St. Pete hotel to get pan-Asian restaurant, a $1M project

St. Petersburg will get a pan-Asian restaurant inside the Ponce De León Hotel at the end of September or early October, according to Cory Saffran, vice president of operations for Benson Hospitality Group and its eatery, Fortu.

Fortu will be based inside the hotel along Central Avenue. It will feature dishes based on traditional Asian cuisine with new techniques and ingredients, including aged steak, miso sea bass, Korean fried chicken and wagyu beef, Saffran says.

The menu is finalized as is the cocktail selection, says Saffran, a former director of food and beverage department at the Four Seasons Resort of Orlando.

Reception has been positive, says Saffran, with people requesting reservations before the actual opening.

The idea for a pan-Asian eatery came to Shan Bakrac, owner of Benson Hospitality Group, which will own and run Fortu. Bakrac is from St. Petersburg, and though Asian offerings were limited in the St. Petersburg region he believed Fortu would be unique to the city, says Saffran. 

But setting up a restaurant is dependent upon the previous step being completed first, says Saffran, meaning the tasks cannot be done at the same time. Right now, after about a year of preparation and about a $1 million investment, the back end is 95% complete, while the front end is about 75% complete, says Saffran.

The team behind Fortu is also working on a warehouse, located along Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa, to prepare the meats.

Saffran says Fortu will likely employ 35 people.