Independent Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in Tampa

MUST READ! URGENT!! I WROTE this review a couple days ago and this lying deceitful owner on February 20, 2018 changed her ORIGINAL response to this review! Veronica the owner has edited her ORIGINAL response to this review because I followed up this review with Another review referencing her talking points in her response to this post!! I HAVE SCREEN SHOTS OF HER ORIGINAL Response to prove her dishonesty! She will stop at nothing to hide her TRUE nasty character!! She doesn't want you to see her original STATEMENTS OF the incident!! URGENT!!! DO NOT!! I REPEAT.... DO NOT Spend your hard earned money Here!!! I have two MAJOR legitimate complaints about this tiny establishment. 1.) I watched the owner Veronica berate a woman who was clearly her elder in front of me and other customers who were outside eating. I have never met such a disrespectful, unprofessional, RUDE, UNGRATEFUL HUMAN BEING in my life! Wednesday 14, 2018 I came to Tampa for a vacation and stayed in an airbnb but I didn't rent a car. The airbnb Host lives four blocks from this restaurant so she decided to drop me off there. She drove me to the restaurant and pulled into the parking spot in front of the door (which happened to be a handicap parking spot). She HAD NO INTENTIONS of staying there! We sat there literally for a minute saying our goodbyes and making sure I knew how to get back to her home. As I was preparing to exit the vehicle, Veronica (the owner) in a fit of rage, walks to the driver side of the vehicle and ask the host if she has a handicap parking pass. The host said "No" but in reality she actually did! She didn't have it in the rear view mirror but it was in the vehicle!!! She was so SHOCKED AND TAKEN BACK by Veronicas disrespectful demeanor that she forgot to show her!!! Veronica told her she couldn't park there "NEVER"!!! IN A LOUD NASTY TONE!! At this point I immediately jumped out the car and headed for the restaurant front door. The host humbly said "I'm so sorry!" and IMMEDIATELY reversed out the parking spot! But that wasn't good enough for Veronica!!! She continued to berate her Loudly in front of me and the other customers sitting outside eating!! Veronica continued to keep saying Rude things to her LOUDLY as the host quietly drove off! The host is her elder and we literally only sat there or 2 minutes tops!!!! Once Veronica told her to leave and she did humbly, WHY WAS Veronica STILL BERATING HER!!! HER CUSTOMERS are the reason why she HAS A BUSINESS!!! WITHOUT them her establishment will be shut down!!! She act as if people Have to eat at her restaurant! There are Many other restaurants in Tampa to choose from with Better food! That brings me to 2.) The food. The host liked their ham sandwich ( but she Will not return now after being disrespected by veronica) and I liked their vegan burger but their tempeh sandwich was subpar. In addition, I returned to this small, unfriendly business the next day to give them a second chance and I was Greatly disappointed!!! Around 1:50pm they were Out of Vegan burgers but they Closed at 10pm!!! How unprofessional and inconsiderate not to have enough food for the day at a RESTAURANT! I then ordered the tempeh sandwich which didn't taste ideal. I guess it is Normal for this establishment to run out of inventory because I asked if they have vegan bacon ( I saw it on the menu) one of the employees said " yes we do, sometimes, IF WE HAVE IT, LOL". Implying they never have enough food in stock even though its on the menu!!! What a terrible place! I have several Youtube channels with one that has at least 800 subscribers I am going to do a video giving my Honest opinion about this restaurant and encouraging my subscribers to Share my video.This is a horrible restaurant with an UNGRATEFUL, mean, uncouth owner. Veronica thinks she can treat people nasty but she never knows who she might encounter. DON'T give your money to someone who disrespects their elder and could care less about her customers by not having enough food in inventory. There are Other Better...

Urgent! I wrote a previous review and the owner responded. Her response essentially CONFIRMS what happened at her restaurant! She BERATED a woman who was clearly her elder for parking in a handicap spot ( the lady was dropping me off at the front door but we did sit in the car for a minute or two to say goodbye). Let's make this CLEAR it was perfectly fine for Veronica to ask the lady to leave if she doesn't have a handicap parking pass (but she did she just didn't have it on her rear view mirror) the PROBLEM WAS she was NASTY AND rude to her in front of myself and her other customers. She literally was in a fit of RAGE! She confirmed this when she said "We have zero tolerance for anyone abusing this, even for a few minutes". So basically OTHER PEOPLE have "abused" her policy and now she is EXTREMELY angry so anyone who pulls into that spot to drop off someone and sits for more than a second causes her TO GO into A Rage!!! Her anger everyone was completely disportionate to the situation. She has confirmed that she was taking out the actions of PREVIOUS customers who Intentionally abused her policy on a nice humble person. VERONICA also confirmed that she "appreciate that she left the spot without argument". So if the lady left the spot without argument why did VERONICA continue to berate her in front of other people? She claimed that she asked her politely to leave but that's a LIE!!! How about we ask the lady? And the people there? She claims she has witnesses to attest but the interesting part is the vehicle was NOT parked Directly in front of the sitting area where the people were so if VERONICA was truly "polite" as she said why when she walked away from the car was she still BERATING the lady in FRONT of customers who would not have heard ANYTHING had she not raised her voice and stopped berating the lady once she QUIETLY reversed out if the parking spot! This all CONFIRMS what I previously stated she continued to berate this lady in FRONT of her customers AFTER the lady QUIETLY reversed out the parking spot!!! VERONICA was in a rage and her actions was disgusting. She says " it's clear to anyone What really happened ", it's clear she BERATED this lady and let's ask witnesses that aren't unbias and aren't her employees or frequent customers. I was in Tampa for several days and it's a small town and several people told me that VERONICA has a dry unfriendly personality. My review about the food was separate from this incident and it was a honest review just like what happened with the parking. This owner is rude and refuses to take accountability for her nasty treatment of others. There are other restaurants in Tampa with better food. Spend your money at an establishment that...

I've been coming here occasionally since 2019 and for one reason only -their ham, brie, apple croissant sandwich. Best in all of Tampa Bay. That is until they changed it...

It went from being a sweet and flavorful, mouthwatering dish with different textures, to a mouthful of sponge. They replaced it with Ciabatta bread. Now that might not sound like so much of a big deal but when you consider the fact that the croissant on its own has a sweetness to it as well as some flakiness in texture, it makes all the difference. Especially the thickness.

The ciabatta I believe was too big for the stuff that was inside of it. The bread is thick and kinda spongy, so you would need to have something that is either really big or really strong in flavor to offset it. But being that there was just a small slice of brie (which was absorbed by the ciabatta) and other light flavors such as the ham and apple, it seemed to overshadow the crisp contrast in taste of each. So basically, you couldn't taste anything but the spongy ciabatta.

I know it sounds ridiculous that I'm devastated over a sandwich, but this was one of my fav go to pick me up meals in all of Tampa. It was there for me in the good times. It was there for me in the bad. Now it's gone forever and so is a piece of my soul.

If you're here for the other stuff, yea it's pretty cool. Sometimes the staff at the register are friendly, sometimes not. But by no means are they mean or rude. I like the patio too but if you've got weak lungs like I do, maybe avoid it because there are...