Fiore’s Sunshine Cafe introduces new dinner menu
By LOIS KINDLE
Matt and Donna Fiore, co-owners of Fiore’s Sunshine Café since July, are introducing a new dinner menu Jan. 12, featuring homemade Italian dishes and comfort food. They want the restaurant to fill the gap between chain restaurants and sports bars in the area.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Since purchasing the Sunshine Café last summer, Donna and Matt Fiore have been quietly making tiny changes at the popular Ruskin eatery. This week, however, they’re ready to make their first big splash with the introduction of an all-new dinner menu Thursday.
“Now you can get a nice steak, pot roast and noodles or grilled wild salmon,” said Donna, a Sun City Center resident of five years. “Despite our name (Fiore’s Sunshine Café), our menu items are not strictly Italian. You’ll not only find some great Italian food but also delicious comfort food.”
The former includes dishes like homemade lasagna, spaghetti and hand-rolled meatballs and pasta Fiore; the latter includes offerings like an 8-ounce filet or 10-ounce Iowa Beef ribeye, grilled wild salmon or pork chops and a broiled or fried seafood combo of shrimp, scallops and fish. There’s even a dish named after Donna’s oldest daughter called Teri’s Creation, which features grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese, tossed in a sauce of garlic, white wine and olive oil.
Fiore’s Sunshine Café, 3808 State Road 674, Ruskin, is open for breakfast and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
The menu also has an array of appetizers, salads, sides and desserts. Everything is made from scratch, including soups and sauces. Beer and wine are also available.
“We have daily specials all the time,” Matt said.
The eatery’s breakfast and lunch offerings remain the same, as does the friendly wait staff. Two of Donna’s 16 grandkids, Arianna, 16, and Aidan, 15, help when they’re not in school.
The Fiores are looking to fill the gap between the chain restaurants and sports bars in the area.
“We want this to be a place where you can come in with your friends or family and have a good, home-cooked meal,” Donna said.
The Fiores hosted two public seatings of 50 in late October to test almost every item on the menu, and then handed out surveys to those who attended for feedback. “We had a great response,” Donna said.
“We’ve received such great support from our regulars and the community since we started,” she continued. “People have been happy to see us gradually introduce little changes and are wishing us all the luck in the world. We’ve definitely seen an increase in (diners).”
Matt, a resident of Apollo Beach and the restaurant’s executive chef, has been cooking since 1985. He comes from a family of great cooks, his mom said. All five of his siblings, Teri, Patrick, Deanna, Damita and Airin, know their way around the kitchen.
Most recently he worked as the head chef at the King’s Point South Club and as the executive chef for the Dayspring Episcopal Conference in Ellenton.
“I used to come here (Sunshine Café) to get sandwiches for my father who was living in an assisted living facility nearby, and I thought the place had so much potential,” Matt said.
A group of woman from Lancaster III in King’s Point gather for a breakfast meeting at Fiore’s Sunshine Café in Ruskin. Area artists, photographers and sculptors are encouraged to submit their works for display at the eatery.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
After her husband of 53 years died in April, Donna decided she needed some income and something to do, she said, so she bought Sunshine Café with Matt from Manny Russos.
“We temporarily decided to leave things as they were, but we always planned to make changes,” she said. “We’re now implementing some of those changes.”
Mother and son will eventually install new flooring, paint the eatery and offer catering. They both want Fiore’s Sunshine Café to be a family restaurant and “a good, all-around place for family and friends to gather.”
Numerous local clubs and organizations already meet there.
Area residents with an artistic bent are invited to bring in their painting, photos, sculptures and the like to decorate the restaurant.
Fiore’s Sunshine Café, 3808 S.R. 674, Ruskin, is open for breakfast and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The new dinner menu will make its grand debut Jan. 12.
For more information, call 813-633-3344.
Donna Fiore invites area residents to stop in and try her son Matt’s new dinner menu at Fiore’s Sunshine Cafe, debuting Jan. 12 at 3808 State Road 674, Ruskin.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Customers pack the main dining room at Fiore’s Sunshine Café during a busy Saturday morning.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO