New modern mexican venue serves up fresh Masa magic in Seminole Heights

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS, Fla. - For an atmosphere that is just as vibrant as the colors on the plate, Con Amor in Seminole Heights offers everything from traditional Mexican tortillas to exotic dishes like massachini and chochoyotes.

What they're saying:

It's not all tacos and tamales at Con Amor in Tampa. The idea behind the fresh concept restaurant was to bring the best ingredients together to create the entire meal from scratch.

"Con Amor is my perception of modern Mexican," shared owner and founder Taylor Dillon. "It's everything that I've learned throughout the years of being a chef and it's what we want to share with Tampa Bay."

They create their own masa in-house. That's the dough made from corn that is the base building block for everything from the chips, to the tamales and tortillas.

"I just want people to experience a little deeper dive into Mexican cuisine, know what fresh masa tastes like," said Dillon, "Because just that alone, like just the tortilla on a taco, will change it completely."

How are the tortillas so fresh at Con Amor?

They pour the corn into a grinder in the kitchen along with the necessary seasons and binding agents to create the more malleable mixture that can be balled up or rolled into tortillas, or whatever other base needed to build the dish upon.

"The food, I think, is also very fun, you know," shared Dillon, "You get dishes and there's just a variety of colors going on. All the food is very deep and flavorful."

What is the food like at that Mexican restaurant in Seminole Heights? 

Dig deeper:

Con Amor brings that fresh homemade masa into multiple dishes on the menu.

"We have stuff like tlatoyos on the menu, which is a masa pocket filled with like cheese and beans," shared Dillon. "(In) a lot of places you see it done, like on the plancha in the oven. Here we grill it, and it brings out a flavor of the masa."

He uses that fresh masa dough to create a special sort of dumpling.

"We have chochoyotes, which is a dumpling, and I kind of did like an Italian play on it almost like gnocchi," said Dillon. 
"We have a dish called massachini, which is like a stuffed masa dumpling, and they fry it."

He shared how they feature dishes that come from all around Mexico, not just one location, but a great deal of his inspiration comes from Oaxaca in the southern portion of the country.

"We do tacos here, but they're not like, oh you get the meat, and then you get onion and cilantro. Each one of the tacos has kind of its own identity and has all of its own unique ingredients. (We) don't really cross-utilize them," he said. "We have quesadillas, kind of Tex-Mex, so people are familiar with it, but we use our own masa for it, so it's-it comes out a lot different."

What you can do:

You can visit Con Amor at 5240 North Florida Avenue in Seminole Heights. They are open from Tuesday through Sunday. You can find their hours and menus on their website here.