week, the company announced it would have dedicated shelf space at Whole Foods groceries in Florida.
Stay tuned.
1905 Salad Goes Waterfront
Downtown Tampa has lots of great places to have lunch. The latest to join the roster is the Columbia Cafe in the Tampa Bay History Center at Channelside.
Open daily for lunch and dinner, the restaurant has a waterfront outdoor terrace. The bar is a replica of the one at The Columbia in Ybor City.
The cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with an entrance on the Channelside Riverwalk.
Tampa: Rum City
If you didn't attend last weekend's International Rum Festival, here's what you missed:
• Ron Millonario Solera 15 Reserva Especial, aged 15 years, took the Best of Show award. The Peruvian-made rum will arrive in the United States within the year. When it does, rum lovers owe it to themselves to buy a bottle and sip. Outstanding stuff.
• T & W Grappa Di Muscatto made by Empire Winery & Distillery in New Port Richey won a gold medal in the "other spirits" category. Empire also won a bronze in the rum liqueur category with its Empire Lemonela
A silent auction of rums, which raised about $2,000 for Sky Ranch Foundation for boys, earned almost $2,000 at The Ritz Ybor.
Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail gave a great seminar on the history of rum cocktails. (FYI: He says you should shake a drink to a count of 10, per cocktail master Dale DeGroff.)
Great tidbits about daiquiris from Greene: Teddy Roosevelt landed with the Rough Riders in Cuba at Daiquiri. It's also the cocktail JFK was drinking when he found out he won the White House.
Comments by Phil Pritchard of Pritchard's Distillery in Tennessee that, "rums have put themselves in a terrible position" by not adopting a uniform categorization system. He says the lack of clear definitions confuses customers about what they're actually drinking.
Tying One On For TBPAC
To promote their Taste the Best of Tampa Bay event Saturday, organizers at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center held their annual apron-decorating contest. (I was one of the lucky judges, along with 103.5 FM morning radio host Skip Mahaffey and Fox 13 news anchor Nerissa Prest.)
The winner this year by unanimous decision was Shelby McCarter of Tampa, who put a TBPAC-themed recipe on her apron.
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2009 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. | Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
