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By GEORGE WILKENS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2008

Updated: 01/24/2008 07:11 pm

CROSS CREEK - John Saxton, whose career has spanned the extremes of the culinary spectrum - from atop one of the World Trade Center towers to the bargain-basement world of fast food - has reached his peak.

Just before Christmas, Saxton, 52, opened Urban Culinary Cuisine, his own restaurant in small but comfortable quarters at Cross Creek Centre.

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Saxton, who paid his kitchen dues everywhere from upscale Manhattan eateries to Red Lobster and IHOP, said he strives for it to be what huge restaurant chains cannot.

"I've had a pretty vast career, from hot dogs to souffles," Saxton said with a laugh during a break in the dining area near the counter, which separates diners and the dinners they await. "There are two ways to become a chef: spend tens of thousands of dollars" on culinary school "or you can get out there and be slapped around," learning the ropes.

Saxton named his restaurant to convey an urban establishment and menu reflecting the surrounding population. Simply put, he said, "We want to be a neighborhood restaurant; those are dying in America."

To this seasoned chef, "neighborhood restaurant" means, time permitting, he will whip up a special request, something not on the menu. "I will treat you special," said Saxton, working to learn the names of all the dozens of workers in the stores at the shopping center on the northwest corner of Cross Creek Boulevard and Kinnan Drive.

The menu, available at www.urbanculinarycuisine .com, includes sirloin steak, pork loin and chicken breast, entrees available grilled or pan-seared, plus roasted chicken.

"We consider ourselves health-conscious, and we try to provide a variety," thus the menu includes salmon and other fish - poached, grilled or pan-seared - added Saxton's wife, Rose, a self-professed "technological geek" who created the Web site for the 1,500-square-foot restaurant.

Toward that healthy goal, beverages include fresh-fruit smoothies and various mineral-rich fruit and vegetable juice concoctions.

Rounding out the menu is a variety of salads and side dishes, from macaroni and cheese to rice, potatoes and assorted fresh vegetables.

Lunch offers smaller portions of dinner entrees, plus burgers and sandwiches, from catfish to chicken breast.

"We're a service-to-go format" restaurant, John Saxton said. "It's going to taste as well at home as it does here."

In keeping with the "simple but elegant" theme, the restaurant employs sturdy disposable plastic dinnerware and utensils. The restaurant does not employ dishwashers or waiters, eliminating tipping, though customers don't have to bus their own tables, Rose Saxton said.

The Saxtons moved to Grand Hampton from Texas, where John spent two years as executive chef at Texican Grill, an independent restaurant he helped open in a renovated former stable in the Dallas suburb of Denton.

For the past eight years, Saxton has dreamed of having his own restaurant.

"I didn't know when I was going to do it," he said. "I didn't know where I was going to do it."

The Saxtons abandoned landlocked suburban Dallas for Tampa, selecting the Bay area for its climate and proximity to the Gulf.

Upon arrival, they began drafting a business plan, conducting market research and exploring popular cuisines in the area.

Saxton's 35 years in the restaurant business cover "front of the house" and "back of the house" positions, including stints with Red Lobster and the defunct China Coast, brands of Darden Restaurants.

He also managed an IHOP and was with Marriott International when recruited to help launch the original B. Smith's, the upscale restaurant the namesake former fashion model opened on New York's Eighth Avenue.

Early in Saxton's career, while still in his home state of New York, he landed a job at the World Trade Center, home to dozens of then-new restaurants opened in 1976.

During his year there, Saxton worked at Windows on the World, the premiere restaurant atop the north tower, and the Market Bar and Dining Room, one of the building's ground-floor restaurants. At each, he was a chef apprentice, learning the ropes, and later an executive training manager.

"It was fun and a great learning experience," he said.

Like many Americans, Saxton was "mentally blown away" by TV images of the twin towers' collapse.

On a visit to New York, Saxton initially resisted going to ground zero. "I really didn't want to go see it," he said.

His wife insisted he must. "For me, I felt it was important to go back to ground zero," Rose Saxton said. "We spent so much time in that area."

Prominently displayed inside their restaurant is an Urban Culinary Cuisine sign created from a large back-lit photograph of the New York skyline after dark. Red aircraft-warning lights flash from the peaks of the twin towers.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Urban Culinary Cuisine

WHERE: 10016 Cross Creek Blvd.

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday

INFORMATION: Call (813) 994-3800 or visit www.urban culinarycuisine.com.

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4847 or gwilkens@tampatrib.com.

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