DINING OPTIONS GROWING ON RANCH'S MAIN STREET
LAKEWOOD RANCH - It's becoming a tasty stew at Lakewood Ranch Main Street.
Three recently opened restaurants are whetting the appetites of diners and giving the shopping district a distinct melting pot flavor.
The Serving Spoon, Saijo Sushi & Japanese Restaurant and Astoria fine Russian cuisine have opened along with Bruster's Ice Cream.
Looming on the horizon are Morton's Gourmet Market and MacAllisters Restaurant.
Morton's is shooting for an opening date in the first week of July, project superintendent Brock Chambers said. The 16,500-square-foot building will feature gourmet groceries, a deli, sandwiches and hot prepared meals.
MacAllisters, a Scottish-themed eatery, will celebrate a grand opening on Thursday, May 25, from 6-9 p.m. on Lakewood Main Street.
It's a diverse collection of tastes for a shopping district that only opened in December.
Saijo Sushi
Cha Kim, owner of Saijo Sushi & Japanese Restaurant, is continuing a long family tradition of restaurant ownership.
With Saijo Sushi, his fourth, he occasionally takes on a new hobby: enhancing the diner's sushi-eating experience.
The fish, rice and even soy sauce must be handled properly to get the most out of sushi, Kim said.
Kim said the preparation of the rice, not the fish, is actually the most important aspect of good sushi.
"Sushi rice has a special taste, too, it's not just plain rice," he said. "One piece of rice is fluffy. You shouldn't break that fluffiness."
And the fluffy rice, which he said contains seven ingredients, easily absorbs the soy sauce.
The strongest fish, such as mackerel and yellowtail, should be eaten last so that the more delicate flavors, those of tuna and salmon, for example, will not be overpowered.
"If people know all of these things, then they'll enjoy eating sushi even more," Kim said.
Serving Spoon
Although open only two weeks, Chris Menke's third Serving Spoon restaurant, located at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch, has had him running around more than he expected.
"(The amount of customers) has been far greater than I ever anticipated," Menke said. "But even the too-busy lunch problems, those are good problems to have."
The menu offers traditional American fare.
He's used his other restaurants in Sarasota - on South Osprey Avenue and Clark Road - as the selling points. And they've helped to put customers in the Serving Spoon in Lakewood Ranch. They've also provided feedback in other ways.
"Everyone's said I had a great reputation. I didn't even know I had one," he said laughing.
Menke, who has five kids, can be found somewhere at or among his three locations.
The new restaurant features the same menu as the other two Serving Spoons, including breakfast at all hours.
Astoria
Tseza Wieand and her mother, Alla Golubchik, came to Tampa Bay from Kiev, Ukraine, in October 1991. When Wieand got married, they found themselves in Lakewood Ranch in 2000.
On April 10, the duo opened a Russian restaurant, Astoria, on Main Street.
The Russian flair Wieand wanted to bring to the area has been well received.
"People come in and say they've never had Russian food," Wieand said. "Afterwards they realize they have."
Golubchik and Wieand set out to create a unique ambiance, from the wait staff that wears custom-made, red silk shirts to the 30- foot mural of the Red Square and the Kremlin near the back of the restaurant.
"We wanted to bring a little of the Russian experience to the area," Wieand said.
Bruster's
Sandy Whitney first had Bruster's ice cream on vacation in South Carolina in the summer of 2003. By December 2004, she and her husband, Harvey, owned their first Bruster's in Sarasota.
Although it was their first experience in the food business, they've didn't take long to expand. On May 3, they opened a second store in Lakewood Ranch.
"Bruster's is a new name for Florida," said Harvey Whitney III. "When we moved to Clark Road, nobody knew what Bruster's was."
Although the Whitneys own two of only 15 Bruster's stores in Florida, ice cream has never been a hard sell for them.
They know where to go for attention. The Whitneys have partnered with schools' reading programs. If the kids read certain books, they get rewarded with a card for free ice cream.
"We'll do anything we can to help schools," Whitney said.
Bruster's has 150 flavors of ice cream, 30 of which they serve on a rotating basis to the public.
And any time it rains, customers receive two scoops of ice cream for the price of one.
"It's pretty much just to reward yourself for getting out in the rain," Whitney said.
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John Simpson
Herald Staff Writer
Herald Tribune
Published May 18, 2006
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