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Eleven80 Cafe brings Latin flavor to Tampa Bay
A new Latin cafe brings the latin flavors of Tampa and Chicago to the Bay Area. FOX 13's Jason Wright has a sneak peak at the new cafe.
TAMPA - Eleven80 Café opened earlier this year and is quickly gaining attention as a fresh and flavorful breakfast and lunch location for South Tampa.
The menu specializes in Puerto Rican and Cuban-influenced favorites infused with signature items like Jibarito Hash and hibiscus-topped lemonade.
Why is that South Tampa restaurant called Eleven80?
The backstory:
The creative culinary destination was founded by a team of Chicago transplants who named the shop after the 1,180-mile journey between the two cities.
"Eleven80 Café stands for technically the mileage from Chicago to Tampa," shared Gabriel Reyes, one of the founders. "So it's 1,180 miles from Chicago to Tampa and two of the four of the founding members are from Chicago. So we kind of went with that name as a group to pick it up for Eleven80 Café for sure."
Like most people transplanting to Tampa, they moved from Chicago to escape the cold. Joining Tampa’s rising food scene, the name bridges their past and present homes.
"I was sitting in Chicago in the middle of winter freezing my butt off per se and just wanting to look for a better life for me and my family. Wanting to get them out of the cold, move somewhere a little sunnier, a little more warm for us and somewhere with a culinary place that was picking up," said Reyes. "So we wanted to definitely get in this area before it got carried away, you know, and be one of the more footprints of Tampa food."
New Empanada place in South Tampa
What they're saying:
Reyes and his crew brought their Chicago influence to a Latin menu.
"So Cafe Eleven80's menu is definitely a wide variety of things," said Reyes. "We do a breakfast and lunch menu."
Their menu features traditional breakfast items like bacon and eggs with options to build your own omelets and other fairs.
"We do something we called Jibarito Hash which is a play on corned beef hash but made with a Latin flair. So you have plantains in it instead of just the regular potatoes," said Reyes.
The end result is both colorful and flavorful as the spicy beef is paired with the sweet of the plantains.
"We are very well known for the empanada," he said, "There are breakfast empanadas, there are lunch empanadas."
Their more popular selections include the ham, egg and cheese empanadas, the Italian beef empanadas and others. They are all fried in beef tallow to give them a healthier, rich flavor free of seed oils.
"And our two favorite drinks we have here are the hibiscus lemonade, which is three quarters of the way lemonade with a splash of hibiscus on top," said Reyes. "And then you have your café con leche, which is iced, with a ton of whipped cream and a little sprinkle of cinnamon right on top."
All in all, Eleven80 offers fun food options for the morning and noon crowd complete with a dog-friendly space in South Tampa.
What you can do:
Eleven80 is located at 2109 South Dale Mabry Highway in South Tampa near Plant High School. They are open from 7:00 a.m. until 2 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Their menu and other information can be found here.
The Source: This story was written based on in-person visits to the kitchen and creative spaces of Eleven80.