A look at the new Water Street restaurant and bar that just opened in Tampa – Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — In just a few days, chef Ferrell Alvarez and the Proper House Group will open their highly anticipated Water Street debuts Ash and Alter Ego.
The group, best known for their celebrated Seminole Heights restaurant Rooster & The Till, helped bring a new echelon of dining and national recognition to Tampa Bay. Now, with their newest concepts — a modern Italian restaurant and a cocktail lounge and entertainment venue — the team will offer Tampa diners and imbibers something very big once again.
Following a brief soft-opening period, Ash and Alter Ego will officially open to the public on April 19. Here’s everything to know before they debut.
The Proper House Group is led by Alvarez, Ty Rodriguez, Chon Nguyen and Myles Gallagher. The group’s first restaurant, Rooster & The Till, opened in December 2013 with just a couple of induction burners and 11 employees. In the decade since, the group has expanded their flagship restaurant and opened several other fast-casual operations; with Ash and Alter Ego, the company has grown to 130 employees. To run their newest endeavors, the team has tapped a number of high-profile hires for both the front and back of the house.
To run the kitchen, they’ve brought on Andrew Duncan, formerly of St. Petersburg’s Baba, as executive chef. Although Ash marks Duncan’s first foray into Tampa’s dining scene, the chef worked at restaurants in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, before relocating to St. Petersburg, where he worked at notable spots including Farmtable Cucina, Seaworthy Fish & Bar and then Baba.
Industry veteran Dave Madera is coming on as the general manager of Ash, a full-circle moment for Alvarez and Rodriguez, who met Madera while working together at Tampa restaurant Mise en Place nearly two decades ago. Madera’s resume includes a long list of Tampa Bay spots, including Rococo Steak, Ceviche, Cru Cellars, Bouzy and Small Giant.
Matt Pingol, who was previously the beverage director at Three Oaks Hospitality and helped open Armature Works cocktail bar MBird, is coming on as general manager for Alter Ego. And Jon Howard, who most recently worked for acclaimed Southern chef Sean Brock and helped open celebrated New York City restaurant Saxon + Parole, is helming the drink program as beverage director for both Ash and Alter Ego.
Subscribe to our free Do & Dine newsletter
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Italian in concept, the menu at Ash will skew progressive and modern. Similar in format to Rooster & The Till, the kitchen will highlight local, sustainable and seasonal ingredients wherever possible. There won’t be a tasting menu, but there will be small plates and a few large dishes.
“We’re very much nontraditional,” Alvarez said. “This is going to be kind of an Italian variation of Rooster, with the same approach and ethos. It’ll be small, it’ll be concise. It’s not going to be red sauce and cacio e pepe.”
To start, there is focaccia with whipped ricotta, vin cotto and herb oil ($14); crispy artichokes with guanciale, amaro sabayon and Parmesan streusel ($18); and fried rabbit with Calabrian chile honey, pickled onions and a Cambozola celeriac espuma ($24).
There will also be homemade pastas, like a malfade with toasted garlic, pickled ramps, Dungeness crab and crab roe butter ($48), and a casarecce with wagyu beef cheeks, smoked butter, ricotta salata, hazelnut and shiso ($28).
Among the larger plates meant for sharing, there’s a flounder “Francese” made with Calabrian chiles, yuzu basil butter sauce and saffron bottarga potatoes ($58); a pork chop milanese made with Olivor Heritage Farms pork and served with date and dijon mostarda and a charred chicory salad ($65); and a braised lamb neck served with piadina flatbread, rapini salsa verde, peperonata and refried white beans ($75).
A list of six desserts includes a polenta cake with coconut, rum, caramelized banana and makrut lime ($14); a foie gras cannoli with candied hazelnut and rhubarb syrup ($17); and a marzipan sundae with macerated strawberries, amaretti cookie crunch and rosemary honey ($14).
As for Alter Ego, there’s no food on offer for now, but that could change in the future.
