Tampa Bay has seen closures of many of its homegrown restaurants, but chef Eric Hipol is keeping their famous dishes alive.
In the early 2010s, Hipol was in the Tampa food scene during its salad days—Datz, Ichicoro Ramen—the start of something big, he said.
“Just seeing that Seminole Heights area, especially, just explode the way that it did… it was amazing,” Hipol told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “But a lot of those places, they’re shutting down.”
Now based in North Carolina, where he works with a corporate dining company, Hipol is paying homage to the city that took him in by recording and sharing recipes from local restaurants that have closed or have rotated items off their menus…