Malio's to anchor downtown steak scene
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2:59 PM EDT Thursday, June 7, 2007by Larry Halstead

A Tampa tradition is almost ready to return to the dining community.

Malio's, for 38 years a foundation of the business in-crowd at its South Dale Mabry location, is set to reopen in downtown Tampa in three weeks.

"We're going after Tampa's upper echelon, modeling ourselves after Bern's, Ruth's Chris, Capital Grille and Flemings," said Jason Fernandez, partner. But with the years of service in the past, Malio's needs no new introduction to the business crowd.

The average ticket for lunch is expected to be $20-$25 and for dinner $50-$60, said Malio Iavarone, founder and partner. Other than a slightly more opulent atmosphere, the restaurant is expected to provide the same personal service as before, Fernandez said.

More than $3 million has been spent to open the new Malio's, which sits across the river from the University of Tampa at 400 N. Ashley Dr. Urban Design Studio provided the architectural work.

Iavarone expects to bring back some old menu favorites, but will primarily focus on prime steak, despite the abundance of high-end steakhouses proliferating Tampa's business landscape.

"People here are meat eaters," Fernandez said.

Malio's will be one of the first additions to the developing Tampa Riverfront district that will eventually include the Tampa Museum of Art and other venues.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2007/06/04/daily53.html?surround=lfn

This is great news for DT, a top shelf independent restaurant. I can't wait to eat there.

I'm excited to see this reopen... I went to the old one a few times over the years (go to Iavarone's more often though)... Hopefully it will be supported by the community in the face of stiff competition.

Cool, especially being that the Rivergate Tower (aka 400 N Ashley) has been almost 100% EMPTY for some time now.

Um . . . no. It has a lot of vacant space but not that much

It was 65% full when it was bought by America's Capital Partners in 2005.

Yeah, but I knew at one time, from the defunct bayciti.net blog, that the tower was almost 75% empty. Hopefully a lot of the vacant space will be refilled over the next fifteen or so years.

^The building is nowhere even remotely close to being 75% empty now, and frankly, I doubt it was ever that bad.

The worst occupancy rate was for a short time after BofA cleared out, but the space was paid for, so it was a sublet issue for BofA not so much a revenue issue for building ownership... And of course, having an abundance of available space for sublet isn't good for the health of the district's office market....

Maybe my memory is failing me. :(

^^
Just kidding...but really. I thought I heard from that blog that the tower was pretty empty. I hate having to recall things that come from sources like bayciti. Especially now that it has been closed for so long.

I saw somewhere that it is about 30% empty at this point.

I went to the pre-opening of Malio's last Thursday evening. Comapny i work for did some of the engineering for the space. Food was just as good as i remember the old Malio's... Should be a great location..

I have reservations for opening day!

Malio's was hopping tonight and according to a friend of mine that works there was even busier last night. The dollar numbers I heard were huge, a great opening weekend. You should all go, it's a huge win for downtown.

It's definitely the premiere restaurant in downtown (I haven't been to Gallagher's yet, but since Malio's is independent and has the Tampa history, I give it the edge). The interior is really well done with lots of river views.

I just had drinks tonight but someone I was with had food and said it was great. I'll be eating there soon, maybe next week. You can order food until 12 and they stay open as long as there are guests. They were offering us more bottles of wine at 12:45. From 3 until 5:30 every afternoon is happy hour with $5 appetizers from the old menu at Malio's (stuff like meat balls, a burger, etc). That should be great. The menu is pretty standard for a steakhouse, but the drinks menu is extensive. Over 300 wines and probably 100 liquors (tons of scotches and whiskeys, which is obvious considering their target demographic.)

If a nice restaurant goes into Skypoint there could be a trifecta of places between Fly, Skypoint and Malio's. Alive after five indeed.

Too bad I've never been to Malio's. I don't know If any of my relatives have (nor do I know if they know that the place reopened). I just went to the restaraunt's website and it looks pretty cool. They even post the menus online (I don't know if thats how the site was before the restaraunt moved).

http://www.malios.com

still impressive. I hadn't been in the Sykes Tower in a while. I like what they're doing with it. Convenience store and cafe and Malio's on 1st level. Malio's prices are a good fit for the area. they'll do good biz.

Having been to the old Malios on numerous occasions and having now visited the new location, I am very impressed with all that has carried over as well as a new infusion of ambiance and culinary delights. Hands down, I see good things coming from their forray into the down town Tampa market.

Ate there a couple weeks ago on a Saturday night. Enjoyed the atmosphere, food was great, but to be honest our service really sucked. Lazy and apathetic is the best way I could describe it.

Considering the competition of higher end steak houses (Berns, Gallaghers, Flemings, Shula, etc.), they need to step it up and not rely on their old reputation. Could have been an isolated incident, but still.

I'm hoping they flourish at the new location. Great views outside on the river!

From what I heard the servers were hired and then just kind of tossed out there, so there definitely have been some service issues. Hopefully there will be some turn over and the right attitude instilled.

But the location is tops, definitely gives the others a run for their money.

Tried Malios on a rescent trip to Tampa. Seemed very nice, but service was a bit slow. Hopefully they can find a way to turn the noise down in there just a bit, as it was difficult at moments to hear the colleagues that I was with. All in all though, with no prior experience to compare it to, it was a nice experience.

I just went to Malio's yesterday for lunch, and I have to say the service was very good. I do agree that noise is an issue.