When someone like Frank Gouveia — the owner of The Grill at Morris Bridge, one of the most popular independent restaurants in New Tampa — tells you that he found a new chef he thinks is the “best I’ve had yet. Please come by and check him out!,” it’s almost impossible for someone like me to resist.
But, Frank is right. New Chef Michael Touranjoe (left) is bringing a unique creativity and panache to The Grill’s already impressive menu and he doesn’t plan to stop revamping and adding new menu items… basically ever!
“Once I create something new, I have a tendency to get bored repeating the same dishes all the time,” Chef Mike says. “I’m like, ‘I’ve done that. What’s next?’”
Still only in his 30s, Chef Mike still somehow has nearly 20 years of experience in the restaurant business. He has “worked everything from short-order to 3 Michelin star restaurants, Asian to Italian, and pizza to sushi to make myself well-rounded.”
He has been a sous chef under Chef/owner Jeannie Pierola at her Counter Culture and Edison: Food + Drank Lab restaurants in South Tampa, and an Executive Chef/trainer for American Cruise Lines.
“He walked in here to try the place,” Frank says, “and walked out as my new Head Chef!”
Among the new menu items he’s added to the regular and Bar Bites menus at The Grill include mushroom arancini (balls of crispy fried risotto topped with tomato mayo and sherry aioli); crispy grouper bites with a zesty Old Bay remoulade; pork Milanese (breaded and fried pork cutlet, topped with arugula, pickled red onions, tomatoes, shaved parmesan and grilled lemon); seared Florida grouper atop goat cheese and pea risotto and a confit of baby vegetables; plus homestyle meatloaf on a bed of cheddar whipped potatoes, haricot verts and topped with caramelized onion jus; and my current favorite — the baked rigatoni with spicy Italian sausage, sweet peas, creamy marinara, fresh mozzarella and herbs. All of these new menu items are shown on this page and were absolutely delicious.
The right photo is the new (and yummy) chicken Marsala (sautéed chicken breast, haricot verts, button mushrooms, Marsala wine and thyme butter sauce atop mashed potatoes).
Chef Mike also is bringing a new energy to The Grill’s already-popular wine dinners. The event on Apr. 2 featured the pork loin roulade with sweet cornbread & spinach stuffing, corn basil cream and candied pecans as well as the mole marinated hangar steak with gorgonzola whipped potatoes, grilled asparagus, lemon zest and herb beurre blanc shown on the next page. The hangar steak had a nice exterior crusting and was super-tender and absolutely delectable. We rarely save room for dessert, but I loved the salted caramel cheesecake shown below, too!
We didn’t attend that Stags’ Leap wine dinner on Apr. 2 but Chef Mike included all of the dishes served that night, including his rigatoni Bolognese — which our friend and long-time Tampa Palms resident and The Grill regular Mike Wallace said was “Awesome”— among his new weekly Chef’s Specials.
The Wine Dinner We Did Attend!
Jannah and I (and Jannah’s mom Carolyn) attended The Grill’s most recent wine dinner, which was held on Apr. 30 and featured a “reception” sparkling wine, plus three Wilson Daniels Italian wines and a Hungarian dessert wine, each paired with a delicious dish (see below).
The event was hosted by Frank, Chef Mike and Craig Leslie, the North Florida area manager for Wilson Daniels, who described each of the wines as attendees sampled each course of the outstanding meal, first starting with a Bisol Jeio brut Prosecco “reception” wine, followed by a local Solena burrata with strawberries, assorted roasted beets (which I don’t usually like, but were quite tasty), rhubarb jam, crispy shallots and arugula, paired with a crisp Elena Watch Pinot Grigio that had just enough sweetness for Jannah and Carolyn to enjoy it, too.
I couldn’t sample the actual second course — a grilled shrimp bucatini pasta puttanesca (right photo) paired with a Volpaia Chianti Classico — but Jannah said it was “amazing.” And, Chef Mike substituted the baked rigatoni at the top of the previous page for me and Carolyn, who called the dish “absolutely to die for.” I also loved the chianti so much, I ordered two bottles of it (and two bottles of the prosecco).
The third course — a parmesan-dusted grilled petit filet mignon (topped with a Super- Tuscan demi-glace) was served with smashed fingerling potatoes and garlic broccoli rabe with semi-spicy Italian sausage — was paired with a Sette Cieli Yantra Super Tuscan red wine. The steak was “like butter” and the bitter broccoli rabe (one of my favorite veggies) was softened nicely by the sausage and garlic.
And finally, the dessert was a mascarpone-filled tartlet with fresh raspberries, lemon, chocolate, basil and pistachio dust paired with a properly “syrupy” Royal Tokaji ice wine-like dessert wine from Hungary. So good!
Frank hasn’t yet announced when the next wine dinner will be held, but once he does, you should definitely sign up for it!
And, Frank says that all three pre-dessert courses will likely end up soon on Chef Mike’s weekly Chef’s Specials, which means that you will probably still have a chance to sample them if you didn’t attend the wine dinner.
And, by the way, Chef Mike also was featured on a Season 4 episode of The Food Network’s “Chopped” (he’s 2nd from the left in the below photo) back in 2019, entitled “Beef Cake Mistakes.” But, he ended up getting “Chopped” (meaning he didn’t win the competition). In fact, he says, “I didn’t get “Chopped,” I got hammered,’ but it was still a great experience for me.”
And yes, The Grill still has outstanding craft cocktails, the most extensive wine list in New Tampa, a great bar vibe, as well as its famous bar pizza and many of the other items that have been on the menu since before Chef Mike arrived.
The Grill at Morris Bridge is located at 10920 Cross Creek Blvd. (next to Publix). It is open for dinner only on Mon. (5 p.m.-9 p.m.); lunch & dinner on Tues. & Wed. (11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.); 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. on Thur. & Fri. & 11 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sat. For more info visit TheGrillatMorrisBridge.com or call (813) 388-5353!
