"Wright's is not just another dining option, it's a beloved community institution that elevates the daily experience for our patients, visitors and team members."
Donna Tope, Tampa General Hospital's vice president of operations, said that in February, standing at a ribbon cutting for a sandwich counter. The counter sits at the East Pavilion entrance of TGH's Davis Islands campus, in a 2,900-square-foot space that spent years as a McDonald's. Wright's Gourmet House, the South Dale Mabry deli that has been slicing Cuban bread and baking cakes since 1963, signed a 10-year lease and moved in.
One new lunch counter at a hospital entrance is not, by itself, a story. What makes it worth noticing is what is happening two doors south and what was already happening in between. The north end of East Davis Boulevard now has Wright's. A few storefronts down, a second food tenant is already in the permitting stage. And the stretch of block connecting them was never thin to begin with. Read together, this isn't a strip getting discovered. It's a strip getting reinvested in from both edges toward a middle that already had the density to support it.
The North End Stopped Being A Fast-Food Stop
For most of the time TGH's Davis Islands campus has existed, the fastest food option at the East Pavilion entrance was, literally, fast food. If you worked a shift, visited a patient, or needed coffee before 7 a.m. and didn't want to leave campus, McDonald's was the option.
That changed in February when Wright's took the space over. The new location runs 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with breakfast sandwiches on English muffins or Cuban toast until 10:30 a.m., and an all-day espresso bar pouring Buddy Brew coffee alongside the deli's usual sandwiches, salads and desserts. It's accessible through the hospital's main visitor entrance, not tucked behind a staff badge, which means it functions as a public storefront on the block, not just a cafeteria upgrade.
The deli's history adds a layer that a straightforward tenant swap wouldn't have. Wright's founder, Marjorie Wright, worked at Tampa General as director of admissions before she started the business in 1963. The hospital installed a plaque to her in the healing garden next to the new storefront when it opened. It's the kind of detail that only means something if you already know the block, and it's also a signal about who is behind the lease: Wright's is owned by Casper Co., the same hospitality group behind Oxford Exchange, Casa Cami, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Predalina and The Current hotel under its Oxford Commons umbrella. Casper Co. bought the original Wright's location on South Dale Mabry in 2024, then opened the Davis Islands satellite two years later. That's a company with a track record in Tampa hospitality behind the new location.
Two Doors Down, The Next One Is Already In Paperwork
Plan review paperwork filed with the city shows a second opening in the works at 205 E Davis Blvd, a few storefronts from the hospital entrance. The applicant is Little Palm Cafe LLC, and the name behind it is Tampa restaurateur Christopher Rivas, who also built Little Tina and Urban Cantina elsewhere in the Bay area.
No opening date or menu has been made public, so this is a watch-list item rather than a plan for next Saturday. For now, it is simply a proposed addition to the boulevard's existing mix.
The Middle Of The Block Was Never The Problem
While the two ends of the strip get their new tenants, the middle of East Davis Boulevard has kept doing what it's done for a while. Walked in the order a resident would actually move through a day, it looks like this:
- Morning: DI Coffee Bar serves Panther Coffee, a small-batch roaster out of Miami, with pesto and Caprese variations on the Cuban sandwich for anyone who wants more than caffeine.
- Italian, back to back: Spartaco's Kitchen opened in 2024 with dishes from northern Italy's Emilia Romagna region. Two doors away, Oggi Italian has been the block's family-run standard, and between the two sits Buchette Spritz Bar, with an Italian-style wine window where you order drinks straight through the glass.
- Everything else: Thai Island covers curry, and Margaritas Mexican Restaurant is now twenty years into serving the same margarita recipe it opened with.
- Late: Anchor Tavern stays open until 3 a.m., with food service until 2, for whoever's schedule runs past everyone else's.
- Provisions: Duckweed Urban Grocery at 302 E Davis Blvd remains the answer when the pantry runs out mid-week.
None of that is new. All of it was already dense enough to support two Italian restaurants half a block apart and a bar pouring wine through a window, giving the block an established base of businesses.
What Two Openings At The Edges Tell You About The Middle
East Davis Boulevard has established businesses in the middle and activity at both ends. A Tampa institution with a 60-plus-year history signed a decade-long lease at the hospital entrance. A restaurateur with two existing concepts filed paperwork for a location near an Italian pairing on the block. The lease and filing add to the block's existing mix.
That's a different story than "new restaurant opens near you," which is the version that shows up whenever a press release goes out. The more useful version, if you already live here and are trying to figure out where lunch is worth the walk this month, is that the block is being built out end to end rather than patched one storefront at a time.
Wright's is already open, every day, six in the morning. Whatever eventually opens two doors from Oggi will have to earn its spot on this block the same way every other tenant here already has.
If you're weighing where to grab a coffee before 8 a.m. or what's changing on the island beyond the restaurant scene, Phillip Ochoa keeps an eye on East Davis Boulevard along with the rest of Davis Islands and is always glad to talk through what's next for the block.
