Three months after
a permit-related stop work order effectively shutdown Nana’s Restaurant & Juice Bar in Ybor City,
Anisa Meija is back in the kitchen.
The celebrated plant-based chef—who could usually be seen greeting and hugging her regular customers—decided to team up with a new partner and pivot to a food truck instead of re-opening her popular brick and mortar.
Nana’s Rooted is parked at
lot at 4914 E Broadway Ave. (about three miles from Meija closed Ybor City restaurant), and will also be available for events and festivals throughout the greater Tampa Bay area.
According to its
, Nana’s Rooted celebrates its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 31 starting at noon.
Other concepts that use Food Truck Culture as a homebase include Three Stones Kenyan Cuisine, fellow plant-based spot Seasoned Green, Norma’s Kitchen, Willie Mae’s, Mai Thai, Mother Shuckers 813 and more.
“This food truck is something separate from the restaurant—a whole new business. It’s not a brick-and-mortar, which is nice because the overhead cost isn’t so high,” Meija tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The goal is definitely to open another restaurant eventually, but this is just the next step to get there one day.”