Cry Baby Cafe Arrives On Harbour Island By Downtown Tampa

Kathy Steele | Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Cry Baby Cafe is a new arrival to Harbour Island and one that owner Andrew Bonnemort wasn't expecting. But he had a ready name at hand when a spot suddenly opened up across from his long-time restaurant Café Dufrain.

The name is one his mother had long wanted to use for a restaurant. She even had a logo concept inspired by the family's ranching history that Fourthdoor Creative Group sketched out for her son's cafe, at 710 Harbour Post Drive.

The roadway ends a few yards away at Garrison Channel with views across the water of Tampa's skyline and the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

"It worked out perfectly that (Cry Baby Cafe) is right across the street," says Cathy Bellatin, who is in charge of events and marketing for Bonnemort's restaurants.

Cafe Dufrain, at 707 Harbour Post Drive, began more than 10 years ago as a deli-coffee shop but soon expanded into dinner hours with beer and wine.

Cry Baby is a gourmet sandwich and coffee shop where breads, croissants, quiches and baguettes are baked on-site daily. No preservatives, fillers or artificial flavors are used.

Breakfast items include goat cheese souffle and steel cut oatmeal with dried fruit. For lunch there is a variety of sandwiches including a "Roscoe" with hand-carved smoked brisket, red onion, cry baby relish and grain mustard served on a French roll. Premium vegetarian-fed meats are supplied by North Country Smokehouse, a New Hampshire-based business that has been family-owned for more than a 100 years.

Organic coffee is made for Cry Baby Cafe by Sweetwater Organic Coffee Roasters in Gainesville, Fl., and meets fair trade standards.

"We try to locally source whenever possible," says Bellatin.

Writer: Kathy Steele
Source: Cathy Bellatin, Cry Baby Cafe

Read more articles by Kathy Steele.

Kathy Steele is a freelance writer who lives in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa. She previously covered Tampa neighborhoods for more than 15 years as a reporter for The Tampa Tribune. She grew up in Georgia but headed north to earn a BA degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. She backpacked through Europe before attending the University of Iowa's Creative Writers' Workshop for two years. She has a journalism degree from Georgia College. She likes writing, history, and movies.