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Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Chef Esteban Sainz Jr. works in the kitchen. The 6,000-square-foot restaurant has a full-service dining room on the second story and a deli counter with hot to-go dishes and sides.

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK

jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

PALMA CEIA - Roger Perry has a tendency to take things up a notch.

He worked at a pet food and supply store in Ohio that he eventually bought and turned into 31 superstores. He sold it to Petsmart in 1994 and retired.

He moved to Ocala where he raised thoroughbreds. One horse, Visionaire, competed in the Kentucky Derby in May.

So when the doors to his Datz Delicatessen & Foodie's Market open in early January, don't expect an ordinary deli.

"It only costs a little more to eat traditional, artisanal food," Perry said. "It's a whole different realm of eating."

Datz is one of the new arrivals to the Palma Ceia Business and Design District, a 55-member merchant association hoping to make Palma Ceia a destination for boutique shopping and eclectic eating.

"We're thrilled. It will only help the district," said President Sheila Awad, owner of Four Elements. A Palma Ceia resident, Awad said the new restaurant will be convenient to neighborhood residents and an attraction for tourists. "No matter the economy, people always love to eat."

Perry is banking on it.

He has the shelves at the 2616 S. MacDill Ave. store stocked from floor to ceiling with 30-year-old balsamic vinegars, tarragon Dijon mustards, cloth-wrapped vintage cheeses, Italian pasta sauces that cling to the bronze dye-cast pastas, and chocolate, hand-packaged by artisans.

"We'll have lots of sampling because these are very exotic flavors," said co-owner Suzanne Perry, Roger's wife. The two live in Hyde Park Preservation.

Sandwiches have names as unique as their ingredients. For example, Beef with a Yodel is beef brisket, Jarlsberg cheese, coleslaw, Russian dressing on Jewish rye; Walter's Gone Crabin' is broiled jumbo lump crab cake, hydro arugula, vine-ripe tomato, field greens and Meyer lemon aioli on sourdough.

Roast beef, corned beef and pastrami are made in-house. Nearly everything is artisan made, free-range, hormone and pesticide-free.

Specialties such as Spanish jamon iberico de bellota make Datz a destination. In the last three months of the free-range pig's life, it feeds on fatty acorns in oak forests. According to Perry, it's the caviar of pork.

"This isn't stuff you'd just buy off the shelf," Roger Perry said.

His wife quickly added, "Unless it's our shelf."

The 6,000-square-foot restaurant has a full-service dining room on the second story, deli counter with to-go hot dishes and sides. Housed where Botanica used to be (and, before that, Mise En Place), additional parking is available in a lot across from Features Costumes on Barcelona Street.

There's a tasting bar for the balsamic vinegars and olive oil. There is a soda fountain, coffee and ice cream bar manned by eight baristas. A sommelier on the second floor can help point out one of the 16 wines for purchase by glass, ranging from $5 to $20. Six beers are on tap, with almost 60 bottles on the menu.

Although her days begin at 5:30 a.m., chef Vivia Grier said she couldn't be happier.

"It's like getting new shoes for me," Grier said, looking lovingly at the state-of-the-art digital combination oven in her new kitchen.

Grier met the Perrys when they were her customers at her West Tampa restaurant, Vivia's Kitchen. When she closed in 2007 looking for a change, the Perrys' offer seemed like a perfect fit.

Grier worked with Perry on the menu, creating food she said, "is eclectic, rustic and fun." Her influence can be seen in items such as the crab cakes, sweet and salty hand-sliced potato chips and pancakes.

"There are a lot of flavors from all different kinds of ethnic cooking," said Grier, of Jamaica, who custom blends spice mixes.

Perry, a foodie at heart, grew up on an Ohio farm growing vegetables and free-range turkeys. He loved eating the wholesome food that came out of his mother's and grandmother's kitchens.

"We grew up with honest, close to the earth food as you could get," he said. "It was made with care and love. That's what I'm trying to do here."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Datz Delicatessen

WHERE: 2616 S. MacDill Ave.

HOURS: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

COST: Sandwiches and breakfast average $10.

CONTACT: www.datz delicatessen.com

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661.

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