{"id":227663,"date":"2026-04-11T15:15:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/227663\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T15:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:15:33","slug":"miles-long-steps-away-eleven80-cafe-debuts-new-flavors-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/227663\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles long, steps away: Eleven80 Cafe debuts new flavors in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/hex1xsqa8u6ootha.jpg\" alt=\"Eleven80 Cafe brings Latin flavor to Tampa Bay\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">TAMPA &#8211; Eleven80 Caf\u00e9 opened earlier this year and is quickly gaining attention as a fresh and flavorful breakfast and lunch location for South Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The menu specializes in Puerto Rican and Cuban-influenced favorites infused with signature items like Jibarito Hash and hibiscus-topped lemonade.<\/p>\n<p> Why is that South Tampa restaurant called Eleven80?  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The creative culinary destination was founded by a team of Chicago transplants who named the shop after the 1,180-mile journey between the two cities.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;Eleven80 Caf\u00e9 stands for technically the mileage from Chicago to Tampa,&#8221; shared Gabriel Reyes, one of the founders. &#8220;So it&#8217;s 1,180 miles from Chicago to Tampa and two of the four of the founding members are from Chicago. So we kind of went with that name as a group to pick it up for Eleven80 Caf\u00e9 for sure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Like most people transplanting to Tampa, they moved from Chicago to escape the cold. \u00a0Joining Tampa\u2019s rising food scene, the name bridges their past and present homes.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;I was sitting in Chicago in the middle of winter freezing my butt off per se and just wanting to look for a better life for me and my family. Wanting to get them out of the cold, move somewhere a little sunnier, a little more warm for us and somewhere with a culinary place that was picking up,&#8221; said Reyes. &#8220;So we wanted to definitely get in this area before it got carried away, you know, and be one of the more footprints of Tampa food.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> New Empanada place in South Tampa <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Reyes and his crew brought their Chicago influence to a Latin menu.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;So Cafe Eleven80&#8217;s menu is definitely a wide variety of things,&#8221; said Reyes. &#8220;We do a breakfast and lunch menu.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Their menu features traditional breakfast items like bacon and eggs with options to build your own omelets and other fairs.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;We do something we called Jibarito Hash which is a play on corned beef hash but made with a Latin flair. So you have plantains in it instead of just the regular potatoes,&#8221; said Reyes.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eleven80-7.png\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The end result is both colorful and flavorful as the spicy beef is paired with the sweet of the plantains.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;We are very well known for the empanada,&#8221; he said, &#8220;There are breakfast empanadas, there are lunch empanadas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eleven80-1.png\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Their more popular selections include the ham, egg and cheese empanadas, the Italian beef empanadas and others. They are all fried in beef tallow to give them a healthier, rich flavor free of seed oils.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;And our two favorite drinks we have here are the hibiscus lemonade, which is three quarters of the way lemonade with a splash of hibiscus on top,&#8221; said Reyes. &#8220;And then you have your caf\u00e9 con leche, which is iced, with a ton of whipped cream and a little sprinkle of cinnamon right on top.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">All in all, Eleven80 offers fun food options for the morning and noon crowd complete with a dog-friendly space in South Tampa.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">What you can do:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Eleven80 is located at 2109 South Dale Mabry Highway in South Tampa near Plant High School. They are open from 7:00 a.m. until 2 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Their menu and other information can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/eleven80.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This story was written based on in-person visits to the kitchen and creative spaces of Eleven80.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\/tampa\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/lifestyle\/food-drink\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Food and Drink<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hillsborough County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA &#8211; Eleven80 Caf\u00e9 opened earlier this year and is quickly gaining attention as a fresh and flavorful&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,4451,629,555,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-227663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-food-drink","10":"tag-hillsborough","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227663","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=227663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}