Brewing, suds, success

There's much to do in creating a new restaurant concept, especially when it involves renovating a dilapidated 100-year-old building.

From developing new recipes to choosing a bourbon, Tampa restaurateur Richard Gonzmart and General Manager Keith Sedita have been hard at work building Ulele Native-Inspired Foods and Spirits.

The 230-seat restaurant, expected to open in the spring, is also intended to spur redevelopment in blighted Tampa Heights, a neighborhood on downtown's northern edge.

At last count, Gonzmart had spent more than $4 million on preopening expenses — twice what he projected. “I'm in so deep, I'm not keeping track anymore,” he quips.

While there are risks in all business ventures, Gonzmart is confident Ulele will be profitable rather quickly.

“I'm destined to do this project,” says Gonzmart, patriarch of Florida's oldest restaurant, the Columbia. “I have great faith and I have no concerns, honestly.”

Gonzmart, whose great-grandfather Casimiro Hernandez founded the Columbia Restaurant Group in Ybor City in 1905, says it usually takes a restaurant about five years to become profitable. But he expects Ulele to be profitable in its first year. He and his staff are taking painstaking care selecting recipes, choosing the design and attending to the myriad of other details that combine to make an establishment a success.

Add to that beautiful sunsets enjoyed in a historical brick building and you can't go wrong, he says. “You can feel the energy and the history,” Gonzmart says. “It will be a great destination for lunch or dinner.”

When Ulele opens, the building should have an official historical designation, while construction of the adjacent $7.4 million Water Works Park, with the Ulele Spring, an event pavilion, boat docks and dog walk, should be complete.

In addition, the city is extending the downtown boardwalk along the Hillsborough River so it ends at the five-acre Water Works Park.

As far as decor, the restaurant will have a modern look inside while maintaining its historical look on the exterior, says Sedita. The brick walls will remain visible.

Gonzmart is committed to using American products and local businesses whenever possible in building Ulele, Sedita says.

JV Northwest of Oregon is building Ulele's microbrewery with American steel. Sedita talked to more than a dozen manufacturers before choosing the company.

A Seminole Heights business, called Built, is creating tabletops of red and white oak boards once part of a 150-year-old barn in North Florida. Local craftsman Dominique Martinez is making the table bases out of repurposed steel.

As Beck construction renovates the building, Ulele brewmaster Tim Shackton is tweaking brew recipes, and Sedita and Gonzmart are working with chef Eric Lackey, formerly of the Pappas Family's FlameStone American Grill.

They're creating recipes inspired by Tampa's pioneers, both the Tocobaga Indians who lived in Hillsborough until the 1500s, and the European settlers who followed. The menu will feature oysters, fish and blue crabs, among other items.

Sedita and Shackton recently traveled to Kentucky to select bourbon for Ulele's proprietary label. After tasting multiple bourbons at several distillers, they settled on a barrel of Knob Creek made by Jim Beam. One barrel makes 25 cases.

“Each barrel has a unique flavor,” Sedita says.

They've also been sampling cocktail recipes. They've decided on one drink — a dirty martini called “Dirty Richard.”