Bistro Bleu, a promising eatery that has struggled to gain a foothold since moving into South Tampa's competitive restaurant scene, is closing Saturday.
Even before moving to its current location at 2402 S. MacDill Ave. this year, the recession was taking its toll on the restaurant. In 2009, what was then a quaint West Tampa restaurant known as NoHo Bistro was seeing business slow as diners cut back.
"We have tried to find ways to make it work in the new location, but the economy seems to be against us," co-owner and chef Tina Hurless said in an email Tuesday.
"With all restaurants being down some these days, we just don't have the financial backing we need to hold on through the next year or so it's gonna take to get everything turned around to some sense of normalcy."
Open for more than seven years, the restaurant was known for its intimate setting, extensive wine and beer menu and eclectic bistro fare, including bison-meat hamburgers and sweet potato apple soup at lunch, and dinner entrees such as Basque risotto with scallops, shrimp and Tampa-made chorizo.
The restaurant's former location, north of Interstate 275 on Armenia Avenue, drew strong lunch traffic, and built a catering business on the side to supplement the bottom line; but the quaint eatery wasn't exactly visible to South Tampa diners who rarely go north of Kennedy Boulevard.
The new location never really took off after the name changed to Bistro Bleu and had to compete with established restaurants such as Datz Deli and Restaurant BT.
Hurless said in her email that she hopes to open someplace new in a year or two.
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