In our Oct. 29 issue, we told you that Box of Cubans restaurant was getting ready to open in the space previously occupied by Mochinut’s New Tampa location at 17512 Doña Michelle Dr., off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., just north of the BBD exit off I-75 in the area known as Highwoods Preserve.
(Photo by Katherine Baker)
Well, owners Marcos and Oni Silverio and their son, Marcos Jr. (MJ) have now opened their second Box of Cubans location (the other is in Riverview) and everything we’ve sampled so far has been pretty great.
Box of Cubans also serves a variety of breakfast items, even though it doesn’t open until 11 a.m. during the week and 10 a.m. on Saturday & Sunday. “We sell our breakfast all day,” Marcos told me. “And we already have customers coming in at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday ordering our breakfast sandwiches.”
As much as most of our readers say they want them, it’s just never easy to be successful with unique concept restaurants in our distribution areas — there is always just too much competition from other chain restaurants — so you need all of the little factors to come together to “make it,” including location, quality, demand for the product, management and more.
That’s why it wasn’t much of a shock to me that the Mochinut “More Than Just A Donut” location on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. just north of I-75 (in the small plaza located north of Glory Days Grill) made the announcement shown lower left on Instagram a week or so before we went to press with this issue that the New Tampa location had closed, even though the Mochinut locations in Citrus Park, Temple Terrace and on the north S.R. 56 (near Mellow Mushroom) were staying open.
Whether or not Mochinut’s light-and-airy Korean-style donuts were a hard sell for folks raised on Krispy Kreme and/or Dunkin’ Donuts, the location of the New Tampa Mochinut (the second eatery to fail there; Mahana Fresh was the first) is extremely difficult to find and get to for a lot of people, even though it is visible from BBD.
Enter: Box Of Cubans!
I happened to stop by the already-closed Mochinut location to take the exterior photo to your left when I was able to see two people sitting inside the vacant eatery. They were Marcos and his wife Onelia (“Oni”) Silverio — the owners of the Box of Cubans restaurant in Riverview, who were waiting for contractors to come in to help them get the former Mochinut location ready to become their second fast-casual Cuban eatery.
“Our Riverview location was named the Best Restaurant to Eat At in Tampa Bay by Yelp for 2023,” Marcos told me. “We’re famous for our authentic Cuban sandwiches and empanadas.”
The empanadas come with a variety of fillings, from traditional chicken or beef and cheese to bacon, ham or sausage, egg & cheese, Empanada Cuban and even cheeseburger and lasagna options and more.
The “anatomy” of a Box of Cubans Cuban sandwich. (Source: BoxofCubans.com)
There also are black or red bean & rice Cuban bowls with one of four house proteins (Lechon, Palomilla Steak, Chicken, or Picadillo), served with three pieces of Cuban bread garlic toast made and three sweet plantains.
He says Box of Cubans also has a cool story to tell. Marcos, who is Cuban and a lifelong Tampa native, and Oni both left other jobs to open the original Box of Cubans together in a BP gas station in Brandon in 2017. They were able to stay open and continue serving their community during Covid because the gas station was considered to be an “essential” business. Their son “MJ” (Marcos, Jr.) joined the team as COO and GM in Jan. 2023 and were looking to open a second location when the Mochinut spot became available. “We hope to be open by the end of October or the first week of November,” Marcos says. “We know the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area will love our food!
