Ticket Editor: A top Sarasota chef/owner opening new restaurants, bars, and downtown deli
I’m a big fan of Kojo. I enjoy the restaurant’s downtown Sarasota location in the bustling theater district and find parking in the Palm Avenue garage located above the first-floor establishment refreshingly convenient for the area. It’s a pleasure to dine and drink at Kojo’s chic bar just inside the entranceway or in the expansive room overlooking the open kitchen. It’s equally pleasurable to dine al fresco under the cover of the handsomely designed structure with its massive white “sails” or at the sidewalk tables shaded by smart looking umbrellas.
Of course, the main reason I’m such a Kojo enthusiast is the food. Featuring Asian and Asian-inspired cuisine, the menu expertly bounds from country to country and region to region with plenty of fun and unexpected twists. Ranging from expertly crafted salads and soups to creative sushi and Wagyu steaks served with habit-forming sauces, you’ll want to try as many of these dishes as possible.
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Bar Hana by Kojo restaurant opening in downtown Sarasota on Palm Avenue
The latest concept by chef Natalia Levey and her Hi Hospitality Group, which operates the equally enticing Speaks Clam Bars on St. Armands Circle and in Lakewood Ranch, Kojo opened in early 2021. Now, Levey has announced business plans that should place her not only among the most significant restaurateurs in Sarasota and Manatee counties, but in the greater Tampa Bay area. Yes, 2023 should be huge for her with three new dining and drinking concepts set to debut.
Let’s begin with Bar Hana. It will occupy the space neighboring Kojo on Palm Avenue and the plan is to begin welcoming guests by late January or early February. Open daily for lunch and dinner, Bar Hana will offer brunch on the weekends. You will be able to walk up to the bar and lounge area for drinks and dining; or rent the private event space, which will also be open to the public when not booked.
“It will be really elevated bar food – steak tartare, wagyu dumplings – we’re trying something different with this space,” Levey said during a recent phone interview. “We want to dispel the myth of what bar food should be like.”
The gifted chef and businesswoman describes Kojo’s new sister destination as “a high-class tropical bar and kitchen” that “will become downtown Sarasota’s newest spot for world-class craft cocktails, craveable food and gracious hospitality, all within a beautiful and welcoming tropical environment.
“From the moment you walk into the space (maybe even slipping in from Kojo, next door), you’ll enjoy a sensory journey, from the warm wood tones and lush, tropical greenery, to the exotic, handcrafted cocktails, which use the freshest juices, spices, and spirits,” Levey said via emailed statement.
Formerly The Francis, back when the Kojo space housed Louies Modern, Bar Hana at 1289 N. Palm Ave. is being billed as “a versatile private dining/event space to accommodate 30-plus guests for a seated or a cocktail event. This space will have a flexible menu spanning both Kojo and Bar Hana dishes, guaranteeing something delicious for everyone at every event.”
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Bar Hana to serve signature cocktails and food menu similar to Kojo’s but with an identity of its own
Boasting a premium rum and tequila selection, there will also be “interactive, large-format cocktails” designed for two or more to share in a collection of “fun and vintage tiki glassware.” Beverage Director David Roth has concocted mixed drinks such as The Mainland Margarita, which contains an alluring assembly of blanco tequila, Ume Plum Liqueur, lemongrass syrup, fresh lime juice, and a pickled plum salted rim. There’s also The Siesta Key Swizzle, which is described as an homage to the tropics with pineapple, a blend of spiced rums, wildflower honey, lime juice and bitters.
Bar Hana’s food menu is similar to Kojo’s but with an identity of its own that Levey and her team describe as “ranging from Asia to Hawaii, incorporating tropical ingredients and Polynesian flair.” Signature dishes, all meant to be shared, include braised duck bao, shrimp toast, grilled Japanese wagyu steak skewers, kalua pork and plantain bites, and a “Big Island Burger.”
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Owner of Kojo and Speaks Clam Bars in Sarasota and Manatee also planning Palm Avenue Deli in downtown Sarasota
A month or two following the opening of Bar Hana, Levey and her team plan to debut Palm Avenue Deli, which will be next door to Bar Hana and two doors down from Kojo. It will feature a retro, 1950s design and classic comfort foods such as pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup and latkes (potato pancakes). The plan is for Palm Avenue Deli to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and be open from early morning to potentially late at night.
“It will be a reimagined collective of old family Jewish and Eastern European recipes,” Levey said. “It’s definitely going to feel like a New York-style deli but we’re going to take that concept and put our own touch to it and hope people love it.”
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Central Park St. Pete food hall to open in Central Arts District
Next, by late 2023 if all goes as planned, Levey and her Hi Hospitality Group hope to unveil her magnum opus: Central Park St. Pete. The five-story food hall is currently under construction – “we just got vertical,” she told me, “just got steel” – at 551 Central Ave. in downtown St. Petersburg’s trendy Central Arts District. It’s the site of the old Woolworth building (formerly home to Dome Grill) and to honor that legacy, Levey has dubbed the basement bar Winfield’s after Frank Winfield Woolworth and his F.W. Woolworth Company. “It will be a really small basement bar with a speakeasy vibe and
unique beverage program,” Levey said.
The main level of the food hall will feature a bar facing Central Avenue and various fast-casual dining concepts with “a New York vibe and a nod to the real Central Park,” she said. Going up, guests will find the mezzanine where they can gaze down at the main level activity or go out on the balcony overlooking Central Avenue. The restaurant on this level will be a reimagined Speaks Clam Bar that Levey described as “something more elevated and interesting.”
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A second Kojo location will occupy a covered spot on the level above the mezzanine and then the rooftop will be its own experience that Levey and her team are still finalizing. Yes, it’s a lot. But when Central Park St. Pete comes to fruition it will be one more reason to visit vibrant downtown St. Pete.
But first, Levey has business in downtown Sarasota, with Bar Hana and then Palm Avenue Deli, beginning in early 2023. Stay tuned for more details on each of these concepts in the coming months. Meanwhile, if you’re visiting downtown Sarasota, I highly recommend dining and drinking at Kojo. And if you’re on St. Armands Circle or in Lakewood Ranch, be sure to stop by Speaks Clam Bar. Levey just described a bunch of new menu items that sound ridiculously delicious.
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Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida-Georgia Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Kojo, Speaks chef/owner opening Bar Hana, Palm Ave Deli in Sarasota
