Go inside Boulon Brasserie, Water Street Tampa's new French restaurant
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 23, 2023

Jeff Gigante has been crying a lot lately.

His second full-service restaurant, Boulon Brasserie, opens Tuesday in Water Street Tampa. Gigante has been watching the space come to life as friends, family and his investors — among them Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, former Lightning player Vinny Lecavalier, Elder Automotive Group president Rob Elder and Outback Steakhouse co-founder Chris Sullivan — dined there during Boulon’s soft openings last weekend.

“I feel like this is a culmination of my entire life,” Gigante said Monday. “This is what I’ve always felt that I’ve wanted to do as an entrepreneur.”

Gigante parted ways with Ciccio Restaurant Group to form Next Level Brands, which he owns in a partnership with attorney Joseph Guggino and Tampa real estate executive Andrew Wright. Next Level owns Boulon and Gigante’s first full-service concept, Forbici Modern Italian, in Hyde Park Village. In a few months, the restaurant group will debut Union New American in Westshore.

Boulon, which cost $5 million to build, spans 7,100 square feet on the street level of office tower Thousand & One. It has 2,600 square feet of patio seating on the east and west sides of the restaurant, where cream-colored, Italian-made umbrellas already line the sidewalks. The interior, a modern twist on a classic brasserie, was designed by Montreal-based Atelier Zebulon Perron.

There’s a 40-seat private event space, which expands to 80 seats with the eastern-facing patio. Gigante has taken to calling Boulon “laid-back luxury” — it’s a place for special occasions and date nights, he said, but there’s no dress code. It’s a neighborhood spot. He wants his customers to be as comfortable grabbing a burger before hockey games as they are having a business dinner.

“This is really our expression of a French brasserie by way of America,” Gigante said.

His culinary team is led by Chef Habteab “Hab” Hamde, who left Tampa institution Bern’s Steakhouse in 2022. Heather Rivas, who was general manager of Husk Savannah, is Boulon’s GM, and Summer Bailey is the executive pastry chef. Boulon has “dialed back” on heavy sauces, Gigante said, and will offer vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. The restaurant is closed Mondays for the first few months but will eventually serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch. A patisserie serving coffee, pastries and breakfast sandwiches will open at 7 a.m. beginning Feb. 7.

Between the cost of labor and food, the current environment is challenging for any restaurant — let alone a brasserie that’s a heavy user of eggs. Gigante said his team worked to keep prices in the mid-range; a burger is $19, and coq au vin is $31.

“I always want to have value exceed the price,” he said. “We believe we’re going to do lots of volume and make it up on the back end. We really are looking to have our customers feel very comfortable eating here two to three times a week.”

The restaurant’s name is emblazoned in neon signage on its Channelside Drive facade — an homage, Gigante said, to The Odeon Restaurant in New York City. He’s already envisioning national media panning the sign when it shows Tampa scenes during NFL and NHL games.

Boulon, like the rest of the Water Street district, feels modern in a way that’s distinctly un-Tampa. Gigante likes hearing that the restaurant doesn’t feel like Tampa — not as a slight to the city, but as a nod to what it’s becoming.

“You feel like you’re not quite in Tampa anymore, which is so great because more and more people are saying that,” he said. “We’re reimagining what Tampa’s going to be, and we wanted to be here at the cusp of all this growth and emerging business that’s coming here.”