- November 15, 2024
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Evan Percoco has the perfect combination of passion and personal experience that makes him well-suited for his latest venture: a major restaurant renaissance on Main Street at Lakewood Ranch. It all started when he and business partner Zach Zeller bought the Peculiar Pub about a year ago.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Percoco had moved to the Lakewood Ranch area about five years ago to be closer to family. Past stints as a chef and in restaurant concept development had taken him all over the United States and beyond, but now that he had two children, he wanted to stay in one spot for a bit.
He saw untapped potential on Main Street at Lakewood Ranch — especially when it came to attracting families like his own. He and Zeller started looking around, and they were ready to go when the Peculiar Pub became available.
The craft beer spot also serves up modern takes on classic pub fare, like buffalo chicken meatballs and the “Sloppy Peculiarwich.” “We’ve made it super inviting,” says Percoco, 56. “We’re very guest friendly…We’ve been really successful there, and we have a great following.”
Percoco and Zeller began devising plans to expand on their vision for Main Street, with the goal of having three restaurants there within five years. That goal sped up a bit when the former Sophia’s space became available.
The business partners, under EZ Restaurant Group, leased that space and have a plan to bring an already proven concept there. During the pandemic, they’d done a barbecue popup called Atypical Kitchen at Crowder Plaza in Lakewood Ranch. It was a hit, so they’re now at work on Twisted Pit, a Texas-style walk-up barbecue spot with a backyard-inspired setting.
“We’ll have big communal tables to entice families,” says Percoco. “We don’t want to put any televisions in there because we want conversation.”
The goal is for that restaurant to be open by the end of 2024.
Then, as work on Twisted Pit was progressing, another opportunity emerged when the former Main Street Trattoria came on the market. A pizza place was a perfect fit for their vision of Main Street and had been on the partners’ wish list. So they seized the opportunity.
About a month ago they opened the doors to Percoco’s Pizza & Pasta and served about 160 customers on a Sunday night. The next night, a Monday, they had 500 customers, and things have just grown from there. Percoco admits it was a little scary to put his name on one of the restaurants, but the response has proven the risk was worth it.
He’s not only churning out pizza, but he’s making good pizza. Percoco waxes poetic about the American-made ingredients he uses, whether that’s non-bromated King Arthur flour milled in the Everglades, Grande mozzarella cheese, Sartori SarVecchio Parmesan cheese, or Corto 100% extra virgin olive oil.
“We could have used Italian products,” he says. “But we’re not Italian American; we’re American Italian. So we try to exploit that where we can.”
The two aren’t getting much sleep these days with three restaurants at various stages of growth. But that’s one of the secrets to their success. “We’re always here,” says Percoco. “We’re always in the restaurants; we’re always glad-handing. It makes a world of difference with our clientele.”
The two also work well together. Percoco brings three decades of experience working as an executive chef for Loews Hotels in Washington, D.C.; cooking with rock stars as chef at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando; serving as chef at restaurants and hotels in Boston and Chicago; and working as a corporate chef for a Miami hotel management company.
Zeller, 40, founded a business called Your Location Lubrication in Orlando that was acquired by Spiffy in 2019. “He did really well, and he’s been so cool to work with,” says Percoco. “He’s a quick study too.
“The cool thing about Zach and me is that we can hold each other accountable,” he continues. “We act upon it, and we come in the next day and we’re ready to rock and roll and make the changes that we spoke about the night before. We’ll sit in the car for an hour or two after work and go through reviews and see if there’s anything that we need to respond to. And then we’ll talk about the dishes and what improvements we need to make. It’s always about that with us; it’s always about constant improvement. Even when we think we’re dialed in on a specific dish, we still analyze it and try to make it even better.”
And the two aren’t done yet. Their EZ Restaurant Group is also planning on opening a speakeasy in a space connected with Twisted Pit and has the available space next to Peculiar Pub, where they might do an adult arcade concept. When it comes to Lakewood Ranch Main Street, they’re all in on reinvigorating the area’s original downtown, and they believe they have what it takes to make it happen.
“We’re hospitable,” says Percoco. “The concept work and the quality of the food and the constant improvement is one part of it, but it’s really about the hospitality. It’s the glad handing. It’s letting people know how happy we are seeing them as a family here. It’s really about focusing on getting more people down here.
“I think this is my end game,” he continues. “I think I’ve got a solid 15 years left if everything’s OK, and if I can make a difference here in this community and be part of something really cool, why not?”
