Sunday, March 7, 2010

Bobalu's Southern Cafe is opening a second location, in Key West.

The eatery will be serving up its pizzas, subs and sandwiches on Southard Street starting today -- much to the delight of late-night crowds at the neighboring Green Parrot Bar.

"We felt our food was a good fit for their customers," said Bobalu's owner Doug Meeker Sr. "The owners are excited and they feel it's going to be a good partnership."

The Meeker family took over Bobalu's on Big Coppitt Key in 2001, bringing their unique pizza recipe and Italian dishes to the menu. Now they are exited to expand to a location with great foot traffic and a built-in clientele next door.

"We've always talked about having a place in Key West and bringing our pizza to Key West," Meeker said. "It's hard for people in Key West to come [to Big Coppitt]. Many are on bicycles and scooters.

"I told [Green Parrot owner] Jim Beam, 'We're really going to put a dent in your popcorn business.' "

Little work was needed to transform the new locale. The commercial space has been updated in recent years from previous restaurant tenants, including the Twisted Dish and Meteor Smokehouse; the latter closed in August 2009.

Meeker said most of his work involved a new coat of paint and installing a new pizza oven, which he believes is the largest in town. The restaurant seats 150, including seating at the outdoor patio and bar.

"My sons kind of wanted to be in the bar business in addition to the restaurant business," Meeker said of his sons, Doug Jr. and Dustin. "We intend to have a real happening bar here. We want it to be a fun place to eat."

Meeker still considers the restaurant to be family-friendly. After all, the business is a family affair. Meeker's sons have worked alongside their mom and dad in the Big Coppitt restaurant for several years.

"I did everything, pretty much," Meeker Jr. said. "I started off serving, but I learned how to do every station in the kitchen."

He attended college at the University of Central Florida and returned to help run the business a few years ago.

"As the years have gone on, I've taken more of a manager role to help my dad," he said.

Brother Dustin also returned after college and now works primarily in the kitchen after expanding his culinary knowledge in other local restaurants.

The elder Meeker referred to his wife, Debbie, as a "home-cook connoisseur." She makes all the soups and desserts fresh, in addition to the pizza sauce.

"A lot of our recipes are derived from my mother, who is a full-blooded Italian," Meeker said. "My wife learned those recipes from her."

The pizza recipe, however, was modeled after pies served in what many consider to be one of the nation's pizza capitals: New Haven, Conn., the family's hometown. Dozens of pizza eateries dot the town, serving their own version of "apizza," as the Italian pies are known locally. It's a style of Neapolitan pizza cooked at high temperatures in brick ovens, creating a distinctly crispy, thin crust.

The pizza is so popular that some restaurants have wait times of 45 minutes to an hour even in the middle of winter, Meeker said.

"That's how this place is going to be," he said with a laugh. "We feel we make the best pizza in the Keys for sure."

Meeker said he's had a love of pizza as long as he can remember.

"I've kind of been a pizza freak ever since I was a little kid," Meeker admitted. "When I came to the Keys, I could never really find a pizza that satisfied my craving."

So Meeker, then a commercial fisherman, built an outdoor kitchen under his home and started experimenting.

"I kind of knew what I was looking for," he said. "People always say, 'Why can't other people make good pizza?' And I would tell them it's like a painter trying to paint a picture without knowing what it's supposed to look like."

amswary@keysnews.com