A 1920s bungalow will soon add to the growing collection of trendy Seminole Heights restaurants.
Owners Lysa and Michael Bozel are remodeling what was the former home of a long-ago mayor of Tampa into The Bourgeois Pig. An opening date for the restaurant is slated for April at 7701 N. Nebraska Ave., at the corner of Patterson Street, just south of the Hillsborough River.
"It will have a decadence but also a roughness around the edges," says Lysa Bozel, a Tampa newcomer who is co-owner of Le Petite Retreat Day Spa in Los Angeles.
She and her husband live in Seminole Heights and also own
Mockingbird Vacation Rentals which has several rental properties in neighborhoods such as Carrollwood, Rocky Point and Seminole Heights.They plan to offer rental packages that also market the restaurant. Recent guests flew in from Ireland, Scotland, Australia and Korea.
The Bozels first met more than 30 years ago in California when Lysa Bozel was a 14-year-old high school student. Michael Bozel moved to Tampa in the mid-1970s and owned a glass company for many years. Lysa Bozel stayed in California where she opened the day spa.
After all those years a second meeting led to marriage in 2012, and a business partnership.
Lysa Bozel thought first of opening a Tampa day spa but at her husband's suggestion, they took a second look at the Nebraska Avenue bungalow for a restaurant.
"There is a need for it," she says. "There is nothing like it where we live."
The boom in Seminole Heights restaurants is well established mostly south of Hillsborough Avenue with eateries such as Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, The Independent, Cappy's Pizza,
Reservations Gourmet to Go and The Refinery. More recently there have been new restaurants and bars to the north, including
Domani Bistro Lounge, Mermaid Tavern and Rooster and The Till. A micro-brewery, Angry Chair, and the restaurant, Fodder and Shine, also are slated soon for openings.
The Bozels are decorating their restaurant with original art nouveau furniture to accent a decor of "Bohemian chic."
Seating for about 100 people will be split between indoor and outdoor areas. The restaurant also will be "doggie friendly," including a few menu items expressly for the pooches.
Initially beer and wine will be served to patrons though Lysa Bozel says they plan to apply later for a full liquor license.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week, serving lunch and dinner and offering a coffee bar in the morning. The menu will be electic American with items such as fish tacos, steak, wraps, salads and sandwiches.
Servers will be given customer service training a month prior to opening date. "We really know how important that is," says Lysa Bozel.
Writer:
Kathy Steele
Source: Lysa Bozel, The Bourgeois Pig
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.