Fort Pierce spicing up menu options

By TYLER TREADWAY
Will 13 be the lucky number for downtown diners?

If everything happens according to schedule, there will be 13 restaurants in the area Main Street Fort Pierce considers downtown by the start of the winter season. Six eateries on one block alone — Orange Avenue between Second Street and Depot Drive — will offer Italian, Cuban, Greek and nouveau American cuisine, and sandwiches and seafood.

Main Street Director Doris Tillman said the rising restaurant tide should raise everyone's boats, making downtown Fort Pierce a destination for hungry customers from throughout the Treasure Coast.

"People will go where they have the most choices," Tillman said.
Both incoming and longstanding restaurateurs agree — to varying extents.
"I think it'll be great," said Anne Vanmeter, whose Brewer's Café has been at 204 Orange Ave. for seven years. "Anything that will draw more traffic to downtown is great. I'll think we'll all feed off each other's business because we'll all offer different choices."

Helen Fassilis, who with husband Yianni Fassilis will move Yianni's Greek Café from a site on U.S. 1 to 224 Orange Ave. in mid-September, said the variety "will be great for downtown Fort Pierce. And I look forward to trading Greek food with the folks at the other restaurants on the block for Cuban and Italian."

The Cuban arroz con pollo Fassilis plans to get in exchange for Greek souvlaki will come from Mambo Grille, which co-owners Robert Ruiz and Jesse Bailey hope to open across the street from Yianni's in October or November.

But can you have too much of a good thing?

Keith Crandall, co-owner with wife Shelly Crandall of Café La Ronde at 221 Orange Ave. next door to Mambo, said the eateries will make downtown Fort Pierce "over-restauranted."
"Maybe having more restaurants will draw in more nighttime business," he said, "but during the daytime, there's only so many customers in the area; and people can't drive in to have lunch because there's no parking in downtown.

"So, basically, the pieces of the pie that each restaurant gets will get smaller. The good restaurants will stay, and some will have to close up shop," Keith Crandall said.