Avo’s Kitchen area, new Goan quickly-informal concept, to open up in downtown St. Pete

ST. PETERSBURG — The Iberian Rooster is no far more, but a new fast-informal cafe is opening in its area from the exact owner.

Avo’s Kitchen, a develop-your-personal-bowl concept specializing in Goan cuisine, will open on Sept. 8.

Proprietor Russell Andrade was forced to shut the Iberian Rooster in March, section of the statewide shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Alternatively of reopening, he made the decision in June to close entirely while he worked on renovating the Central Avenue room into a a lot more pandemic-welcoming quick-company idea.

The new cafe is a nod to Andrade’s very own heritage and is influenced by his grandmother, who served style the majority of the menu.

Andrade says he noticed the cafe as an opportunity to expose St. Petersburg diners to the cuisine of Goa, a coastal state in western India and a previous Portuguese colony.

“It’s not regular Indian food,” Andrade reported. “There’s a lot of pork and a lot of seafood.”

Sorpotel, a thick and spicy pork curry, was Andrade’s beloved childhood dish and is showcased in a number of of the signature bowls, including the Avo’s Combo ($14), which arrives with rice, lentils, coconut chicken, sorpotel and a chili coriander tamarind chutney. Andrade’s grandmother, who is from Goa but at this time lives with his mother and father in Ga, traveled to St. Pete this summer months to support practice the chefs to prepare dinner her family recipes.

Andrade settled on a create-your-personal bowl theme for the cafe, a speedy-everyday schtick that he realized Tampa Bay diners had been already incredibly familiar with. The menu also options a good range of vegan selections, like the It is Pronounced VAIGEN bowl ($14), which comes with cauliflower rice, mixed greens, chana ross (a white pea curry), curried cauliflower, herbs, chickpeas, tamarind chutney and avocado.

Other signature dishes involve the Crunchy Chick ($14), which attributes brown rice, lentils, curried chicken salad, crispy fish, tamarind chutney, herbs, chickpeas, onions and cilantro, and the Prawn Stars ($13), a crusty bread bowl stuffed with shrimp curry, inexperienced sauce, chickpeas and onions.

With the menu pivot will come a physical reboot, too, and the cafe now capabilities an assembly-line buying structure wherever attendees decide and decide on from a menu and pay back in advance of sitting down down. The interior space, which can seat 78 people today, is now down to 35. Exterior, the seating has doubled — from 20 to 40 seats.

The a person detail that hasn’t adjusted considerably is the bar, Andrade explained, however he suspects some menu tweaks will take location above the next pair of months.

Avo’s Kitchen will be open up for lunch and supper, Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

475 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. (727) 258-8753. avoskitchen.com.