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Well, good afternoon, we're here with Michael Stewart, the owner and founder
of 717 South, that's been here in Tampa, Florida, for about nine years now.
Is that right, Michael?
Going on eight years now.
Congratulations, you're doing an excellent job.
You've got an impeccable reputation.
So, one of the hardest things about restaurants is the fare.
How do you come up with that magical food, to always be exactly what people are
looking for, without them really knowing what they're looking for?
My short answer is, we try not to be 'trendy'.
Yeah, because there's a lot of 'trendy' restaurants out there.
I think 'trendy' ends up loosing its trendiness.
So, we have been doing kind of the farm- and-table fresh style cooking, from day one.
Everything in this restaurant is made from scratch. Everything's prepped in-house,
cooked in-house, recipes are made, in-house, and from that brings a consistency that
a lot of restaurants can't do. So I would say, primarily the trendiness of the
farm-and-table, we've been doing that for ten years. And you can taste the
difference, you can taste the things made from scratch in-house.
No question about it, though, earlier with your chef, chef Robert,
he was elaborating upon that very point. In terms of the way he shopped,
he got very special things.
One person may only sell tomatoes, but they will be the best tomato find out here.
Interesting. I totally agree with that.
I have a lot of friends in the restaurant business,
that are owners, managers, what-have-you.
And a lot of their inventory is from one provider.
A big-time provider comes in handy. They bring the seafood, they bring the meats,
they bring all this. For us, like Robert, Fawny, and Ludachick, we have a tomato
supplier, we have a lettuce supplier, we have meats from one area,
steaks from another, we have seafood that comes in fresh from just one company,
so I think that makes quite a difference.
Your passion is intertwined with the way that you present it,
and the audience gets you great here.
Well, congratulations, and thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.