Hlas: An 'Iowa Bistro' is a Tampa Bay favorite

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A city bus stop on a street corner here has a large photo of a pork tenderloin, telling people where to go here to get one.

Pork tenderloins aren't exactly mainstream menu items outside the Midwest, and Iowa in particular. But they have them at Pete & Shorty's Tavern.

Curiosity took me to the restaurant on Gulf-to-Bay Road when I learned it was there and billed itself as an 'Iowa Bistro.' I entered in the midafternoon on Friday to find few empty seats, and the enticing smells of a small-town Iowa eatery.

The weekly Friday fish fry was in progress, but there were also loose-meat sandwiches, hot beef and hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, and of course, those tenderloins.

'We cut them fresh every day, pound them out by hand, lightly bread them and use olive oil so they're a little healthier,' said Ed West, chief operating officer and managing partner in the company that owns the restaurant. He's not averse to sweeping the floor when it needs it.

Another of the partners is co-founder Ed Droste, a Waverly native who also is one of the six founders of the Hooters restaurant chain. Their original Hooters is next door to Pete & Shorty's. There are now over 420 Hooters locations, covering 42 states and 29 countries.

The Pete & Shorty's, West said, 'is a labor of love for Ed Droste. He always thought it would be great to have a little joint like the one he grew up with.'

The name comes from the Pete & Shorty's restaurant/bar in Clarksville, 12 miles west of Waverly. That's been in business since 1934, and Droste was fond of it. The owners gave him permission to use their name for his Florida place.

They debuted their Clearwater Pete & Shorty's in 1997, and later opened another in nearby Pinellas Park. There also is a Pete & Shorty's inside the Hooters casino in Las Vegas.

The 'Iowa' label wasn't part of the original plan.

'It started more tongue-in-cheek,' West said. 'Everybody had to be something. We tried to convey we were a restaurant with a bar, not just a bar. It was amazing how much more food we sold once we added 'Iowa Bistro.' '

In the short time I was there, some Iowa Hawkeyes supporters from Clarksville were dining at a table, and an Iowa State graduate who lives in Omaha was eating at the bar with his wife.

If I hadn't had lunch a little earlier, I'd have happily tried to decide among at least a half-dozen selections because everything looked good.

'It's all very much comfort food,' West said.

'We have the best Friday fish fry in town,' West said. 'I'll stand by that 100 percent. From 4 or 4:15 till 9 on Fridays, we'll have people waiting to get seated. The snowbirds love the fish fries.'

Though Droste is an Iowa State graduate, he used a Hawkeyes trick to add business when Iowa was making its first Outback Bowl appearance 12 years ago.

In tribute to the pink-painted visitors' locker room at Kinnick Stadium, Droste colored the restrooms at Pete & Shorty's pink.

'I asked him why he did that,' West said. 'I could not believe it. But people came out of the woodwork, wanting to see those bathrooms.'

The marquee outside the restaurant currently calls the restaurant 'Hawkeye Headquarters' for Outback Bowl visitors. But even if you don't recognize any of the customers, you'll know the food. I'm getting hungry just typing this.