{"id":161894,"date":"2026-02-19T23:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161894\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:53:11","slug":"tampa-soul-food-restaurant-reopens-16-months-after-damage-from-hurricane-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161894\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa soul food restaurant reopens 16 months after damage from Hurricane Milton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tampa <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Blue Flame Soul Food<\/a> is finally back open after hurricane repairs kept the kitchen dark for over a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I love it. I need them to come, so I’m happy they’re back. And I’m here to serve them,” Blue Flame Soul Food owner Tamika Vaught told FOX 13 Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The Tampa<\/a> restaurant is on Fowler Avenue, which is not near the coastline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

But due to power outages \u2014 plus pump and generator issues \u2013 parts of Fowler Avenue flooded anyway after Hurricane Milton<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: Hurricane Milton brings extensive flooding to Tampa’s University Area neighborhood<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Flame Soul Food took on some three feet of water, and the roof over the kitchen caved in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“I was heartbroken. I was sad. I was frustrated,” Vaught said.<\/p>\n

A total kitchen rebuild, many repairs, and insurance hurdles kept the restaurant <\/a>dark for over a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“I don’t know when we were gonna reopen, but I knew we were going reopen,” Vaught said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That reopening finally happened this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The Tampa restaurant\u2019s menu is loaded: Ribs, oxtails, chicken, and chitlins are just a few of the customers\u2019 favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

A line of hungry customers formed well before the doors officially swung open at noon Thursday.<\/p>\n

READ: USF secures $1.5M to upgrade hurricane forecasting after relentless 2024 season<\/a><\/p>\n

“Everybody, the whole community, loves southern food,” customer Nela Torres said.<\/p>\n

For Vaught, seeing the dining room full again is the ultimate reward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“They’re so happy that I’m back,” Vaught said. “I’m happy, and it feels good.”<\/p>\n

Blue Flame Soul Food is located at 1524 E Fowler Ave,\u00a0Tampa, FL 33612.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews with customers and the owner of Blue Flame Soul Food.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Hurricane Milton<\/a>Restaurants<\/a>Business<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Blue Flame Soul Food is finally back open after hurricane repairs kept the kitchen dark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[558,47,4451,629,1802,555,115,687,135,137,136,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-161894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-food-drink","11":"tag-hillsborough","12":"tag-hurricane-milton","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-tampa","17":"tag-tampa-headlines","18":"tag-tampa-news","19":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}