A first glimpse of the Ash drink menu shows an impressive and unique selection of house cocktails, wines and after-dinner drinks, curated by beverage manager Jon Howard.
The menu is divided into several sections, and includes zero-proof cocktails and house takes on classic drinks like an Old Fashioned and a daiquiri.
A martini program includes a Dirty Martini ($22) made with olive oil-washed Ketel One vodka, Carpano dry vermouth and salt; a Gibson ($20) made with Wodka vodka, Del Professore Bianco vermouth and charred onion brine ($20); and the House Martini ($22) made with Tanqueray No. 10 gin, Martini & Rossi dry vermouth and a martini garnish set.
There’s also a list of aperitivo-inspired drinks including a Negroni ($18) made with Luxardo Bitter Bianco, orange vermouth, Malfy Arancia gin and citrus salt; a highball cocktail ($18) made with Cocchi Americano, Nikka Days Japanese whisky, carrot and chilled seltzer; and a spritz ($18) made with Select Aperitivo, Carpano Bianco vermouth, maraschino, lavender and prosecco.
To cap an evening, there’s both a list of after-dinner cocktails (yes, there is an espresso martini) as well as an amari service, which includes a selection of several amari (including Amaro Montenegro, Vernelli d’el Eboristia, Ramazotti) and a “paired accoutrement” for $20.
The restaurant’s wine list includes roughly 17 wines by the glass and focuses on smaller producers from Italy, France and California, among a few others.
The long list of wines by the bottle is divided both by country and by region in Italy. And for those wanting to try a wider selection of wines, there’s a $30 section of several 2-ounce tastings for guests to sample from.
Alter Ego is all about the drinks and the music, and features a lengthy and creative cocktail menu to match.
The list includes several zero-proof cocktails, including nonalcoholic riffs on drinks like Americanos, Gimlets and Old Fashioneds.
For the remainder of the cocktail menu — roughly 14 additional drinks — the team is taking classic cocktails and giving them creative twists, with drinks like a Paloma ($20) made with Ocho Reposado tequila, carrot, Oroblanco, white pepper and soda; a Carajillo ($20) made with Don Julio Reposado, Licor 43, cold brew and smoked espelette; and a Sazerac ($24) with Michter’s rye, Germain-Robin 7-year brandy, violet, white bitter and clove.
There are also several wines by the glass available and (because this is a club, after all) bottles of top-shelf Champagne for purchase, including a 2008 bottle of Dom Perignon ‘Rose’ for $1,400.
As the final food and beverage concept to open during Water Street’s phase 1 plan, Ash and Alter Ego are arguably the most-anticipated debuts at the development to date.
Though the combined spaces span roughly 4,200 square feet, separately both spaces are on the smaller side. Ash will feature seating for roughly 80 people inside and an additional 30 outside — larger than their flagship restaurant Rooster & The Till, but not by much. To design the space, the group tapped local graphic design studio Pep Rally Inc. and Houston-based interior design studio Gin Design Group. The interior dining room at Ash features a color palette of soft, muted neutrals, arched lighting, terrazzo accents, an open kitchen and a sculptural ash tree.
Over at Alter Ego, the moody and monochromatic space is designed as a “music-forward” cocktail lounge with seating for 50 people and standing room for an additional 30. And while this is the group’s first nightlife and entertainment venue, Rodriguez was once the executive director at Gasparilla Music Festival, and was instrumental in the concept’s curation — which included hiring Justin Layman, better known as DJ Casper, as the spot’s music director.
They plan on bringing in top-tier DJs from across the country to play the venue, and have already lined up notable national acts including DJ Epik of Sacramento, California, Rich Medina from Miami and Spreadsheets from Orlando.
Reservations for both Ash (ashtampa.com) and Alter Ego (alteregotampa.com) are highly recommended. 420 S. Nebraska Ave., Tampa. 813-221-9191.
Helen Freund is the food and dining critic, reporting on and reviewing restaurants throughout Tampa Bay. Reach her at hfreund@tampabay.com.
The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

source